Judge Creates Own Da Vinci Code

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."

Comments

Re:too much time on their hands?

[Hedgethorn]

This isn't unheard of in the legal world. I don't have any references at hand, but my brother-in-law (who is presently in law school) has shown me several creative decisions like this: a judge who included hundreds of movie titles in his decision, decisions in rhyming verse, etc.

One Question

[Billosaur]

Can we get this guy on the US Supreme Court? It's gotten way too stuffy for my test. Mr Justice Peter Smith might just bring some much-needed humanity to court deliberations.

A Codesmith Exists

[digitaldc]

smithcodeJaeiextostpsacgreamqwfkadpmqz

Reverse the first part to get 'codesmith' and take away the word 'a' & 'exists' from the next few letters
This leaves you with 'Jaeotpcgream' which you will use later.
Take letters on the keyboard next to 'qwfkadpmqz' to get 'asriseonas' which is then combined with 'Jaeotpcgream' to form 'jaeotpcgreamasriseonas'
You take out the words 'to raise a scam' then throw away the rest of the letters.

These words are then rearranged to form the sentence:
'A codesmith exists to raise a scam.'

Re:Smithy Code?

[good soldier svejk]

I'd be curious to see how shows like ER or House actually compare to real medicine.

I can't comment overall, but on ER I have seen a couple of very realistic portrayals of medical technologies with which I am experienced. On one episode the doctor with the limp described an ongoing beating heart valve replacement using the Cohn Cardiac Stabalizer. She even credited Bill Cohn at Beth Israel in Boston with its development. In the background they showed the procedure on the monitor. The footage was Dr. Cohn's own from a procedure he performed. He also does his own editing. The others were passing references to medline and paperchase online medical reference searches.

Re:too much time on their hands?

[Anonymous Coward]

Some famous cases: Justice Eakin in Pennsylvania (who was taken to task for his doggerel on delict); Judge Buchmeyer in the Northern District of Texas, who issued a musical decision in a forum selection dispute involving country music singer LeAnn Rimes; Judge Alex Kozinski famously used tons of movie titles in U.S. v. Syufy Ent. 903 F.2d 659 (9th Cir. 1990) ... actually, there's quite a few amusingly-written decisions and opinions out there. One of the perogatives of being a judge.

Of course, there are good arguments against levity in court proceedings, but I can say that these cases have made the lives of countless law students at least slightly more pleasant.

A particular favorite is the wrongful appropriation case of Zim v. Western Publishing Co., 573 F.2d 1318 (5th Cir. 1978), which begins -- for no particular reason that I can discern -- in a mock King James style:

In the beginning, Zim created the concept of the Golden Guides. For the earth was dark and ignorance filled the void. And Zim said, let there be enlightenment and there was enlightenment. In the Golden Guides, Zim created the heavens (STARS) (SKY OBSERVER'S GUIDE) and the earth. (MINERALS) (ROCKS and MINERALS) (GEOLOGY).

Then there rose up in Western a new Vice-President who knew not Zim. And there was strife and discord, anger and frustration, between them for the Golden Guides were not being published or revised in their appointed seasons. And it came to pass that Zim and Western covenanted a new covenant, calling it a Settlement Agreement. But there was no peace in the land. Verily, they came with their counselors of law into the district court for judgment and sued there upon their covenants.

My guess is some law clerk won fifty bucks for getting Irving Loeb Goldberg (a great judge and perhaps even a great jurist) to do this.

Clue?

[darthservo]

I have set out at some length what in my opinion is an overall analysis of HBHG [The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail]. I have done that and will do the same further in this judgment in respect of DVC [The Da Vinci Code] because that is essential in my view to deciding this case. The paragraph ended: "The key to solving the conundrum posed by this judgment is in reading HBHG and DVC."

I don't know if this is useful or helpful, but I noticed that the character sequence past smith(y)code has the same number of characters from the phrase to abbreviate both books:

Jaeiextostpsacgreamqwfkadpmqz

HolyBloodHolyGrai lDaVinciCode

Re:Coolest Judge Ever?

[Elemenope]

How about Alex Kozinski? Only judge I've seen who, just to make a point, wrote a dissenting opinion as a one-act play for the sole purpose of shaming the government into dropping their obviously stupid case. He succeeded. And, as a bonus, the play was hilarious.