Hulu is so worried that people are nicking its content it is encrypting it in a bid to force viewers to use traditional browsers.

Code monkeys at Hulu are now encrypting the HTML at the source and then decrypting it using Javascript on the client browser. The goal is to kill off plugins that parse the Hulu site for links to content.

Web site designers say that there was a lot of arsing around to do it and it will be easily circumvented by the likes of Boxee. All they have to do is build a WebKit or Gecko browser with a tweaked ID string into their app.

The current Mac alpha now features an XUL-based Hulu component and the Windows and Linux versions will be updated shortly. What Hulu does not understand is that punters want the content on their televsions so rather than DRMing it they had better work out ways of putting it their that will make everyone happy.