In 2007, it was discovered, published online and made famous via Digg that all HD-DVD’s on the market were released with a digital rights protection system that could be undermined completely with one simple cryptographic key, 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0. At the time, the recording industry claimed that saying this simple hexadecimal number out loud or writing it anywhere on the internet was illegal and sent cease and desists to many websites including Digg asking them to take the number down. Digg took down the original thread out of fear, but likely considered the consequences of the unwarranted censorship worse than user revolt and subsequently allowed the number to be used on the site, uncensored in public view.
The situation lead to a great debate regarding free speech where to this day, hundreds of thousands of citings remain easily accessible, including parodies and fervent discussion across all mediums. Funny enough, in the end, if somsone wanted to use the number they had to be running Linux, which isnt exactly the biggest threat the record industry saw. To many, this case represented the last stand and for that matter, thelast peep of the big five major labels which are all now powned by Apple.
The following history of the original crack which led to the Digg post is outlined by Cory Doctorow at BoingBoing:
Arnezami, a hacker on the Doom9 forum, has published a crack for extracting the “processing key” from a high-def DVD player. This key can be used to gain access to every single Blu-Ray and HD-DVD disc. Previously, another Doom9 user called Muslix64 had broken both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD by extracting the “volume keys” for each disc, a cumbersome process. This break builds on Muslix64’s work but extends it — now you can break all AACS-locked discs. AACS took years to develop, and it has been broken in weeks. The developers spent billions, the hackers spent pennies.
Derivatives:
http://09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0.com
http://www.09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0.eu/
Today’s meme was sponsored by the numbers and letters 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0.
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