[IP] more on The MYTH OF "DVD Jon" profiled on front page of Wall Street Journal
Begin forwarded message:
From: Seth Finkelstein <sethf@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: October 16, 2005 10:13:02 AM EDT
To: David Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>, Ip Ip <ip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [IP] "DVD Jon" profiled on front page of Wall Street
Journal
[For IP]
At the age of 15, Mr. Johansen wrote a computer program that allowed
users to copy DVDs. ...
"made a laughing stock of Hollywood... by showing that a 15-year-old
kid could break through their super security system."
Meaning no disrespect, but the above is myth. The decryption
code was actually written by an anonymous German programmer, from
reverse-engineering. From my blog post "Jon Johansen and DeCSS":
URL: http://sethf.com/infothought/blog/archives/000106.html
For people interested in background on DeCSS, the best account of
the origin of DeCSS is his trial testimony:
http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/MPAA_DVD_cases/
20000720_ny_trial_transcript.html
(I feel for that anonymous German programmer)
Q. Who wrote DeCSS?
A. I and two other people wrote DeCSS.
...
Q. Mr. Johansen, what did you do next towards making DeCSS?
A. We agreed that the person who I met would reverse engineer
a DVD
player in order to obtain the CSS algorithm and keys.
Q. Who was this person that you met on the Internet?
A. A person from Germany. I don't know his identity.
Q. Okay. What happened next?
A. About three days later when I was on line again, he messaged
me and
told me that he had found the CSS algorithm. He also
sent the
algorithm to me with the CSS authentication source which are
written
by Eric [ed: this is a mishearing of Derek] Fawcus earlier. He
also
sent me information on where inside the player he had
found the
algorithm, and he also sent me a single player key.
Q. Thank you very much. Now, you testified on direct that a
German
person, I think, had reverse-engineered the Xing DVD player, is
that
correct?
A. Yes, that is correct.
Q. And that person goes by the nick Ham?
A. Yes, that's correct.
Q. And it's Ham who wrote the source code that
performed the
authentication function in DeCSS, is that correct?
A. No, that is not correct. He did not write the authentication
code.
He wrote the decryption code.
Q. He wrote the encryption code?
A. Decryption code.
Q. Decryption.
A. Yes.
Q. Ham is a member of Masters of Reverse Engineering or MORE?
A. That's correct.
Q. And are you also a member of MORE?
A. Yes.
Q. There are other members in Germany and Holland, is that correct?
A. Well, the third member is in the Netherlands.
Q. And it was Ham's reverse engineering of the Xing DVD player
that
revealed the CSS encryption algorithm, am I right?
A. Yes, that's correct.
Q. Reverse engineering by Ham took place in or about September 1999?
A. Yes, I believe it was late in September of 1999.
Q. And you testified that it was this revelation of the CSS
encryption
algorithm and not any weakness in the CSS cipher that allowed
MORE to
create DeCSS, is that correct?
A. Yes, that's correct.
Q. You obtained the decryption portions of the DeCSS source code
from
Ham, correct?
A. Yes, that's correct.
Q. You then compiled the source code and created the executable?
A. Well, in the form I received it, it was not compatible.
See also:
http://www.lemuria.org/DeCSS/decss.html
http://www.lemuria.org/DeCSS/dvdtruth.txt
--
Seth Finkelstein Consulting Programmer http://sethf.com
Infothought blog - http://sethf.com/infothought/blog/
Interview: http://sethf.com/essays/major/greplaw-interview.php
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