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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
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
Anyone know what happened to that guy?
The World's Worst Webcomic!
Not that I really care, but it's spelled Seth Schoen
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)...
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
--
By including this sig, the copyright holders of this work or collection unreservedly place it in the public domain.
Next on the menu: SCO patents the caesura to preempt Beowulf for Linux.
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
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.
D'oh I should have hit
The preview button before
posting a poem.
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
haiku, or haikus
:o)
Gesundheit.
A part time haiku
depending like "coyote" on
how you pronounce it
He's Chief Technologist at the EFF. Bring the pain.
The poem isn't a circumvention device since it is not executable or compileable.
As opposed to t-shirts?