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Judge Creates Own Da Vinci Code

Posted by Zonk on from the judges-with-a-sense-of-humor dept.

xmedar writes "The BBC is reporting that the judge who presided over the recent Da Vinci Code plagiarism case used steganography to embed his own code in the judgment using italic text in random places throughout the text. The full text of the code reads 'smithcodeJaeiextostpsacgreamqwfkadpmqz' if you want to have a go at cracking it." From the article: "Although he would not be drawn on his code and its meaning, Mr Justice Smith said he would probably confirm it if someone cracked it, which was 'not a difficult thing to do'. In March, he presided over a High Court case brought by authors Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, who claimed Dan Brown plagiarized their own historical book for The Da Vinci Code."

3 of 463 comments (clear)

  1. It's "Smithy code" by Creosote · · Score: 4, Informative

    The first boldface italicized letters actually spell out "Smithy code"; you can see the 'y' in section A.1.3 of the ruling (PDF).

  2. I knocked something together... by beady · · Score: 5, Informative

    To grab single italicized letters from the document.
    As far as I can see the letter list is:

    smithycodeJaeiextostgpsacgreamqwfkadpmqzviMi

    1. Re:I knocked something together... by lamplighter · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yes, I've gone through it pretty carefully and been unable to find more single italicized letters than

      smithycodeJaeiextostgpsacgreamqwfkadpmqzv

      And these are the paragraph numbers and words I found them in, for those who wish to look at the original ruling and confirm:

      1 Claimant(s)
      2 clai(m)ant
      3 (i)s (t)hat ... (h)is ... realit(y)
      4 (c)ynicism
      5 f(o)r
      6 prece(d)ed
      7 T(e)mplar
      8 New (J)ersey ... (a)ble
      9 res(e)arch
      11 th(i)s ... techniqu(e)s
      13 e(x)tinguished
      14 (t)echnical
      16 st(o)ry ... wa(s)
      18 (t)he
      19 somethin(g)
      20 grou(p)s
      21 u(s)ed
      23 w(a)s
      25 do(c)uments ... bein(g) ... e(r)adicated
      26 elsewh(e)re
      27 Templ(a)rs
      29 Clai(m)ants ... se(q)uence
      30 (w)ith
      31 o(f)
      34 (k)ey
      35 Plant(a)rd
      37 intro(d)uced
      38 manuscri(p)ts
      40 ulti(m)ately
      42 (q)uestions
      43 embla(z)oned ... pre(v)alent

      This could be just a substitution cipher, in which Mr. Justice Smith has contrived to make the first ten characters "smithycode." The lack of spaces between words, though, makes it tough for me to decipher -- though I'm sure there are people out there better at deciphering than I.