Posted on 05/01/2007 8:58:23 PM PDT by HAL9000
Excerpt -
The folks at Digg.com have let the social news genie out of the bottle, and now they can't control it. Since the HD-DVD encryption code was discovered and published, readers at Digg have been repeatedly submitting stories with the 16 digit hex code in the titles and bodies. Just as quickly as these posts crawl up the Digg charts, admins seem to be deleting them.Just search Google for 09 F9 and you'll find the key. Will AACS send a Cease and Desist to InfoWorld because I posted the text "09 F9"? If so, we might as well give up on this whole Internet thing right here and now.
Can a simple, short string of numbers and letters (the full key) really be copyrighted? And is Digg.com receiving a proper takedown notice for each case, or are they taking things into their own hands and deleting posts willy-nilly?
The same sort of thing happened when the DeCSS code came out - I even have a t-shirt with the code printed on it. This just goes to show how useless the DMCA is, and how information cannot be controlled, and that DRM will never truly work.
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(Excerpt) Read more at weblog.infoworld.com ...
“Why not a specific sequence of alphanumeric characters that happens to be an encryption key?”
Because the encryption key is nothing but a number. An integer, to be exact, albeit a rather lengthy one. Speaking of which, has anyone managed to convert this string to a decimal integer, yet. I gave it a quick try with Windows calculator and some online converters, but none of them support enough digits to do it.
Interesting...
Really really cute, but the code has been out for a couple of months, at least in cracker circles. (Thats another term that will need lots of explaining later.)
It seems this stuff only to gets coverage when it hits a new, somewhat successful, lefty blog and their administrators cave to the dinosaurs. Flash, Wikipedia has been suppressing these entries for some time now, where’s the outrage?
Sadly, less than a tenth of a percent of the people who have seen the code have any idea what to do with it.
You said - “You haven’t ever heard of copyrighting (or property rights to) something *backwards* have you? I haven’t. So, simply post the number *everywhere* — backwards — with the additional comment to reverse it.”
I think it would be cool to encrypt the magic number, then copyright your cypher, post the cypher (with rights reserved), and make the MPAA or whoever have to decrypt your copyrighted material to get to the magic numbers. Then they would be guilty of the same thing they will be alleging you did. :) sweeet!
BD has a secondary encryption method called BD+ which all players support. It has not yet been placed on disc but will be out in the next couple of months. Once it’s released BD releases will spike.
PING, your punch card is absolutely classic. I’m impressed that anyone still recalls them.
Yea, pretty much.
AACS can update the keys though so this will be moot in months.
FYI, the decimal integer 13,256,278,887,989,457,651,018,865,901,401,704,640 has a hexadecimal representation of 09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0
I agree with you but we are not there yet. This “racket” is being done fairly through the legislative process. To change that, it’s up to those who see differently to prevail through that same process. If outright theft hadn’t been a major issue to begin with, the encryption software wouldn’t be there in the first place. Everybody has their reasons.
Cool. Now, can an integer be copyrighted? If so, that’s got to be a pretty strong argument that IP laws have swung too far in favour of corporations.
Hmmm, I wonder how many primes it can factored into? How about if I divide it by two, or ten, or twenty?
This is kind of fun, and I’ve never even ripped a DVD, although I have downloaded a few that someone else ripped. I just object to perfectly good and legitimate uses of media being blocked by a pointless, and hopeless, attempt to prevent piracy.
And it will be cracked even faster and probably more permanently. This was an easy hack, in fact the whole thing was a joke.
Nature of the Digital world: Information wants to be free. It is in it’s nature.
The initial crack was when they gamed the memory on a PC with the xbox add-on to drop the individual volume keys. From there they worked on cracking the actual player keys. The player key can be revoked and a new one issued. The next one may be easier or may not be but they got this one through programming exploits on a specific player. Those exploits can be reworked.
What you're talking about is "trade secrets", the universal means for keeping your company intellectual assets away from competition before patent was invented. If the patent process is not reformed and simply decays away, trade secret will be the preferred technique once again.
Here's how I would do IP reform if we are to get back to the spirit of Art. I, Section 8 ("To promote the progress of Science and the useful Arts..."). I would start treating IP as a unalienable personal right, like free speech, instead of like real estate. Patents and copyrights would rest with the original creator of the work and would no longer be transferable in any way. IP rights would last no longer than the lifetime of the creator. If you want to exploit my idea, you have to make ongoing arrangements with me for as long as there is profit in the idea.
On the artistic side, such a reform would pit hackers against artists, instead of against "faceless corporations". IP owners would have a much improved moral standing in resisting piracy.
You said — “Kate Bush’s last album had a song on it called “Pi”. It doesn’t cover as many digits, but it’s a little better musically”
—
Well, I went to Rhapsody to listen to it. I’ve got iTunes, too, but I didn’t want to buy it. I might “grab” the song from Rhapsody later on (that’s one nice thing about Rhapsody, I can grab all I want there). But, as for the song, it’s a bit slow for me... :-)
I guess I like the “zing” or the pace of the other one, although it’s not really a “song”, so to speak. Kate Bush’s is ... I’ll start a collection of “pi songs”... :-)
While I was typing I decided to grab it. Now I’ve started my “pi collection”... LOL
Yeah, it is pretty mellow, but I like it. Kate Bush is not to everyone’s taste, though, to be sure.
LOL...
Because the letters and numbers by themselves are not intellectual property. That's like banning a handgun because someone might use it for an unlawful purpose. The gun is an instrument...neither good nor bad. How it is used determines legality.
To use your examples, restraining use of the Hex code would be like KFC preventing anyone from using the word "chicken" or Coca-Cola claiming exclusive rights to the word "sugar" because the particular ingredients are part of the respective recipes.
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