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On the HD-DVD key flap

Today, Kyle said to me:

So, you know that whole hd dvd key thing? Everyone and their grandmother knows it now, or knows where to find it. But I don’t think anyone knows what the heck to do with it.

Why did the HD-DVD key become such an issue?

Content providers: Takedown letters are not the way to stop piracy. Still less are they the way to squelch people with an agenda.

Bloggers, Diggers, etc: Copying and pasting a couple dozen bytes does not equate to taking to the streets in glorious revolution. The key’s been public for months. Those who needed it to do business (software developers and pirates) had it long ago.

Forgive me if I sound reactionary. I’m on the bloggers’ side on the whole. Certainly I’m no friend to the MPAA and RIAA. I just thought we’d been through all of this back in 2002 when DVD-Jon went to trial. It’s the same DMCA, same technology (video DRM), same fair use and anticircumvention issues. Of course, none of these issues actually came up in Johansen’s trial; they were just discussed to death on the net. I’m annoyed that this all came back a few days ago, but glad everybody shut up at the end of the day.

TMBO had a photo (sorry, no link) of a guy who tattooed the key to his chest. He’s going to feel really silly next year when nobody remembers or cares anymore, and even sillier in five when the next-next-gen formats arrive with the same folks backing them.

(I hope he feels silly already because back when we had the export restrictions fifteen years ago people did the same with strong crypto algorithms.)

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 6th, 2007 at 23:27 and is filed under Thinking, Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

4 Responses to “On the HD-DVD key flap”

  1. Rick Auricchio says:
    May 7, 2007 at 09:18

    I find it generally tiresome that many journalists persist in recapitulating the same information published elsewhere. It’s as if they all expect a Pulitzer for what they perceive to be investigative journalism.

    If the information were less technical, they would be exposed as the plagiarists they are. But, because the fundamentals of the articles are technical—and therefore always quoted verbatim—readers haven’t yet caught on.

  2. Scott Perry says:
    May 7, 2007 at 12:55

    Thanks, Joe… I’ve been meaning to write pretty much this exact post for a while now.

    Also, the chest tattoo: http://thismight.be/offensive/uploads/2007/05/03/image/takedownthis.jpg
    Dunno where it’s from though. Guy’s still a moron.

  3. jauricchio says:
    May 8, 2007 at 23:29

    Image no good – they have anti-hotlinking. =[

  4. g says:
    May 22, 2007 at 19:29

    —–BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK—–
    Version: 3.1
    GMU !d s: a— C+++ U P L E W N o K– w O M V PS++ PE Y PGP t 5 X R tv b DI D G e h r- x
    ——END GEEK CODE BLOCK——

    :)