Slog - Comments on 09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0

Comment by elswinger

elswinger — Thu, 03 May 2007 14:38:09 -0800

Wasn't there a similar story a few years ago where the code to decrypt copy protection of CDs or DVDs was also released and it was illegal to print on t-shirts or even write an opera reciting the code?

Comment by Anthony Hecht

Anthony Hecht — Thu, 03 May 2007 14:42:53 -0800

Yup. Same story, different key. They couldn't stop it then and they can't stop it now.

Comment by Noah

Noah — Thu, 03 May 2007 14:47:11 -0800

I'm not sure what burns my eyes more: the numbers, or that David Hasselhoff video from the previous post. Oh wait, yes I do.

Comment by i still have that tshirt

i still have that tshirt — Thu, 03 May 2007 14:52:32 -0800

Dude, you can�t take something off the Internet� that�s like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool ~ joe rogan

Comment by Megan Seling

Megan Seling — Thu, 03 May 2007 15:05:50 -0800

Kevin Rose is so dreamy...

Comment by gillsans

gillsans — Thu, 03 May 2007 15:09:03 -0800

I saw that story too, and here's my question: So what do you do with the code to "unlock" my movies? And what can I do with HD-DVD discs once it's unlocked? Does that just mean that some enterprising hacker can write a program to rip the contents to a file?

Comment by darling463

darling463 — Thu, 03 May 2007 15:10:30 -0800

@numeerio3

I sense elswagaholic has de cryptic herb. He keeps the seeds organically glued to a 6-54-3-46--7657857--34-3 barcode of the 6 1/2th opera cd single to his left on 3rd shelf down. Wipe our burns away and a comment to -> http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1827391/posts

Comment by Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 03 May 2007 15:12:41 -0800

gillsans,

I could tell you if you really want to know.

Comment by pgreyy

pgreyy — Thu, 03 May 2007 15:12:57 -0800

But the bigger question is...what do those numbers have to do with them getting off the island?

What? Different numbers?

OK then. Nevermind.

Comment by Boomer in NYC

Boomer in NYC — Thu, 03 May 2007 15:20:57 -0800

Is this like that movie where they watch the videotape and then they die? 'Cause I ditched my VCR years ago and I pretty much hated that movie anyway.

Comment by getting closer to rhyme with hummer

getting closer to rhyme with hummer — Thu, 03 May 2007 15:26:03 -0800

It is not boomer, young frank. It is pronounced Boomer!

Comment by nerd

nerd — Thu, 03 May 2007 15:37:26 -0800

Technically, its a string of hex. Not an integer or a string of text.

Comment by kinaidos

kinaidos — Thu, 03 May 2007 15:49:49 -0800

@6 it means you can put something like this in your HD-DVD reading source code and it can then decrypt the data into compressed video data:

static unsigned char processing_key[16] = {0x09, 0xF9, 0x11, 0x02, 0x9D, 0x74, 0xE3, 0x5B, 0xD8, 0x41, 0x56, 0xC5, 0x63, 0x56,
0x88, 0xC0};

If you don't write or hack video software it doesn't mean anything to you directly, though it might mean that you can easily track down shareware that would allow you to do things like rip sections of a film for something like fair-use for commentary, etc. Also for those of us who run Linux or BSD it means that we will be able to use our computers to view and manipulate video data in spite of the way the industry attempts to prevent us from doing that.

Of course it enables easy copying too, but. But disc cloning could have been developped without the key, by hacking the hardware of a reader to access protected sectors and such. Having the key just makes it a lot easier by making copying possible without having to mess with hardware/firmware.

Comment by David Wright

David Wright — Thu, 03 May 2007 15:51:23 -0800

Nerd: Your distinction is ridiculous. If I wrote "5623487", would you say "that's not a number; it's a string of decimal"? The key is a large integer. Whether it's written in binary, decimal, hex, or Roman numerals is irrelevent.

Comment by Jordyn

Jordyn — Thu, 03 May 2007 16:01:58 -0800

If they really want to encrypt stuff, they should figure out how to actually do a decent job of encrypting it.

Comment by Anthony Hecht

Anthony Hecht — Thu, 03 May 2007 16:59:52 -0800

@15 - Yeah, and that's easy to do, as long as you don't also require that people be able to buy some off-the-shelf player that can decrypt it easily for playback. Robust encryption is great if you can limit one who will ever need to see the data. In a consumer application like this, it's basically hopeless. Someone will reverse engineer it every time.

Comment by jamier

jamier — Thu, 03 May 2007 17:24:17 -0800

Footnote: For anyone who is wondering where all those angry misogynist men threatening to rape female bloggers hang out in their spare time, check out Digg.com. Just looking at the front page of that website makes me feel very very dirty.