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Using YouTube For File Storage

Posted by timothy on from the subtitles-are-a-bitch dept.

First time accepted submitter ememisya writes "Ever thought it might be a good idea to store encrypted data in a QRCode video? Using this technique one could easily store 10GB of data to be available anywhere in the world, and completely free."

8 of 193 comments (clear)

  1. Ever thought it might be a good idea? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ever thought it might be a good idea to store encrypted data in a QRCode video?

    Not even a little bit. Now that you mention it though, it does sound like possibly one of the dumber ideas I've heard in quite some time.

    1. Re:Ever thought it might be a good idea? by ememisya · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Ever thought it might be a good idea to store encrypted data in a QRCode video?

      Not even a little bit. Now that you mention it though, it does sound like possibly one of the dumber ideas I've heard in quite some time.

      So considering a scenario like a student posting Iron Man 3, camera rip and the encryption key as another video onto YouTube, and the links in another forum. Who would be responsible for this copyright infringement? YouTube for having encrypted video data? It could be argued that YouTube is only carrying gibberish video data. The forum? The forum is only containing links to YouTube which is perfectly free to do. Could it be the software for putting the key and the data together? I wouldn't think so, because then any encryption library is responsible for its resulting data. It could be argued that it wouldn't be illegal until the user started writing the actual video onto his/her harddrive, at which point there will be no internet connection to detect anything unusual. Now, I'm a person who believes copying something and taking that copy is different than taking that thing itself, but I know how copyright laws are touchy about these scenarios :) My guess is they would put the pressure on YouTube to detect videos with too many QRCodes in their frames and remove them and it will soon be in their Terms of Service. If enough people abused this method anyways, writing a browser plugin to detect YouTube and offer file uploading options will fire this away to the spiral of doom, sort of like FireSheep and facebook https.

  2. Lolzers. by RightSaidFred99 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm sure Youtube will _never_ notice this and your foolproof plan will be good for all time.

    You might be OK with some steganography, but otherwise they will thwart you if more than a few people do this.

  3. a bit too blatant by Trepidity · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If you start uploading videos to YouTube with nothing but frames of QR codes, you're pretty likely to have your account closed and the videos deleted.

    It would be more robust if you made the video look like something that could plausibly be on YouTube as a "normal" video, even if it's something really boring. Probably especially if it's something really boring. Record one of your pets and use the low-order bits of the video and/or audio to steganographically include some data.

    --
    10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
  4. I already have a better solution. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I store mine in the Linux source code comments. Nobody has ever noticed.

  5. Re:Wow... worse than old usenet binaries. by i_ate_god · · Score: 5, Insightful

    what ever happened to the hacker mentality these days?

    they would do it, BECAUSE THEY CAN. A reason so valid that it I shouldn't have to be here telling you about it.

    --
    I'm god, but it's a bit of a drag really...
  6. I found a QSR code burned into my toast by AndyKron · · Score: 5, Funny

    I found a QSR code burned into my toast. My cellphone read it, and it said "Jesus"

  7. Re:right... by CrashandDie · · Score: 5, Informative

    Have you ever used a QRCode? Ever noticed that most algorithms don't recognise the QRCode when it's sharpest and level with your screen? Usually, you don't have the time to have the code be level, or in focus, before the algorithm picks it up.

    That's because QRCode are nigh indestructible. They could add a watermark and the code would most probably still be readable (depending on the level of error correction you apply when encoding).

    For example, I took one of the Wikimedia QRCode examples, and drew on it. It still worked. Then I skewed the image using MS Paint. It still worked. Then I decided to go from 172 pixels to 86 pixels (using MS Paint's resize function). It still worked (zoomed to either 100% or 200%). Then I decided to "reduce its resolution", so to speak, by resizing that reduced image to 200%, then back to 50%, then back to 200%, etc for 4 or 5 times, until I ended up with this. It still worked.

    Now, I'm sure that I *wanted* this to work. There will be dozens of cases where even the most stupid tear of paper or poor lighting will prevent that QRCode from being decoded. But somehow, I don't think that YouTube's HD video encoding will be much of an issue for QRCodes.

    Tested with QR Droid on a Wiko Cink King, scanning off a 23" 1080p screen.