can a random number be subject to a takedown?

Perry E. Metzger perry at piermont.com
Tue May 1 17:04:44 EDT 2007


hal at finney.org ("Hal Finney") writes:
> A sample demand letter from the AACS Licensing Authority appears at:
>
> http://www.chillingeffects.org/notice.cgi?sID=03218
>
>>From what I can see, there is no claim that the key is copyrighted.
> Rather, the letter refers to the provisions of the DMCA which govern
> circumvention of technological protection measures.  It demands that
> the key be taken down in order to avoid "legal liability".

However, a 128 bit number is not a circumvention tool, any more than
an explanation of how AACS can be attacked is a circumvention tool. A
circumvention tool would have to be something like a program or a
device that would permit circumvention, not mere description of
one. Source code to a circumvention tool is probably a sticky issue,
but the a 128 bit integer is not something you can then compile and
get a hacking tool out of.

Can one really consider publication of an integer to be circumvention?

> This seems odd to me because my understanding of the DMCA's
> anti-circumvention provisions is that they are criminal rather than civil
> law.  Violations would lead to charges from legal authority and not from a
> copyright owner.  So it's not clear that AACSLA has any power to enforce
> these demands, other than trying to get some government agency involved.

That would indeed seem to be the case from me as well. Takedown
notices are only for copyrighted material. This is not per se a
standard takedown notice.

-- 
Perry E. Metzger		perry at piermont.com

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