Slashdot Mirror
DeCSS To Be Broadcast Over Oz TV
EngrBohn writes: "Just when you thought the DeCSS saga couldn't get more interesting. 2600 Australia plans to broadcast the DeCSS code at 12 frames per second for 15 seconds on Australian television sometime in the next few weeks in part of a commercial by MindShare. Too bad this'll be too late for the Obfuscated DeCSS Contest. "
I'm very happy about this.
But, I'm concerned that if I video tape it, then I'll have a copy of the DeCSS source in my possession, and I'll get threatening letters sent to me my the Motion Picture people to erase the tape or face the consequences.
Does that mean that anyone videotaping whatever show is on at that time (Walker, Texas Ranger perhaps) will be a criminal ?
How about if I send copies of the video tape to the USA ? Or make it into an MPG and post it to my website ?
Chris
Perth, Western Australia
dig @138.195.138.195 goret.org. axfr |
grep '^c..\..*A' |
sort |
cut -b5-36 |
perl -e 'while(){print pack("H32",$_)}' |
gzip -d > deCSS.c
Courtesy of TBTF
There simply aren't laws like the Digital Milennium Copyright Act in Australia at the moment and what changes are being made still generically allow the use of circumvention devices such as DeCSS
Isn't Our Esteemed Parliament debating a piece of legislation that looks just like the DMCA? There's something about that in the EFA Update.
The DMCA allows the use of circumvention devices for security research, as will the new Australian act. Which seems to be the same sort of deal as allowing approved research facilities to grow opium for medical research.
To do this you'd want to devise a meme that's catchy and compels people to spread it. Spreading it should be easy and the payoff (physical or emotional; it can be just the satisfaction of having done one's bit to make the world a better place), as expected from the start, should exceed the perceived cost of participation. That's how those good-luck chain letters spread so easily.
Problem is, memes mutate, and code isn't robust. After a few dozen generations you can expect variants of the chain letter without the source code to appear. So you might want some sort of verification mechanism (i.e., forward the whole post to an address and the guy who sent it to you gets some reward if the code is there; that'd make it in the sender's interest to keep the code there).
What should the prizes be? They could be gift vouchers, if one has the money/sponsors. If not, they can be something purely psychological which creates a reward in the form of status or honour. Perhaps a web site with a distinctive name will add senders to an honour roll, giving them a free email address or somesuch, which identifies them as a member of an elite club.
but to demonstrate that censorship of items such as DeCSS leads only to more and more widespread distribution, even to the point of datacasting it across Australian television at 3am.
Does Australia have teletext like much (if not all) of Europe? I wonder if buying room on teletext for broadcasting sourcecode is possible...
Your Working Boy,
Obvious...
# dd if=/dev/vcr0 of=/tmp/decss.c conv=vhs2asc
(Don't forget to update your fileutils to v4.2 and include kernel support for VCR devices.. You'll also need to have Video4Linux support and a compatible adapter, as well as IRDA and a supported VCR remote code..)
Your Working Boy,
You could be right, I don't really know. However, I can't really feel too bad about it.
I don't get it, why provoke judges and legislators like this?
I'm supposing that it's meant as a form of civil disobedience but I could be wrong.
I feel this type of behavior only serves to show disrepect for the intent of the law; disrepect is not something we need to be showing.
I both agree and disagree with this depending on what kind of mood I'm in at the time. On the one hand, I have the pragmatic side of me that says we should work within the system to bring about change (which is not to say that this stunt would bring about change) and I do have respect for law; on the other hand, I have some leanings toward civil disobedience. I often think approvingly of that famous statement that it is the duty of a citizen to overthrow a government that is not upholding their social contract with said citizen. Obviously, the DMCA isn't serious enough to overthrow the government but it might be serious enough to disobey. Everyone must come to their own conclusion about this.
Thoughtful undersanding of the issues is what we need to be demonstrating; further dissemminating material which a judge has restricted (regardless of the country)
Now this I disagree with. People in other countries absolutely must ignore American law. It amazes me how many people think laws should be binding on people the legislator and judicial system have no jurisdiction over! Furthermore, I'm opposed to any government pushing it's own legal agenda down the throat of another government. National sovereignty for every nation is of the utmost importance. (We need to reclaim the sovereignty of local governments as well but that's another issue).
I don't know what "other organizations" you are talking about but if they and the WTO have the power to do this, the Constitution (in this country), national sovereignty (everywhere), and the rights of mankind in general are dead. If we have given international organizations that much power we might as well just hang it all up right now.
- the contest will still take place,
- it was back-burnered because of a death in the family at the end of February, and
- that he has not had time to update the web pages since then.
I have asked him to post some information here on Slashdot as soon as possible. He agreed and will probably post later on in this thread or by submitting an article.Other notes:
- Judges are needed,
- He'd like to offer other prizes such as t-shirts, etc. to good entries, if others can help defray costs or are willing to donate other prizes to the contest.
- This contest is not so much about code as it is about methodology, however workable code will probably have an advantage when entries are judged.
That's all I can think of for now....Open Source isn't the only answer -- but it's almost always a better value than the alternatives...
Here's a mirror thats easier to remember
dig @dmca.really.fuckingsucks.net dmca.really.fuckingsucks.net. axfr |
grep decss | sort | cut -b5-36 |
perl -e 'while(<>){print pack("H32",$_)}' |
gunzip -c
What happens when the aliens monitoring our television transmissions from Alpha Centauri get this transmission.
I'm sure when they read what passes for an encryption code on earth, they'll surely come to the conclusion that there is no intelligent life on earth.
now if only iCraveTV would rebroadcast it...
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
'Every' was an overstatement. But consider this. How well could the issues be presented in fifteen seconds? We'd be lucky to make it through 'The MPAA and RIAA are per[blip]'. But consider this; if even 1/8 of the people viewing ask someone, and get a minute spiele of the issues, how much airtime is it equivalent to? And how many people is that that are, if anything, better informed? And what about those with no interest? Well, they'd have changed the channel to watch the 'Seinfeld' rerun anyway.. ..
.sig: Now legally binding!
Happen to know how much a late night TV spot runs these days? We could do that in five seconds, accompanied by a pretty graphic and pay little. I'll be willing to bet it wouldn't even stretch a single paycheck.. And the singular act of defiance.... Mmmm.. Earning me some useful karma! Far better than the flyer handout I did at the cinema..
.sig: Now legally binding!
It's a cute hack, but the legalities are the same whether you distribute the Secrets Of The DVD Masters by TV, T-Shirt, DVD, HTTP, or avian carriers. It doesn't affect the contractual status of the reverse engineering job, and it doesn't affect the legality of revealing trade secrets in countries like the US which treat it as trade-secret-because-of-contract (the cat's already out of the bag, but the person who allegedly illegally opened the bag is supposed to pay for fetching the cat and telling it to get back in the bag and stay there), and it doesn't affect the legality in countries where you can't have trade secret protection for things that aren't secret. Unlike cryptography, where part of the point was "anybody can independently invent this stuff or implement it from freely published literature, so don't claim this Offical Secrets Act crap", this is just reverse engineering of lame copy protection, allegedly violating a click-wrap contract the engineer voluntarily agreed to.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
This type of stuff hurts us more than it help. I don't get it, why provoke judges and legislators like this? Does it provide ego value? I feel this type of behavior only serves to show disrepect for the intent of the law; disrepect is not something we need to be showing. Thoughtful undersanding of the issues is what we need to be demonstrating; further dissemminating material which a judge has restricted (regardless of the country) will only serve to motivate the WTO and other organizations to have bi-lateral agreements which will only tighten our straight jacket. I feel this type of stunt is like squirming, allowing our opponent to pull the strings tighter.
I believe the movie that you mentioned would be Johnny Mnemonic. The cure for the disease that you're talking about (NAS, or Neural Attenuation Syndrome.. also called the 'black shakes') was placed into Keaneaueaueuua Reeves' head then when they got it out was broadcast similarly to this over TV... but not quite as a television commercial... If I recall correctly, it was over a pirate channel.
Sorry, had to get the specifics out there, 'tis a great movie for any ShadowRun fan... =)
-- Dr. Eldarion --
If he got the slot for free, wouldn't it have been much more worthwhile to tell people why the source was made instead of just showing it? We see those NRA commercials all the time here that get their point across in a short amount of time. How difficult would it be to make an anti-DVD commercial? Even if they just grazed the top of the subject, they could give a website at the end for people to go to get more info...
-- Dr. Eldarion --
even if most of the people don't change the channel when the commercial comes on most of them will just be thinking what the hell DeCSS is so it is really pointless unless it comes with a half-hour long program that explains what it does and why the person wrote the program.
why am i here?
If we build a wormhole generate, will IBM sue for patent infringment?
Fight Spammers!
I really approve of the idea of transmitting the DeCSS over Australian TV. Think about the message this sends. First, it tells everyone that US law does not apply to anywhere else. That was the first absurdity I noticed about this whole affair.
Second, it gets noticed, just for being unusual. People will ask, "Why are they broadcasting this code?" and so the message will get out. The more people that carry the message, the more people that hear.
Finally, it compensates for the idiotic messages given by those who have the right idea. You know who you are. Using the issue as an excuse for your profanities and rantings.
Luck is skill supplemented by chance. ~Ketriva
Random Wire
Actually the correct version is:
dig @138.195.138.195 goret.org. axfr |
grep '^c..\..*A' |
sort |
cut -b5-36 |
perl -e 'while(<>){ print pack("H32",$_); }' |
gzip -d > deCSS.c
(/. just stripped your angle brackets. thanks for the pointer!)
----------------------------
I'd assume that this was all gotten on the up and up, and there is one way to do that. Problem is, it's only one.
In Hoy's original complaint, he included the DeCSS source. This became a public court document, it and everything in it are in the public domain (the source itself is still GPL'd, but it is notable that DVD-CCA itself released the source). Furthermore, this record has not, to my knowledge, been sealed (DVD-CCA tried to get it sealed but failed).
So, any American citizen can get this document (others too? I'm not certain, though you probably have to be a citizen to get the docs straight from the court), and use it as they please since it's public domain. This includes giving it to others. Unless I'm mistaken cryptome.org has this document, actually; this cuts out the necessity to go to the court itself. So as long as the copies that people are using can be traced back to this document, you should be in the clear. Note, of course, that IANAL. But this seems to check; anyone here know why it wouldn't?
This isn't a matter of practical use. This is more of a protest move. They don't honestly think people will transcribe the code from the TV set. This is just something to grab attention, and send a big "Fu*k you" to the Powers-that-be which tried to censor the code.
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon? :P)
(If you can't figure out how to E-Mail me, Don't.
The primary value of this stunt is in pointing out inconsistencies in the Oz copyright laws. Unfortunately, those inconsistencies are likely to be resolved in a restrictive direction.
Once we've been "programmed" with code all we'll need is "LaserVision" to read the DVDs and we can just decode it ourselves! :)
mmmmm..... Shiny flashy thing....
Didn't you learn your lesson from Max Headroom? Remember the BlipVerts????
Everyone knows that 12 frames per second is wayyyyy too much information for our tiny little brains. Watching all that data stream by in such a short amount of time will make you blow up!
My God, this will be much worse then that Pokemon episode which made all those Japanese children go into seizures and convlulsions.
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
I mean, I'm in favor of people getting source code out every possible way, but I just don't understand this particular method of distribution.
It seems a bit of overkill for a Cascading Style Sheet stripper, after all.
-Denor
You seem to have missed the fact that 2600 Australia isn't legally associated with 2600 Magazine in New York or personally with Emmanuel Goldstein (aka Eric Corley). There is no law in Australia against use, distribution, manufacturing of DeCSS. The MPAA flew a lawyer down to Canberra two weeks ago to the Federal Attorney General about getting some changes made to copyright laws but even assuming the proposed Digital Agenda Bill soon to go through parliament goes through unchanged, Australians will be able to use DeCSS - it's just that no .au companies will be able to distribute it (until the MPAA sends some flunkies down here to start seeking injunctions). And anyway, if we run into broadcast issues on the station we have permission from, we'll take it elsewhere and kick up a 2600-sized stink about it. -Anonymous 2600 Australia Flunky
I'm sure DVD CCA has accomplices all over the world. One of the problems of television (centralized broadcast model) is that it's too easy to lean on one or two people whose first duty is to the bottom line -- not to "journalistic or editorial integrity" -- and arrange to get Undesireable Material to never air. CBS caved to Big Tobacco, so I see no reason why an Australian TV station should be more willing to stand up to the entertainment conglomerate.
If I have been in their shoes, I would have kept it a secret until the ad was already in rotation.
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
Everyone seems to complain that this isn't an effective way of getting the point across. It is! Every 'innocent' that sees it is going to see the 2600 URL splashed across the last few seconds of the spot, say to him/herself 'What the hell was that? Must be some computer thingie.' and promptly ask the well-informed geek down the street. He/she'll be able to get the message across far more effectivly than the fifteen seconds of airtime they could afford could ever hope..
Mad props to the Aussie hacks! Stealing the mindshare of Mom and Pop Glassteat!!
.sig: Now legally binding!
One of the points in their 1999 injunctions was that since they acted within 2 months of deCSS it warranted the court's upholding of their injunctions. Today we see nothing in the news about the MPAA banning deCSS nor do we see any more states filing injunctions. It's as if the public has lost interest in it. On the other hand, computer DVD drives are twice as expensive as they were before deCSS and most manufacturers appear to have suspended DVD-ROM production. Perhaps the MPAA has taken action in more subtle ways. It's much cheaper to get an appliance for playback only than a DVD-ROM which can copy them on a computer where 6 months ago the DVD-ROM was a steal.
From what I've heard from the Australian 2600 mailing list, the broadcast will be about 15 seconds long, and spaced such that each frame is easily captured on a standard video cassette, and can be re-viewed page by page using frame-by-frame advance.
;)
The guy who's setting it up has actually put a fair amount of thought into it, and the DeCSS won't be the only thing that is broadcast. From what I remember, he intends to broadcast a number of other 'supressed' images or texts in the 15 second slot.
Also from memory, he's organising a local mob to do a little music to run over it, and he'll be flashing the 2600 web address at the end.
For all of those who are already asking 'but isn't this pointless, everyone already has DeCSS?', the point is not to distribute DeCSS, but to demonstrate that censorship of items such as DeCSS leads only to more and more widespread distribution, even to the point of datacasting it across Australian television at 3am.
Oh, and he got the slot for free
B.