Idiots Linking to HD-DVD Crack Code Fund Terrorism
All over the internet people are illegally listing or linking to a newly discovered HD-DVD processing key. This copyrighted string of numbers allows people to crack DVDs and create pirated copies. Beyond cropping up everywhere, pages listing the key are being linked to from sites like Reddit, Digg and Slashdot. Some are even selling it on coffee mugs, t-shirts and bumper stickers.
So, amidst all of this gleeful subversion, where is the problem? Well, beyond the obvious legal issue of copyrights, the pirated DVD industry is linked to various other forms of organized crime, from prostitution and drug sales to terrorism. By putting this continuously into the public realm, people are unwittingly undermining the very freedoms they suppose they are protecting.
“Compared to other forms of crime, DVD piracy offers criminals high returns and relatively low risk in terms of penalties. It is an attractive option for organized crime groups, who use the trade in DVD piracy to launder cash and fund other forms of crime.” -= Piracy Is A Crime (dot com)
For legal and ethical reasons, I will not provide links to (or direct quotes from) sites that are in an uproar about issues of “censorship” and internet freedom. However, it is well worth asking: what would those same people say if the string of numbers being circulated was the key to unlocking some part of our military defense system? What if the code in question provided access to our nuclear arsenal? In essence: what if they knew that they were compromising the security of our country by passing around a string of numbers?
This analogy is much closer to the mark than it sounds. Now, I am not going to shed a tear for the profits lost by major Hollywood corporations, but it is alarming how naively people assume that DVD piracy is a victimless crime. Further, the people listing this code are committing a crime, whether or not they understand the other potentially harmful consequences of their actions.
You must be kidding me. Publishing a random set of numbers and letters funds terrorism? What friggin cool aide have you been drinking too much of. Please support your statement with proof that publishing the key will support terrorism or are you pulling all of this out of your ass.
Too lazy to research it yourself? I suppose I could do it for you. For more information, however, you might consider looking around the web for answers. Also see this document for proof. Finally, I prefer grape Kool-Aid.
@Jeff: This isn’t a random string of characters, you fucking douche bag. It’s part of a major security breach that will eventually involve terrorist organizations who produce and sell stolen copies of video material to buy weapons and fund their jungle gym training camps.
Sometimes you have to actually connect thoughts together to understand something.. attention douche bag: this is one of those times!
@kroq
It is never the responsibility of the person questioning a claim to search for the proof of the claim, it is the responsibility of the person who makes the claim.
@Hoodmonkey & op.
Do you seriously believe that without this HD-DVD code being circulated organized criminals would not be copying HD-DVDs? Copy protection mechanisms and DRM are not designed to prevent professional criminal pirating operations.
Copy protection mechanisms and DRM are only to deter casual users from copying content which they should already have access to. This copy protection takes away from the value a consumer gets from a purchase while simultaneously giving them nothing in return (except paying extra for the R&D costs for making the DRM which cripples the media that they purchase). They will do *nothing* to deter professional criminals or technologically savy users. Nothing. Ever. Really. (Ok, maybe it sets them back for a month until the professional pirates figure out how to make 1:1 copies in raw mode, or until they just crack it themselves, hell the crack was out for 2 months before it even turned into this big viral thing, so your argument of spreading it now is bad is just stupid anyway).
Additionally, the DCMA (the law under which distributing this key might be construed as illegal, amounting to a circumvention measure of encryption) is directly in conflict with consumer rights (specifically the right to fair use of purchased copyrighted material), and even so, considering the decryption key to be a ‘circumvention’ measure would amount to every hardware device or software maker being liable under the DCMA, after all if you can decode an HD-DVD, obviously you must have the key.
“Links” exist between any two forms of crime, so that wasn’t a surprise. Especially since terrorism exists in so many forms. But linking it to “idiots” online - that was a stroke of comedic genius. Kudos!
Once the leak happens, it’s happened and it’s game over. That’s the type of security that this was; once it was online at all things were over for the scheme. Now we just have to look forward to a stronger scheme or a revised distribution method. It’s likely that honest consumers are going to continue being the victims, and “idiots” will continue being “idiots”.
This number is irrelevant. A similarly futile appropach would be to criticize the copy protection schemes themselves, which help create a lucrative pirate market in the first place.
See: spread this number [link removed by administrator]
“Now, even if this number stopped working (and it will, thanks to the revocation procedures in HD-DVD’s encryption scheme) or if it were a hoax, the decryption system has already been figured out and is implemented in a software program called BackupHDDVD.”
Josef: No bud, it’s not some single entry point that prevented all these people from copying material, and I didn’t imply that. However, given the insane converage recently, it’s more likely that it WILL involve more large organizations copying material than if it wasn’t released to the public.
So to go even further, it will do more harm now that it’s released than it would have if it wasn’t. You are arguing against that simple fact. Good luck winning any debate with that logic.
oh lols, so you mean the russian mafia scene and the chinese/asian pirates dont sail any more and its all about some al-qaida which wasnt even responsible for 9/11 or shit :D, bloosers…
I need a quick Digg :)
http://digg.com/tech_news/Digg_Dugg_It_s_Own_Grave
you friggin retarded idiout. keep believing in every sh** your texanian horse riding president says.
yah, every thing is against terrorism, even those measures which are against freedom…. wtf are you writing man!
You need to update that info - that, and I’m banned from Digg.com!
You sir, are by far the most ignorant person Ive ever had the displeasure of reading.
Your likening of posting a series of hexidecimals that have been common knowledge to the p2p/”hacking” community for months as funding terrorists is the most alarmist thing anyone in the history of this terrorism orgy has had the balls to say.
Your stupidity apparently knows no bounds.
Good day.
@Jason/Ricardo: Heh, you guys reallllly don’t get it do you? I’m as liberal as they come - I never jumped on the anti-terrorist bandwagon that resulted in disaster in Iraq and never for a second support our president’s agenda. If you can’t take the time to read the actual post, follow the links to sources that provide information, and comment on the arguments I’m making rather than making a snap judgement and posting from your gut: why do you even bother responding? Lots of things people do support organized crime and terrorism. I’m for the legalization of certain drugs. Why? Well, for one thing because I believe people should have the right to use them, and for another thing: their illegal status supports organized crime and terrorism! Next time consider where the argument is coming from before making laughably false assumptions about political motivations.
This is stupid. How is downloading a key so that I can pirate dvd’s myself helping out terrorists? If anything it takes away form there business. Why buy a pirated copy when I can make one myself.
Hilarious, but good point: you can either (1) buy a pirated copy and support terrorism/organized crime or (2) circumvent the system and cheat artists out of their original creative works. It’s a lose-lose situation!
This argument is a tad alarmist and a bit flawed, I’m afraid. Let’s use your example of a “missile key”. My concern in this situation would be that our missile system could be compromised by simply knowing a few numbers. Would I publish them knowing that? Absolutely. It is in the public interest to know that the security surrounding our most dangerous weapons can be so easily defeated.
I’m not really into file-sharing at all. I haven’t downloaded music from a p2p network since the old Napster days. I end up buying all my music from iTunes simply because it’s easier and more convenient. That being said, trying to copyright a number is preposterous. Linking it to terrorism is even more so… You’re simply using the argument that _anything_ that can be done to make money could be done to support terrorism. If a WalMart employee saves his money and then uses it to buy weapons for al Qaeda or whoever wishes us harm, is WalMart then linked to terrorism? Ridiculous.
Talk about a flawed argument: you’d publish the missile key codes ‘in the public interet’? So what if some terrorist saw those codes and used them before the military realized it? It is ‘in the public interest’ to risk an all-out nuclear war? I’d love to know how that works. Why not just announce that you’ve found the codes to let people know they have been cracked? Publishing the codes specifically in that analogy has no public benefit I can see that can’t be accomplished by simply publishing the *fact* that you *have* the codes.
As for your second argument: no, you’re pushing that way to far Shawn, sorry. Go ahead, look around on the internet (use some of the links provided or do searches on your own). In Great Britain especially (as well as other parts of the world) terrorists and organized criminals are increasingly *specifically* in the pirated DVD market. Now, I will admit that code cracks like this are likely not the top method USED by these groups to pirate DVDs. Nonetheless, if you keep that fact in mind (the fact that this illicit industry is on the rise among fund-raising terrorists) I think you have to at least look at this overt flaunting of the decryption key in a new light.
The point I will concede is that the headline itself is a bit alarmist. Yes, I am guilty as charged - amidst all of the one-sided non-debated issue in question I was trying to get my minority viewpoint heard, so I sensationalized the headline to get peoples’ attention. I find it actually rather sad that it took such effort to raise awareness of a relatively obvious ‘other side’ to an issue everyone seems to think is only related to free speech.
Wow your all so Edumacated. In the time it took me to read all that I burned 3 copies of Children of men. I’m saving up for a nuclear device. And by the way in the 8 months I spent killing the bastards the only bootlegs I got from jackie Iraqi was booze and fruits I can’t pronounce.
Hmm, I don’t really think publishing an already known key will really have that big an impact on anything other than personal piracy. Piracy on the levels we’re talking about aren’t hindered by normal DRM technology.
As for terrorism, it’s going to be a problem for a long time, piracy funded or not. Really all this terrorist rhetoric is getting old. These people have been around for decades doing the same shit they’re doing now. It’s not as big a problem as you think. I’m still waiting for a significant attack to be pulled off. That 911 stuff was amature at best. No matter how much funding they get, they’re still nothing more than pissed off people who ultimately mean very little in the grand scheme of things. Let them have their silly jihads or whatever else, because when it comes down the line, we’ve got the big cock, not them.
Fair enough… By my own admission, my argument is a bit alarmist, too, for good reason. My problem with your argument was that, by linking HD-DVD encryption keys to terrorism, this became a matter of national security and it is clearly not. On the missile key argument, yes, it might be a bit irresponsible to not pursue other avenues prior to releasing missile code. I’d liken it to something similar to how information security industry unofficially handles software flaws… Notify the vendor, give them time to fix the problem, then, if they refuse to fix the problem, release. Sure, I agree, missile codes are a bit different than another buffer overflow in Windows, but the point is the same. Hell, I work for a fairly major IT vendor who deals with stuff like this all the time. But, even when someone releases a vulnerability without notifying us, as angry as it makes me, the fault still lies with us… Especially if we knew about the issue beforehand and failed to fix it in a timely manner. So, should I exercise better judgment in releasing things like missile launch codes publicly? Sure, you could make that argument. But the root of the problem is trying to make others responsible for a system that is terribly flawed to begin with.
Thanks for the debate!
Shawn
Tim: I agree insofar as 9/11 was a relatively small deal - it just seemed big to Americans who aren’t used to dealing with that kind of stuff every day. Still, I think the opposite liberal knee-jerk reaction to automatically dismiss terrorism (and I’m way left-wing) is also problematic.
Shawn: you make a good argument regarding the fault issue - if they are dumb enough to encrypt everything in a way that can and will be broken, well, they really can’t complain too much. At the same time, however, there seems to me to be a fine line. After all, if you figured out someone’s ATM code, you wouldn’t broadcast it (if you were a nice, decent guy anyway) - you’d tell that person so they could change it.
I think what bugs me about it is just the casual way in which people seem to disregard the other side of the argument. To be perfectly frank: I know I don’t know the ins and outs of this issue. Frankly, I might even swap sides if I were %100 informed about all arguments for both sides. I posted this originally because (1) I was a bit disgusted with how excited everyone was getting about spreading the crack and (2) I wanted to keep peoples’ minds opens to both side of the issue.
Personally I feel that intellectual property as a whole is utterly useless, as IP based lawsuits waste both taxpayer money and valuable court time. That and it is impossible to protect _anything_ from being copied. We can copy animals and people (though illegal, like piracy), as well as cast molds of desirable objects. Now, electronic goods have no physical existence, therefore should not have a form of “protection” applied to them, as “stealing” them is impossible. Theft is the removal of property from the possession of others. The “theft” of intellectual property is actually the copying of intellectual property. The mass piracy simply has nothing to do with this issue. The public release of this random string of Hexadecimal letters will have no impact on the sale of illegally manufactured dvds, as they have had the code for up to 2 months prior to public knowledge. 2 final points; 1. Piracy, as we now understand it, is a cleaver marketing ploy by corporate entities as well as law bodies to make the unauthorized (as i refuse to accept the illegality of it) copying of IP seem much worse than it is. It works, to a point. The first thing anyone thinks when they hear the word “pirate”, is cutthroat, murder, plunderer, duelist, and rouge, all of which evoke a negative connotation. 2. This string IS a random one, by the involved companies own admission, and this will have minimal impact anyway, as their _lovely_ DRM scheme accounts for the possible assertion of the decryption keys.
In closing, there is more, and at the same time, much _less_ to this issue as most would have you believe. I offer my respect for having the presence of mind to calmly and coolly argue and research you point.
Balrog_Bob, Pirate.
If it isn’t widely known how to copy a DVD then the organized criminals (and possibly “terrorists”) who work out how to, or find someone who can, will be able to make a lot of money as they are the only ones who can do the pirating. If the key is widely known then anybody (potentially) could copy a DVD, andso won’t buy their pirate copies off the big organizations. So distributing the key, or ripping apps, torrents or any other way to get pirated films directly into the hands of the end user _hinders_ terrorists if anything.