Joe Szilagyi

EDIT: Submitted to Digg. Click here to Digg this post!

A summary of what happened:

HD-DVD, also known as Blu Ray discs, ~~have~~ had a supposedly high level of encryption on them, in the form of digital rights management. Earlier this month, someone had cracked the system. They posted the magic hex code that apparently lets you copy the HD-DVD discs on a message board called Doom9. Like the earlier cracking of the DeCSS code, it would have gotten press, notice, screams and threats of DMCA crackdowns, and the usual nonsense. Then it would have trailed off, and no one would have given a damn about it. However, this situation feels different for a key reason. The HD-DVD hack/crack/whatever you want to call it, in the form of the value “09 F9…”, came out weeks ago. It was quiet. Then the Motion Picture Associate of American stepped in. In their usual feathery touch and approach, they made things absolutely worse for themselves.

How? By coming off with the authority of The Law, they begin issuing DMCA take down notices left and right, making a generally indignant and righteous stink. This led to Slashdot and Digg coverage. Again… it would have trailed off. It would have eventually gone into the background. The code was out, perhaps, for much longer it soon turned out than weeks ago. It may have been uncovered months ago. The Blu Ray encryption thus was a lost cause in it’s current form. The people that wanted to crack it would have, and the general public would have had whatever reaction was forthcoming, and then it would have all been relegated to the sub-sub forum of the Information technology cosmos this exists on. Thanks to the overzealous Digg.com moderators, administrators, and management, however, that’s not going to be the case.

Digg.com is a website where people can “Digg” or tag a page on a given website, drawing tremendous attention and traffic to it. Digg is tremendously popular, and influential these days. People began linking and Digging in earnest to various 09 F9/hex code related stories. Digg, in turn, began to crush them all; deleting them all. The Digg users, upset, ramped it up. For everyone deleted, two more would appear. They would go, and more Digg users posted more. Then they began to hide the hex value. The Digged images that contained the hex. MySpace pages with the hex. Then the Digg admins apparently began to edit the Digg values themselves to devalue these links, while removing others. They locked out ‘repeat offender’ users. Then Digg users began to Digg articles and stories about Digg censoring the numbers, a roundabout way around the Digg restriction. Victory, for the virtual masses, was in sight. Digg.com then locked down all new Digg submissions. Keep in mind, that Digg is in part sponsored by HD-DVD, not so ironically. Finally, in a complete turnaround, Digg posted that they’d support their users and would not attempt to restrict things anymore.

Personally, I think that Digg did this on purpose. They trolled their own userbase to seriously rile the masses, and to cause the HD-DVD hex code to spread like literal wildfire. Then, when “hope seemed lost”, they reversed course, and now look like heroes: They’re standing up to the horrible MPAA and the evil DMCA! It’s become some sort of nerdy Bastille.

Let the series of tubes eat hex code cake.

I think that if this actually comes to a head, and the MPAA actually tries to take on Digg over this messy situation, that it could be the first potential serious threat to the strength of the DMCA. If the MPAA lost in court, imagine the consequences…

This is what I’d posted so far:

Part 1: Digital Rights Management, anyone? Read this, and this. A blow in the name of justice, if you ask me. These numbers are almost better than 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42.

Part 2: Holy leaked information! Because of This blog search about links back to the Doom9 forum, I suddenly got over a hundred hits. In just over an hour. Yow. There’s a Slashdot article on this now, as well, over the release of the AACS Code Leak hex I posted about. I can’t see how the MPAA can possibly keep this under control, now. It’s over, and the information will be on thousands of websites within another day, if not more.

Part 3: Censorship in action: Digg.com admins are censoring (and getting overwhelmed–as of now the front page of Digg is flooded with 09 F9 crap) the hex code that was released on Doom9, as noted here. Apparently Digg admins are even resetting “Diggs”, screwing with things further, and even apparently editing/changing Diggs about complaints aobut the editing oversight. It’s like the Digg Civil War. Even Wikipedia’s article on HD DVD is now locked down with the obnoxious message of, “This page is currently protected from editing because inappropriate content was being repeatedly added.” Classy. There’s not even a reference about the leak of the hex code, which is a major developing news story.

Part 4: Digg.com has now apparently backed down on the release and Digging of HD DVD hex code information via the Doom9 forum (the Digg suppression story even got picked up by Slashdot yesterday). One of the Digg founders wrote in their blog:

But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you’ve made it clear. You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be.

Awesome… morals on that level of the corporate media stage? Impressive! Even more so since HD DVD is actually a sponsor of Digg.

Part 5: You’re reading it! Scroll up for my summary.

Part 6: The AACS has responded to “reports” of their hex code being broken apart on the Doom9 forums. Read this slowly, methodically, and carefully. Try to spot the portions of what they are saying that falls into “Big Brother” side of things.

RESPONSE TO REPORTS OF ATTACKS ON AACS TECHNOLOGY

April 16, 2007 – AACS LA Announces Security Updates (Updated URLs)

In response to attacks against certain PC-based applications for playing HD DVD and Blu-ray movie discs, Advanced Access Content System Licensing Administrator, LLC (“AACS LA”) announces that it has taken action, in cooperation with relevant manufacturers, to expire the encryption keys associated with the specific implementations of AACS-enabled software.

Consumers can continue to enjoy content that is protected by the AACS technology by refreshing the encryption keys associated with their HD DVD and Blu-ray software players. This refresh process is accomplished via a straightforward online update.

Through this online update process, manufacturers are also able to see that consumers update their player implementations prior to distribution of encryption key expiration information via new movie discs.

Consumers are advised to check with the manufacturer of their AACS-enabled Blu-ray or HD DVD PC-based player to make sure you have installed the latest version. The following manufacturers have provided links to provide relevant information and facilitate consumer updating of their players…

Part 7: Spotted on ICANHASCHEEZBURGER.com. From Doom9 to mass media attention to jumping the ~~shark~~ cat in under 72 hours?

Part 8:

Bloggers “crossed the line” when they posted a software key that could break the encryption on some HD-DVDs, the AACS copy protection body has said.

According to the BBC, anyway. The article has one great quote in it:

Michael Ayers, chair of the AACS business group, said it had received “good cooperation from most folk” in preventing the leak of the key.

Er, yeah. Keep up the good work. Last time I checked a full Google search for the hex code it was up to 720,000, from the original one on Doom9.

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