I asked if he'd be comfortable with someone putting his social security number online, to which he accused me of straw-manning him. Fair enough, I guess, but I try to avoid asking questions to state my position. I ask questions so that I know for sure what you're advocating before I spend a lot of time crafting a counter-argument or rebuttal; to avoid straw-manning, in fact.Just A Number
There's been some interesting things happening on teh Intarwebs.
A while back, a guy who was pissed off that he couldn't play his lawfully-purchased HD-DVDs on his Linux system due to a failure in the anti-copying system, did a bit of hacking and discovered a 16-digit hexadecimal code that unlocks the copy protection. He publicized the code on the internet, as a "fuck you" to BS antipiracy hysteria and crippleware.
The story would have gone away quietly. After all, the code requires specialized tools and technical knowledge to implement. It's not something that Joe User is going to be able to use to bring about the End of Civilization As We Know It.
Yes, it would have gone away....except the AACS Licensing Authority, which controls the anti-copying technology underlying HD-DVD, sent out hundreds of legal threats, cease-and-desists, and nastygrams to sites that had posted the key, claiming violation of the DCMA over posting of a number which they own.
They OWN A NUMBER.
Sad thing is, the way the DCMA is written, it's true. This is the purest example yet of why the DCMA needs to go. The MPAA and RIAA have pushed this through as law, and now we live in a country where a sixteen-digit number is illegal to possess, to discuss in class, or to post on a website.
Funny thing, though.
Since the legal threats where sent, people all over the internet have been posting the number. People have posted YouTube videos with the number. They've written jingles about the number. Most have just posted the numbers themselves. Over 590,000, according to the most recent Google search.
So much for putting the genie back into that particular bottle....
[edit: number removed because I'm not supporting this campaign at this time - WG]
Enough with corporate feudalism. You can't own a number.
Depending on his answer to the question, I was going to point out the frightening amount of alphanumeric combinations that run our lives now. Your bank account is "just a number", your passwords and PINs are "just numbers", but the average person gets right upset (and rightly so) if those numbers get released to the wrong people.
And it's not like there's no legal precedent for this sort of thing. Microsoft doesn't sell you the Windows code, they sell you a license to use their particular string of code. Intellectual property seems pretty fascinating in this regard, too. They're just words, but you can sue if someone else tries to make money with them against your will. (By the way, I'm not trying to claim expertise on IP, if there's something I've missed, please correct me).
It's an encryption key. When you put the number in it's context (which some of these sites are presumably doing), it's like copying someone's house key and putting copies all over town. I don't like the ownership angle either, but I don't think that they're wrong for wanting to protect "just a number".
(Edit for grammar. Still probably missed something)
