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Seth Schoen Reveals Himself Author of DeCSS Haiku
TrinSF writes "The anonymous author of the DeCSS Haiku
has written an article revealing his identity and explaining some of the background. The haiku has been featured in the Gallery of CSS Descramblers and attained some notoriety when it was published in 2001. I'm glad to have played a small role in the article; my comment on /. is included in the text." Apologies to Seth for dropping a "c" from his surname.
This post is not first
The lameness filter killed it
it was so painful
He was always kind of the "nerd" type that was quiet and reserved, but you knew that he was going to make something of himself one day. Now that he's hit the big time I suppose some congratulations are in order.
I mean, I wrote this song, but you don't see me standing up and pontificating, saying that it's now part of "the folklore of the Internet"...
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Some people even seem to risk to get into prison just for getting some media attention.
And for your next comment: Jorgason just went free out of court because he could prove that he didn't write deCSS. Unlike this guy now.
Owner of a Mensa membership card.
I am curious
just how many syllables
seth shoen should take up
These sigs are more interesting tha
When does the prosecution expect to sentence him to the firing squad for his blatent contempt for the DMCA?
I'm glad to have played a small role in the article; my comment on /. is included in the text."
Well that's great! You really are someone after all. I wouldn't want you going through life never having had your pathetic existence validated by anyone.
DeCCS
Slashdot Stable
Fodder is good
Descrable DVD
MMM GOOD MOV-VIE
Now pay your fee$
Geeks worldwide
Copyride
Content adiction
Freedom comes
Not from world
But within one
Website today
Slashdotted tomorrow
bandwidth bill - error 404
I'm herrvinny, posting anon so I don't karma whore, link was getting slow. I lost the links copying this, though
The History of the DeCSS Haiku
by Seth Schoen
Works like Hesiod's Theogony are not just spoken poetic entertainment; they delineate the world view of their culture. In the same way, the DeCSS epic instructs the "listener" in the world view and cultural values of those opposing [censorship of] DeCSS.
Leigh Ann Hildebrand, slashdot comment, February 25, 2001
we have only words against
John Dos Passos, "The Camera Eye (51)", in The Big Money
I wrote the poem known as the "DeCSS Haiku" three years ago, in 2001. (The poem's full title is "How to decrypt a / DVD, in haiku form / Thanks, Prof. D. S. T.") The 456-stanza work, sometimes described as an "epic", was an anonymous contribution to Prof. David S. Touretzky's "Gallery of CSS Descramblers", which collects a variety of ways of expressing technical information about the decryption of DVDs. My poem has now become a part of the folklore of the Internet.
The poem includes a traditional opening invocation to the Muse:
Now help me, Muse, for
I wish to tell a piece of
controversial math.
It proceeds to describe, using only haiku-like verses with lines of five, seven, and five syllables, all the mathematical steps required to convert an encrypted DVD into a usable form.
Prof. Touretzky created his Gallery shortly after U.S. movie studios began their quest to suppress the publication of such information. The studios had filed a lawsuit captioned Universal v. Reimerdes (later known as Universal v. Corley). Touretzky was concerned about the free speech implications of the case, and the purported distinction between computer software and other forms of expression. As Touretzky explains:
If code that can be directly compiled and executed may be suppressed under the DMCA, as Judge Kaplan asserts in his preliminary ruling, but a textual description of the same algorithm may not be suppressed, then where exactly should the line be drawn? [The Gallery of CSS Descramblers] was created to explore this issue, and point out the absurdity of Judge Kaplan's position that source code can be legally differentiated from other forms of written expression.
Touretzky set about collecting a remarkably wide variety of descriptions of the DVD decryption process, with the aim of promoting critical thought about what expression people are prepared to censor, and why. This process resulted in an outpouring of creativity from the Internet community, with the DVD CSS algorithm described and redescribed from an assortment of scientific and artistic angles. Most contributors seemed to view the creation of each new adaptation of DeCSS as a form of political protest. As Touretzky's correspondence with the Motion Picture Association of America made clear, each adaptation was also a thorny new legal question: could this version be called a "circumvention device"? Could the courts suppress its publication? Nobody seemed able to offer a clear answer; a studio lawyer was later willing to opine to the Wall Street Journal only that there were practical limits to the industry's willingness to spend money fighting these works. So when the studios asked Touretzky to take his Gallery off the Internet, he put the question to them directly: which versions did they object to? They told him that they would consider the question "and respond appropriately at the proper time". Professor Touretzky is still waiting.
Impressed by other people's contributions to the rapidly-growing gallery, I decided I had to make some kind of effort of my own. I had particularly admired Joe Wecker's song "Descramble (This Function Is Void)", and I imagined that my contribution would have to be in the realm of literature rather than of visual art. I toyed with translating a description of the algorithm into Latin (on the theory that this might appeal to lawyers, who readily recognize that Latin is expressive and meaningful
... if only for the amount of work put into its creation. The term 'creative work' has lost its currency due to misuse in IP disputes, but it truly is a creative endeavour, so I say 'Salud' to the author...
Simon
Physicists get Hadrons!
The original is already slashdotted, so I have created a mirror:
http://myweb.jhu.edu/bananas/haiku.html
My song isn't that bad until you try to cover it...
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
It contains a trojan horse which will bork your boxen !
Owner of a Mensa membership card.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
With the RIAA these days, I wouldn't be so sure, but if they did sue me, I'd certainly win.
Hmm...
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
I did it. Happy now?
Hate me!
Here you can see a photo of Seth Schoen receiving a letter from the MPAA lawyers after revealing he's the author of the DeCSS haiku:
...)
Clicky-clicky
(Also, my advice to him, now that he's publicly admitted to be an 3v1l hax0r, is to shave his beard as soon as possible. Unfortunate mistakes can happen so quickly these days
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
I specifically did not do that.
:)
But if you think so... then thank you, you're too kind!
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Anyone know what happened to that guy?
The World's Worst Webcomic!
Not that I really care, but it's spelled Seth Schoen
I think the problem is, us white boys just can't sing in the first place. On the other hand, that shouldn't make it any worse than the original. :)
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
I remember that! :)
If I still had mod points, and I hadn't already posted, I'd mod you up, man. Not that it really matters, as you likely know.
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
But im a pussy so I'm posting anonymously
Maybe some day I'll reveal myself.. although im sure its safe now since decss was ruled legal or whatever.. but i was a retarded teen and used the DVD logo which is probably copyright-ed or trademarked or something and they'll go after me for that
Yorn desh born, der ritt de gitt der gue,
Orn desh, dee born desh, de umn bork! bork! bork!
I wonder if an "I'm Spartacus" type movement would clear this guy's name if they try to bust him. If everyone claims to have written it, they either have to convict (crucify) everyone who does or dismiss the whole mess.
Blaze a trail to the New World
Since when is a haiku not a poem? A poem is a rythmic pattern of words.
"I'm not impatient. I just hate waiting." - My Dad
Hope your ISP don't charge too much for the bandwidth (and the trouble)...
Next on the menu: SCO patents the caesura to preempt Beowulf for Linux.
I won't correct the syllable count for you, but you need a season to make real haiku. Something like "in your summer hot ass" or "as a large spring penis".
pandere res alta terra et caligine mersas.
Allow me to retell what I was told; allow me by your power to disclose things buried in the dark and deep of the earth!
-The Aeneid of Virgil, Book Six
Is it just me, or is the dept. this post is from a Haiku, also? fewer syllables would not communicate as magnificently So what do I win? ;)
Not my ISP, but I appreciate the concern. Not that poppyfields and their filk archive is any stranger to /.
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
This was a very clever work, but for an epic like this, I really would have gone with dactylic hexameter myself...
Simple Unexpected Concrete Credible Emotional Stories
How was that supposed to decode DVDs? I can't even get it to compile.
"I'm not impatient. I just hate waiting." - My Dad
I never meta-haiku I didn't like...
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Doesn't even rhyme.
Evil is the money of root.
The same thing happen to MS's proprietary Word format. You know, the "real code" not that madeup hacked crap that used to be on MSDN. Get it out in the open and copy it to a million servers all around the world. Overnight you'd be able to drop in OpenOffice or abiword and have it work perfectly. Now I like OpenOffice, but let's get real. Besides docs which are simple plain text you end up having to fix the formatting on almost every doc you import. The same goes for any Office suite which isn't made by MS.
MS would bitch and moan. OpenOffice and other OpenSource projects would say they didnt' approve. But tons of little programs would be written which would make our lives easier and finally break MS's artificial stranglehold on Office software. One can dream I suppose.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
..yes, that must be it.
Now help me, Muse, for
I wish to tell a piece of
controversial math.
The last line has six syllables. For shame.
I did not read the Article posted above But this is Slashdot.
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
No I am Sparticus... I mean the author!
If he would have written an haiku in ASNI compliant C that compiled, then I would be impressed.
My first encounter of a haiku was in a Simpsons episode, when The Simpsons went to Japan. Lisa recited it in her what-im-saying-now-is-very-noble voice. I can't remember what it actually was, but I didn't quite see the point of it. After googling haikus, I found out that Haiku's have three lines, the first and last consisting of 5 syllables and the second of 7 syllables and are usually designed in a cryptic way.
But I still fail to see why this makes them so great. It seems to me a haiku is just 3 almost unrelated lines that rarely rhyme. Why then are haikus considered to be so humbling, why to they conjure so much excitement in some people?
Here is a haiku I have made. Explain to me if/why it is flawed, and what makes a good haiku.
A bird sits on me, I am walking away now, It shits on my head.
That haiku never had the right number of syllables. Here is a corrected version.
michael slathers lube
timothy enters the room
cock slides into ass.
So why not post it as a .GIF file? Then only porn sites could decode it.
--
My sig line -- enjoy
Static now for all to see
Maybe changed soon.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
It would probably be nice to change the title of this article to use the correct spelling of Seth's last name ("Schoen", not "Shoen").
Evan Prodromou | evan@prodromou.name | http://evan.prodromou.name/
these haiku sure are
super, but who has that kind
of time? Get a life.
Looking back at the Corley case, I am frustrated. I am frustrated not only that we lost, not only that the censorship continues, and not only that allies of the studio plaintiffs keep on trivializing programmers' speech rights. More than anything, I'm frustrated that public opinion mainly dismisses what happened as a matter of pursuing hackers. Public opinion says the hackers got what was coming to them, because they were hackers. The court of public opinion, with some exceptions, seems to be affirming the Second Circuit.
That's what bugs me most about it. Everytime I wear my prohibited DeCCS t-shirt (which is less and less since I got married), I have people ask me about it. When I explain that it's a statement for free speech they always come back with a "no, you just want to copy DVDs" response. Sad...
--D
How to actually be insightful, etc. is an entirely different question.
Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
I'm not an expert on what makes a haiku, or poetic forms in general, but I'm pretty sure just hitting return every 5 or 7 syllables doesn't cut it. This guy's hardly the creative genius some are claiming.
--- Apparently I have an old
HA, (how many ex-NMHers are there here?) I thought Seth was just starting to some out of his shell -this being his soph. year... His beard was just starting to fill in and we'd convince him to spend the afternoon doing the important things, like jumping in the piles of raked leaves.
Which is sadder? The person who takes pride in a clever and insightful comment, or the guy who can't even bring himself to swear online?
Where are you posting from? .va?
Yes, the beard and Seth both grew mightily! He's an all around geek, classics scholar, legal expert, mathematician and punster who's passionate and articulate about many subjects. Several of these came together in the "epic" haiku, which can be read in its entirety at: http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/DeCSS/Gallery/decss-h aiku.txt
No doubt Seth had a lot of fun writing it.
that was not haiku
haiku must refer to some
season, or else fail
--
It is not the commies, the government, the nigger, nor the corporates. It is your paranoia.
From the article:
Diseases? Nah. I prefer my analogy:
The software that I have written makes decisions and performs actions using my thought-processes, like some ghostly echo of my own mind, now embedded in a machine.
Except when is acts up - then I call it a "poltergeist" instead of "ghost".
Chivalry is not dead, it's just frequently misspelt. - M. Langley
Hm, I also went to high school with Seth (on the campus which is now being sold... bastards!), and I, too, want to congratulate him ^_^
I think i was your Senior Leader. ha
Cool! You recognized the movie I was thinking about!
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
can you contact me in pv please ?