On December 26, 2006 a utility called BackupHDDVD was published, along with its source code, on Doom9.org’s DVD decryption forum, by a person using the name muslix64. The publication of this code made it possible to decrypt AACS (Advanced Access Content System) protected content. Muslix64 claimed that the title and volume keys were easily found in the main memory while using a software player to play a HD DVD.

One week later, on January 2, 2007, Muslix64 published a new version, with volume key support. Ten days after that, several other forum members posted how, while running WinDVD, they too found title and volume keys of movies in RAM.

At some point the next morning (January 13th) a title key was posted on Pastebin.com disguised by a riddle, which could be solved through various Google searches. These results were then to be converted into a hexadecimal (Of, relating to, or based on the number 16: the hexadecimal number system), creating the correct key. Later that day, Serenity was the first HD DVD to be cracked and uploaded on a private site.

January 26, 2007 brought the confirmation by the AACS LA (Advanced Access Content System Licensing Administrator) that title keys of certain HD DVDs had in fact been published without permission. Almost three months later, on April 16, 2007, an announcement was made by the AACS LA that decryption keys associated with certain HD DVD players were revoked, and would not be able to decrypt AACS encrypted disks made after April 23rd, without an update of the software.

Then came the cease and desist letters from the AACS to sites posting the cryptographic key for high definition DVDs and Blu-ray Discs.

We represent Advanced Access Content System Licensing Administrator LLC (AACS LLC), developer, proprietor and licensor of the Advanced Access Content System (AACS). AACS is an integrated set of technological protection measures that controls access to and prevents unauthorized copying of copyrighted motion pictures embodied on high definition DVDs…

It is our understanding that you are providing to the public…thereby providing and offering to the public a technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof that is primarily designed, produced, or marketed for the purpose of circumventing the technological protection measures offered by the AACS…Doing so constitutes a violation of the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act…

In view of the foregoing apparent anti-circumvention violations, we demand that you immediately:

1) remove or cause to be removed the…AACS circumvention offering…

2) refrain from posting or causing to be provided any AACS circumvention offering…

Failure to do so will subject you to legal liability…

The article sharing site Digg.com also received a letter. In response, they removed the posts including or alluding to the key and even closed some accounts that created such posts.

That’s when things really got going and the Digg Revolt took seed.

Digg.com soon received a barrage of posts containing the key, in both obvious and creatively subtle ways, like in songs or hidden in images. Eventually, Digg’s homepage was nothing but links to the secret code and anti-Digg rants. It quickly became too overwhelming to delete them all, and quite apparent to the administrators at Digg.com that something had to be done. They soon reversed their stance, saying:

But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you’ve made it clear. You’d rather Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be.

Thus began the AACS Encryption Key Cyber-Riot; an act of civil disobedience in the Technology Age.

Once upon a time, civil disobedience was about sit-ins and non-violent protests. Today, in the world of the Internet, it’s about bombarding sites like Digg.com with exactly what they’re trying to oppress. All generations revolt in their own way, I guess.

It’s a pretty cool thing to do, if you ask me. Who’s to say which side is right or wrong? But the fact that people like Digg users are standing up for what they believe and using such a strong grassroots medium to their advantage, shows that the spirit of protest is still alive. There’s a new breed of revolutionary in America today, bred from Hippies-turned-Yuppies and raised by the newest technology; flower children of the Internet.

So much has changed in the world of civil liberties since the 1960s, but one thing remains the same, those who believe in their fight will continue to fight until the day after there’s no fight left in them.

And if that doesn’t work, they’ll just snake around the law to get their way. Hey, it is America, after all.

The encryption key, by the way, is 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 (09 F9 for short). Just in case you were wondering.

Sources:
Wikipedia.org
Freedom to Tinker
Chilling Effects
CBSNews.com
Dictionary.com

Technorati Tags: A Random Thought, Blu-ray Discs, cease and desist letters, Digital Millennium Copyright Act, dvd decryption, public key encryption

Tags: A Random Thought, Blu-ray Discs, cease and desist letters, Digital Millennium Copyright Act, dvd decryption, public key encryption

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