Don’t Look at These Colours
Posted on May 3, 2007
Filed Under /dev/null/ | 130 views |
Could it be possible that the following palette is also illegal under the DMCA?
See, any series of hex values can be used to represent colours in HTML. The colours above are a visual representation of the HD-DVD key below. For the visually-impaired these hex values can also represent sounds, distributable as an mp3. Illegal music?
And that’s the point. That’s part of the reason this li’l ole’ string of numbers has captivated and galvanized the geeks so strongly this week: programmers intuitively realize that trying to stop the spread of such trivial data is not only nigh impossible, it is an afront to the purposes and spirit of the internet itself. This key is the most recent embodiment of Stewart Brand’s famous “information wants to be free”.
The information in question is not this simple little key itself though. This rebellion of sorts is an attack against two other positions: that heavy-handed, ill-conceived laws can be used to club the internet into silence, and - and perhaps most importantly but less widely-acknowledged - that we, as consumers, should reserve the right to do as we please with the media we purchase.
This key is part of a mechanism designed to give the media companies total control over who gets to watch what, where, when and how. You may have paid for those HD-DVDs but make no mistakes about it, without access to keys like this you do not own that HD-DVD, you’re only renting it (the plastic scratchable parts are yours to keep, however).
Like it or not, regardless of which side you’re on, this is just another volley in a battle that is only going to continue to grow, a digital arms race between those who strive to control the media and those who simply want to watch it.
“Why in my day when we bought a DVD we played it! We didn’t call no corporation for permission to watch it and authenticate a thumbprint, we just watched it! Gall dang it, where’s my iPod?”
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