TechFold - Bold tech & web commentary

Bold tech & web commentary

TechFold is technology discussion, commentary, reviews, and opinions from well outside the valley. There's no koolaid to drink here, and TechFold is not in SL, or on Twitter.

My Integer: 6E D0 CA 2D 9E 4F 80 4E 1F 1A 5F B9 3F 50 55 3F

I am the proud owner of a hexidecimal string: 6E D0 CA 2D 9E 4F 80 4E 1F 1A 5F B9 3F 50 55 3F. This string can be used to decrypt a copyrighted haiku, meaning that if you republish my integer anywhere, or link to anyone republishing it, I will post a cease-and-decist letter in your comments. Thanks to Ed Felten at Freedom to Tinker for hooking me up!

circumvention, copyright, css, decss, digg, encryption hddvd

A Question for Jason C.: How would Netscape have handled “the Number”?

Jason - glad to hear you’re back to Fatblogging - the transparency and your efforts are always inspiring.

That having been said, here’s my question for you and your old Netscape team: How would Netscape and the Navigators (good name for a band) have handled the sh!tstorm on Digg this week over the HD-DVD number?

Would it have gone up? Did it go up? Was it blocked? I’m not sure how to search the Netscape News Stories that have been voted on, but this search (News > Top Stories) turned up no results.

Anyway, I’m curious - given that AOL is close to the entertainment industry, more “corporate” etc - would the community have won out there?

calacanis, digg, hddvd, jasoncalacanis netscape

ZOMG! Infringing lawsuit bait content deleted from Digg!

Found on TechMeme, the story of how posting the HD-DVD content encryption key in a hexidecimal string is getting stories deleted, users banned, and the digg community up in arms.

At issue is the fact that many seem to feel that it is censorship to delete stories about a number that will get Digg into hot legal water. Muhammad Saleem - a rare beacon of intelligence on the issue - outlines the DMCA clauses that have prompted Digg’s entirely justified actions. Does Digg want to get sued out of existence? No. Why does this surprise Digg’s user base? Apparently that user base expects digg to committ legal seppuku on the HD-DVD format body’s legal altar to prove a point about how information wants to be free.

DownloadSquad has the most hyperbolic coverage, comparing the issue to Martin Luther’s XX theses, and treating it as some sort of tipping point in the consumers vs. producers battle.

Let’s tell it like it is: a flash-in-the-pan nerdgasm about a hex string is not an internet revolution - its a great way for a devoted niche group of Linux users to geek out and have some fun. Good for them. Its also conceiveably a major lawsuit vector against Digg, and the users that posted it: its infringement people, and the letter of the law is on the side of HD-DVD. Good for digg for taking it down. All the righteous posturing in the world doesn’t change the situation and the correctness of digg’s actions.

EDIT: Can someone comment intelligently on the “infringement” aspects here? How does this compare to the DVD/CSS situation? Or ripped CD’s?

digg, dmca, hddvd, hexidecimal seppuku