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.

Comments

Another Haiku

[Anonymous Coward]

This post is not first
The lameness filter killed it
it was so painful

Went to high school with Seth Shoen

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Went to high school with Seth Shoen

[yomegaman]

Do you believe that he would kill Buckwheat?

Oh yes, definitely, that's all he ever talked about!

who cares...

[pb]

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"...

Re:who cares...

[turambar386]

This must be what happened. I lost my password at one point and no longer had access to the email account that I had set it up on. Thinking that I would never have access to this account again, I created a new user account. A while later, I found my password and went back to my original account.

Since I would have been logged on through the same IP address (corporate gateway), perhaps this is why I have permanently lost my moderating ability.

As an ironic aside, the last message that I posted was the very first message I posted with Excellent karma. I had no idea I even gained that lofty goal. of course, my post was moderated off-topic and now I am back to Good karma.

Attention economy

[Krapangor]

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.

Re:Attention economy

[mamba-mamba]

The haiku is not executeable, and the deCSS algorithm is no longer considered a trade secret. While Seth Jorgason may be willing to take risks for attention, there is no evidence in this act to support that supposition.

There IS evidence that someone did not RTFH. ;-)

MM
--

Re:Attention economy

[mamba-mamba]

Oops. I meant Seth Schoen, not Seth Jorgason. Now I'll probably get flamed.

MM
--

Re:Attention economy

[thinkninja]

Jon Johansen went free because there was "no evidence" that he used DeCSS for illegal purposes (links, thanks google). Just because DeCSS could be used illegally, the code itself, and it's creation, could not be deemed illegal according to the court.

"The appellate court holds the opinion, as did the first instance court, that there has not been offered any evidence for anybody else having used DeCSS for illegally acquired DVD movies..."

Secondly, the DVD CCA sought dismissal in their trade secret case against Andrew Bunner after they were told that it lacked merit by the California Supreme Court. So, CSS isn't a trade secret, either.

Silly sciolist.

Hmm.

[CaptainAlbert]

I am curious
just how many syllables
seth shoen should take up

Re:Hmm.

[pb]

It probably is
three syllables long, in fact,
like a warm spring breeze.

Re:Hmm.

[CaptainAlbert]

is there a word for
a haiku that is about
another haiku?

Re:Hmm.

[pb]

I think "nitpicker" is three syllables too; maybe I should have gone with that.

Re:Hmm.

[Syberghost]

Is there a hyphen in "anal-retentive?"

Re:Hmm.

[sammy baby]

(cribbed from a former post of mine elsewhere)

So, haikus have a
fixed subject -- not nature? Then
it's a senryu.

In your defense, though,
the five-seven-five rule does
seem to be bogus.

Therefore, much extra
effort spent here to make me
look smart was wasted.

Damn.

Re:Hmm.

[iabervon]

It is three syllables. It's also spelled "Schoen" (as in the username in the link), although it's pronounced the way you'd expect "Shoen" to be pronounced.

Syllabas tres est. "Schoen", etiam, scribitur (ut in nomine in vinculo). Verbum, tamen, dicitur quod exspectes "Shoen" dici.

Re:Hmm.

[Haeleth]

So, haikus have a
fixed subject -- not nature? Then
it's a senryu.

To be hyper-pedantic, in Japanese "haiku" takes three beats, and "senryuu" takes four. So that's not even a senryuu. :p

Re:Hmm.

[Alien Being]

And if so, wouldn't a colon be more appropriate? Discuss.

Now that we know who he is...

[Anonymous Coward]

When does the prosecution expect to sentence him to the firing squad for his blatent contempt for the DMCA?

Re:Now that we know who he is...

[localhost00]

Prosecutors don't sentence people - judges and juries do.

Waiiiiiit a minute.....

I thought that was the RIAA's job.

good for you!

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Haiku

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:Haiku

[IthnkImParanoid]

If there was ever an attempted haiku that could make the baby jesus cry....

Re:Haiku

[soulsteal]

JeffK, si taht yuo??1?

Getting kinda slow..

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:Getting kinda slow..

[biglig2]

Suggests another entry to the Gallery; if someone could combine DeCSS with bomb-making instructions...

It deserves recognition

[Space cowboy]

... 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

Mirror available

[Anonymous Coward]

The original is already slashdotted, so I have created a mirror:

http://myweb.jhu.edu/bananas/haiku.html

WARNING, DO NOT USE THIS HAIKU !

[Krapangor]

It contains a trojan horse which will bork your boxen !

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

heh...

[pb]

With the RIAA these days, I wouldn't be so sure, but if they did sue me, I'd certainly win.

Hmm...

I admit it.

[Dark Lord Seth]

I did it. Happy now?

Follow-up on recent events in Seth's life since

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

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 ...)

nope,

[pb]

I specifically did not do that.

But if you think so... then thank you, you're too kind! :)

What happened to the other DeCSS?

[The Evil Couch]

Reading back on the other articles, I dug up this article where the MPAA went after someone that had made a program to remove CSS from HTML called DeCSS.

Anyone know what happened to that guy?

Re:What happened to the other DeCSS?

[goofy183]

That would be really interesting to find out ... talk about conter-suit opportunity!

Re:What happened to the other DeCSS?

[ikkonoishi]

Actually DeCSS(the css remover) was named that to troll for the MPAA.

http://www.pigdog.org/decss/

Seth Shoen?

[r_glen]

Not that I really care, but it's spelled Seth Schoen

Thanks!

[pb]

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. :)

Like the Swedish Chef?

[Trigun]

Yorn desh born, der ritt de gitt der gue,
Orn desh, dee born desh, de umn bork! bork! bork!

I'm Spartacus

[kippy]

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.

Re:I'm Spartacus

[mamba-mamba]

There is no way they are going to go after him. He didn't violate copyright, since the poem is original. The poem isn't a circumvention device since it is not executable or compileable. And the algorithm is no longer considered a trade secret.

So on what basis would they go after him?

MM
--

Re:I'm Spartacus

[Anonymous Coward]

"The poem isn't a circumvention device since it is not executable or compileable."

Until somebody writes an compiler for haiki (heikii= heikus? heikixen? haikititi? argl).

I might even throw a Perl script together that does just this...

Cheers,

Tels

Re:I'm Spartacus

[schon]

haiku, or haikus

Gesundheit. :o)

Re:I'm Spartacus

[davincile0]

He's Chief Technologist at the EFF. Bring the pain.

Re:I'm Spartacus

[zoeblade]

The poem isn't a circumvention device since it is not executable or compileable.

As opposed to t-shirts?

Re:I'm Spartacus

[mamba-mamba]

I don't believe the t-shirts were circumvention devices, but at least they contained (or depicted) source code which could be compiled into a binary form.

The haiku is not compileable, even in an electronic form. Did you read it? I didn't read the whole thing, but it is not even remotely code-like.

MM
--

Since When

[uberdave]

Since when is a haiku not a poem? A poem is a rythmic pattern of words.

Re:Since When

[thedbp]

Try telling that to Walt Whitman!

Re:Since When

[kfg]

I did. He just started rambling on about "singing himself" or some such nonsense, so I told him he could go bugger himself for all I cared and left.

KFG

You seem to have slashdotted yourself

[Pac]

Hope your ISP don't charge too much for the bandwidth (and the trouble)...

Epic

[Popageorgio]

Next on the menu: SCO patents the caesura to preempt Beowulf for Linux.

Re:Epic

[BigBadBri]

Hwaet we garde
na in geardagum Unixfynncyninga...

Listen!
We have heard of the might of the Unix-Finns' kings in the old days...

My vote - set Grendel on Darl.

You need a season there

[Pac]

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".

Final quote

[burgburgburg]

sit mihi fas audita loqui, sit numine vestro
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

from the Pretty-Clever-Department dept.

[Maelstrom696969]

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? ;)

heh...

[pb]

Not my ISP, but I appreciate the concern. Not that poppyfields and their filk archive is any stranger to /.

Epic haiku?

[syphax]

This was a very clever work, but for an epic like this, I really would have gone with dactylic hexameter myself...

I Can't

[uberdave]

How was that supposed to decode DVDs? I can't even get it to compile.

Probably a 'meta-haiku'

[pb]

I never meta-haiku I didn't like...

Know what I'd love to see?

[bogie]

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.

five-seven-six?

[rumblin'rabbit]

From the article...

Now help me, Muse, for
I wish to tell a piece of
controversial math.

The last line has six syllables. For shame.

Re:five-seven-six?

[David Price]

Depends on your dialect. If you pronounce it "con-tro-ver-see-al," then you're right; if (as dictionary.com suggests) you say "con-tro-ver-shall," then the author is right.

Re:five-seven-six?

[rumblin'rabbit]

Not my dialect, but you are absolutely correct.

A part time haiku
depending like "coyote" on
how you pronounce it

!RTFA

[Mateito]

I did not read the Article posted above But this is Slashdot.

Re:!RTFA

[Mateito]

D'oh I should have hit
The preview button before
posting a poem.

Re:Hey! This Seth guy's taking credit for my work!

[aGeMo]

No I am Sparticus... I mean the author!

Haiku that compiles

[rupert2000]

If he would have written an haiku in ASNI compliant C that compiled, then I would be impressed.

Ask Slashdot: Haikus!?!?

[anish1411]

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.

Re:Ask Slashdot: Haikus!?!?

[Some Bitch]

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.

Since you asked...

How to write Haiku

In japanese, the rules for how to write Haiku are clear, and will not be discussed here. In foreign languages, there exist NO consensus in how to write Haiku-poems. Anyway, let's take a look at the basic knowledge:

What to write about?

Haiku-poems can describe almost anything, but you seldom find themes which are too complicated for normal PEOPLE's recognition and understanding. Some of the most thrilling Haiku-poems describe daily situations in a way that gives the reader a brand new experience of a well-known situation.

The metrical pattern of Haiku

Haiku-poems consist of respectively 5, 7 and 5 syllables in three units. In japanese, this convention is a must, but in english, which has variation in the length of syllables, this can sometimes be difficult.

The technique of cutting

The cutting divides the Haiku into two parts, with a certain imaginative distance between the two sections, but the two sections must remain, to a degree, independent of each other. Both sections must enrich the understanding of the other. To make this cutting in english, either the first or the second line ends normally with a colon, long dash or ellipsis.

The seasonal theme.

Each Haiku must contain a kigo, a season word, which indicate in which season the Haiku is set. For example, cherry blossoms indicate spring, snow indicate winter, and mosquitoes indicate summer, but the season word isn't always that obvious.

Please notice that Haiku-poems are written under different rules and in many languages. For translated Haiku-poems, the translator must decide whether he should obey the rules strictly, or if he should present the exact essence of the Haiku. For Haiku-poems originally written in english, the poet should be more careful. These are the difficulties, and the pleasure of Haiku.

Shamelessly stolen from here

Yours is no more a haiku than the one the article discusses.

Other forms...

[Nom du Keyboard]

If code that can be directly compiled and executed may be suppressed under the DMCA, as Judge Kaplan asserts in his preliminary ruling,

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.

Name spelling

[MisterBad]

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").

Best quote of the article

[dspyder]

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

Can't moderate? Try this

[darkonc]

I'm pretty sure that I didn't moderate in that thread, but I haven't been given mod points in months.

1. Meta-moderate. This seems to make a big difference (presuming that you meta-moderate fairly).
   
2. Make sure that the 'i agree to moderate' (whatever it's called) box hasn't been unchecked in your preferences
   
3. Post stuff that gets moderated up (I don't consider it Karma-whoring if it really is insightful).
   How to actually be insightful, etc. is an entirely different question.
4. Stop complaining. If you get moderated down for whining, it makes it less likely thaty you'll be picked for moderation.

Haikus

[Steevil]

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.

Re:Haikus

[Trent_Alkaline]

technically a senryu, if I remember correctly and the part where it gets really creative in my opinion is when he gets the syllables to do pi

reply

[Mod Me God Too]

that was not haiku
haiku must refer to some
season, or else fail

Cholera or Botulism?

[rebill]

From the article:

I wish programmers got more worked up about that metaphor. It ought to offend them. Your work, creating new and useful technology, is like an outbreak of cholera or botulism?

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".

Re:Went to high school with Seth Schoen

[onemorehour]

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 ^_^

Re:Hey! This Seth guy's taking credit for my work!

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

Cool! You recognized the movie I was thinking about!

Re:Hey! This Seth guy's taking credit for my work!

[Guylhem]

can you contact me in pv please ?