Remember last week's kerfuffle over whether the movie industry could own random 128-bit numbers? (If not, here's some background: 1, 2, 3)
Now, thanks to our newly developed VirtualLandGrab technology, you can own a 128-bit integer of your very own.
Here's how we do it. First, we generate a fresh pseudorandom integer, just for you. Then we use your integer to encrypt a copyrighted haiku, thereby transforming your integer into a circumvention device capable of decrypting the haiku without your permission. We then give you all of our rights to decrypt the haiku using your integer. The DMCA does the rest.
The haiku is copyright 2007 by Edward W. Felten:
We own integers,
Says AACS LA.
You can own one too.
Here is your very own 128-bit integer, which we hereby deed to you:
If you'd like another integer, just hit Shift-Reload, and we'll make a fresh one for you. Make as many as you want! Did we mention that a shiny new integer would make a perfect Mother's Day gift?
If you like our service, you can upgrade for a low annual fee to VirtualLandGrab Gold – and claim thousands of integers with a single click!
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"Not Found" doesn't appear to be an integer in any numbering system I use regularly.
More to the point...
[Erroneous address redacted. Sorry for the error. -- Ed]
... returns a 404 error.
Ah! But the new code does work!
73 5A 54 E8 25 B6 28 69 BD 2F BB 8D 22 6F 5B 36!!! Mine, all mine!!!
The amusing thing is that, conceivably, a person could use AACS to encrypt their own copyrighted content (say, home movies of their child's birthday party), but use an arbitrary key rather than the one that's been circulating around the Intarweb. Said key would then, under the AACS LA's interpretation, also become a circumvention device.
So, all we have to do is start encrypting our own copyrighted content with increasingly larger portions of the 128-bit search space and making the same assertion that AACS LA made. For that matter, we could use a different 128-bit encryption scheme, use the aforementioned key, and then accuse AACS LA and MPAA members of distributing a circumvention device (namely, the key that they have distributed to each other and currently use to encrypt their content). After all, it doesn't matter whether you actually use a circumvention device for anything illegal - simple trafficking is enough to land you in hot water.
Sure, a 128 bit integer is nice -- but is there any reason I can't have an 8- or 16-bit integer? FE1F is mine! And 0DE1.
Well, these are mine, and don't anyone get any ideas otherwise:
0x56dfa013 0x5c1e0d2f 0x3aab43c9 0x03a19fe9 0x0c3679d3 0x6cc54e71
0x258f951d 0x21ed7817 0x1bb6c345 0x689b8d8d 0x48d51cb7 0x46ad91cd
0x52db2a55 0x1095aef5 0x1196e735 0x164dd83d 0x78ba8693 0x45b701af
0x2f0e039f 0x547a88bb 0x403bf571 0x06b5ea1b 0x0f5e60ab 0x799988b3
0x2e7a950b 0x72438977 0x2b5d129d 0x34d4d32b 0x674f07c1 0x56ab29a5
0x0d370ce7 0x3702d675 0x1b495e99 0x02bd6759 0x7c722593 0x1af228d7
0x38ae921f 0x323e4ad3 0x53d41ae9 0x3f4e82c9 0x62772b45 0x3594fc0d
0x308cff29 0x6167259d 0x568d9669 0x15ae06af 0x207986ef 0x5d5a0e2d
0x8f738ad 0x56a88f8d 0x1317529f 0x1244f6db
(Why these? prime, 16 set bits, also inverses modulo 0x7fffffff, 0x80000000, 0x100000000 are prime, and X+0x10000000 is irreducible in GF(2^n).)
I get DE AD BE EF BA DD F0 0D
Whilst we are on the subject of keys and strings, I was wondering about DVD Jon.
He registered the domain name deaacs.com. but he has not been prominant in the recent HD saga, and there is nothing hosted at that domain.
But what got me thinking is that the admin email address for deaacs.com is
fe61a7fd2fda93bf490b6187dd55c477-jj129@contact.gandi.net
and I was wondering what the significance is of the string
fe61a7fd2fda93bf490b6187dd55c477
which, coincidentally, has 32 characters to it.
Anyone any ideas?
I'm going to encrypt a poem using the interger 21. I admit that such a short key will make the encryption easy to crack, but then I'll OWN 21, a number I happen to like.
Next, I'm going to use ZERO as a key. As soon as I own zero, I'm going to try to stop all international artihmetic from happening! The DMCA protects both good and bad encryption, doesn't it?
According to our crack legal staff, part of what makes the number yours is that it has limited commercially significant uses other than to circumvent. That's not true about 21 or zero.
will you be keeping track of issued integers so that no two persons get the same one and also for trace if one would want to enforce the ownership :P
What? I can't own 21 or zero because they have "commercially significant uses other than to circumvent"? Hmm...but what if I decide to use a certain 128 bit number as a key? Can they prevent me from doing so and publishing my key publicly and thus granting it a commercial significance?
Well, then, this brings also up the question of what part of publishing the "09" number is alleged to be illegal. Is it the publishing of the number or is it the identification of the number as being a key?
Since the AACS keys are all supposedly secret and random, AACS can't claim to own any of them so I'm assuming that only implied or express comments that a certain number is an AACS key can allegedly make its posting illegal. A website that makes no comment as to the origin of a random 128 bit number it posts might be a different matter, likewise a list of random 128 bit keys which might or might not list any numbers starting with "09." Would a demand letter have to specify the number in question in such a case and could the demand letter be posted. One wonders what a crack legal staff would think....
I've declared ownership over all prime numbers, known and unknown...pay up, suckers!
Clever idea!
Makes its point in style. But wait:
Too short to protect?
What happens on the off-chance (1/2^128) that THAT 128-bit integer 0x09F9... comes up?
I wondered about that processing key. Surely, the processing key does have a commercially significant use other than circumvention. It has it's genuine use in the wares of the aacsla.
I asked my attorney, Perry Masonry, and he said that although it was an interesting point, it would fail because the keys don't have any lasting commercial value - not even to the aacsla.
Barry - it will be difficult to collect enough numbers by some random method to make a difference - a the thing about 128-bit numbers is that there are a whole lot of them, and you can surely think of some better use for the billions of petybyte hard drives you'd have to have lying around (I may be off by a significant number of orders of magnitude in any direction).
However, what is the period of the PNRG being used here? It would be embarrassing, not to mention legally complicated, if two of us gave our mothers the *same* key for Mother's Day.
Rob,
The numbers come from /dev/random on a busy Linux system, so I wouldn't worry about collisions.
You'll have to pry 20 30 1D EB 13 02 0B FA C5 71 09 67 BD 8F 83 9E from my cold dead hands, you cretins!
I hate to rain on everyone's parade, but if you publish the number you may lose the right to claim secrecy. That's how it works with Trade Secrets.
I am unsure about circumvention devices though--maybe the law is different.
Ed---what does your crack legal staff say?
Rob, it's actually very easy to compress a list of all possible 128-bit integers down to zero(!) bytes + a 1-liner decompression program... ;-)
My crack legal staff points out that AACS LA's number is hardly a secret -- it's all of the Net and AACS LA even sent out demand letters containing the number -- and they still claim the right to sue people for publishing it. A similar issue arose with CSS (the system used in old-fashioned DVDs), which is hardly a trade secret any more but its owners claim that circumvention code violates the DMCA.
Now why can't I just use the AACSLA's number? And then sue them for promulgating a device to circumvent the encryption of my haiku?
"A similar issue arose with CSS (the system used in old-fashioned DVDs), which is hardly a trade secret any more but its owners claim that circumvention code violates the DMCA."
However, DeCSS was a program. The 09 number is just a number--a revoked key. The legal argument will have to take this difference into account. Now that the number is no longer a trade secret and the key has been revoked, it is it really a "circumvention device"? If I have a key to an old apartment and the locks have been changed to I still have a circumvention device?
(BTW, do I have to burn any demand letters from AACS LA that include the number? I'd hate to have to archive such a hot potato in my files since they AACS LA might sue me for possessing such a "device" since theoretically just having it is allegedly as illegal as distributing it.)
If I can own one integer, why can't I own all of them?
I hereby declare ownership of all integers 8192 bits and smaller.
all your bits are belong to me.
I wonder how small a key can be and still be a circumvention technology.
Even at 64 bits, let's say I land-grab 2^40 of those numbers (easy, even if I have to list them explicitly.) Now, a random 64 bit integer has a 1 in 16 million chance of belonging to me. Therefore any reasonably long 64 bit computation will violate the DMCA. Worse, if a few million people get together, we can own the entire 64 bit space.
Where's the seasonal reference? It's not a proper haiku without a seasonal reference!
[Good point. Because it lacks a nature or seasonal reference, the poem is technically a senryu rather than a haiku. But it would have been awkward to stop and explain that.]
I will be very surprised if the AACS actually sues anyone merely publishing "their number."
How do I un-deed this key that was just generated for me? It has a "13" it in.
I'm not superstitious (because being so is bad luck), but I don't want forced ownership of unlucky keys.
How do I un-deed this number that was just generated for me? It has a "13" it in.
I'm not superstitious (because being so is bad luck), but I don't want forced ownership of unlucky numbers.
Surely publishing *that* the number can decrypt some *particular* copyrighted work has to do with it. It's been a while since I read the DMCA, but would anyone say a number in isolation itself constituents circumvention technology, or is it the number + how to use it that's relevant?
[...] Obtenez le vôtre ici. Publié par Astrid Classé dans: Non classé [...]
[...] Get your own 128-bit number. Search [...]
I think I'll just go by 71 8B if that's okay with you all...
71 8B BC E6 53 B8 8A A3 93 28 8C 1C 8B 88 56 9E
This whole pathetic debacle only reinforces how stupid crowds are. Everyone jumps on the bandwagon of outrage that "they" can't "own a number", when that was never the point or assertion in the first place. Go find something worthwhile to get morally outraged about.
[...] http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1155 . [...]
DC EC 59 6D 8E 2A 86 E3 B6 93 D2 82 2B BC D0 40
This is my 128-bit integer. There are many like it but this one is mine. My 128-bit integer is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my 128-bit integer is useless. Without my 128-bit integer I am useless.
Wait, I accidentally generated the code that HD-DVD already uses. No what?!
must mark my claim...
DF 21 12 3C 2E 1D 93 F5 CC 57 89 E4 CC A1 2D E4
Me, me, me...
A7 E9 3F 2C E6 75 A0 84 7D AE DA C7 D0 39 90 5C
and me too.
: )
Thanks. It would be nice to get the code that decrypts our new integers as well. In fact an encrypting/decrypting page would be great fun. Everyone could then encrypt their own copyrighted haikus.
5D 4A F0 D9 58 04 3B 06 C8 B2 59 85 A1 5D 6A 88
For the record!! This ones mine. You can look but don't touch.
Does the fact that the number is being sold on t-shirts, coffee mugs, mousepads and other properties all over the Interweb grant the number "other significant uses besides circumvention" and thus remove the numbers protection under the DMCA?
Don't even THINK about using EB 46 01 50 35 C7 15 32 27 05 15 97 F8 4A E3 8C, or I'll take your home, bank account, and retirement pension. It's all mine, baby! Hahahahahaha!!!
4E D1 E6 7C E5 0E 2F 08 E1 34 0A 55 63 D3 D9 63
Next... Profit!
I think I'll go put mine on a t-shirt right now.
[...] Here’s my number… by zinger @ 6:40 pm. Filed under Misc digg_url = 'http://zinger.org/2007/05/07/heres-my-number/'; digg_title = 'Here’s my number…'; digg_bodytext = 'DB DF 0E CF 7C 22 DF 49 3B CC 68 96 30 C8 D8 A7, what’s yours? '; digg_skin = "compact"; ( function() { var ds=typeof digg_skin=='string'?digg_skin:''; var h=80; var w=52; if(ds=='compact') { h=18; w=120; } var u=typeof digg_url=='string'?digg_url:(typeof DIGG_URL=='string'?DIGG_URL:window.location.href); document.write(""); } )() DB DF 0E CF 7C 22 DF 49 3B CC 68 96 30 C8 D8 A7, what’s yours? [link] [...]
"(the system used in old-fashioned DVDs)"
Hi! Welcome to the future! We hope you enjoy your stay!
If you have any old-fashioned DVDs, there is an antique store just around the corner that will buy them from you and copy them onto a HoLoMaCroâ„¢ crystal for you.
By the way: 06 8C DB 8D B3 12 92 2A DE F3 32 65 79 CF 21 B3
Belongs to ME! And I'd better not catch ANY of you using it without my expressed written permission, or there will be hell to pay!
HELL TO PAY!
FEEDD00D002D1337
5E 45 23 C1 C9 AB 30 68 5E 88 70 A9 E7 96 2E 31 owned.