[cc-community] Spread this number... the politics of code...

Andres Guadamuz a.guadamuz at ed.ac.uk
Wed May 2 04:49:22 EDT 2007


Hi all,

I have given this story the Technollama treatment:

http://technollama.blogspot.com/2007/05/hd-dvd-brought-down-by-web-20.html

Regards,

Andres

David Berry wrote:
>
> Spread this number
> <http://rudd-o.com/archives/2007/04/30/spread-this-number/>
>
> 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0. Wanna know what’s so
> important about it?
>
> The movie industry is threatening Spooky Action at a Distance
> <http://entangledstate.wordpress.com/> for publishing that number,
> specifically with copyright infringement.
>
> I had no idea a number could be copyrighted.
>
> Anyhow, what is it? From the site:
>
> It’s the HD-DVD Processing Key for most movies released so far. I was
> not aware that a string of numbers and letters was copyrightable.
> Perhaps its just my ignorance but it seems that someone is abusing the
> DMCA again.
>
> This means the (admittedly long) number is precisely the key you need
> in order to decrypt and watch HD-DVD movies in Linux (oh, okay, maybe
> software is also required). And the fact that it’s out there,
> spreading like wildfire, is killing the types at the movie studios
> right now.
>
> Now, even if this number stopped working (and it will, thanks to the
> revocation procedures in HD-DVD’s encryption scheme) or if it were a
> hoax, the decryption system has already been figured out and is
> implemented in a software program called BackupHDDVD
> <http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1104>.
>
> We did it with DVDs and DeCSS, and today I can use my trusty MPlayer
> to play any DVD movie. We will eventually (rather soon) view HD-DVDs
> in Linux as well (because the codecs are already there, even if they
> are illegal in some countries).
>
> Let’s show them no amount of DMCA will stop us
> <http://digg.com/linux_unix/Spread_This_Number_Again>.
>
> Oh, do you crave for source code? Let the Doom9 forums answer your
> prayers <http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=953484#post953484>.
> If you’d like an explanation in news format, WIRED may be what you
> were looking for
> <http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/02/the_new_hddvdbl.html>.
>
>
> http://rudd-o.com/archives/2007/04/30/spread-this-number/
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> cc-community mailing list
> cc-community at lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-community
>   

-- 
Andres Guadamuz
AHRC Research Centre for Studies in
Intellectual Property and Technology Law 
Old College, South Bridge
Edinburgh, EH8 9YL

Tel: 44 (0)131 6509699
Fax: 44 (0)131 6506317
a.guadamuz at ed.ac.uk
http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/ahrb/

IP/IT/Medical Law LLM by Distance Learning
http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/distancelearning/ 



More information about the cc-community mailing list