Free Speech Flag
Use | Other |
---|---|
Proportion | 2:3 or 3:5 |
Adopted | May 1, 2007 |
Design | Shades of green, pink, blue and purple stripes, with byte "C0" appended in bottom right corner |
Designed by | John Marcotte |
The Free Speech Flag is a symbol of
Marcotte was motivated to create the flag after the
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
(commonly referred to as 09-F9).
In response to attempts to remove the key from the Internet,
History
On April 30, 2007, a blogger named "Rudd-O" published the encryption key for HD DVDs and asked readers to share it widely.[1] Knowledge of this numeric key value allowed users to bypass digital rights management (DRM) and copy HD DVDs that previously could not be duplicated.[1][2] News media reported, and Digg, a news aggregator and social media website, provided a way for users to vote on stories they felt were most newsworthy.[1][2][3] Votes by 15,000 Digg users drove an article about the encryption key to the front page of the site.[1][3]
The Advanced Access Content System (AACS), the organization which controlled access to the HD DVD encryption key, sent a cease and desist letter to Digg on May 1, 2007.[1][2][3][4] In its letter, AACS claimed that by publishing news articles on its website that reported on the encryption key, the website was engaging in illegal activity.[1][2][4] Articles by numerous journalists reporting on the news story were posted to Digg.[1][2][3] Jay Adelson, the CEO of Digg, announced that the website would abide by the AACS' requests and self-censor articles reporting on the encryption key.[1][2][4]
Adelson's decision to self-censor his website caused a backlash from the Digg community. "In trying to make the cracked issue go away", notes Jeremy Goldman in his 2012 book Going Social, "the AACS's letter (and Digg's response) succeeded only in making the story bigger."[2] Digg users made sure, by their votes and online participation, that all front-page stories on Digg were about the encryption key.[1][2][4] Digg founder Kevin Rose observed: "The Digg community is one that loves to have their voice heard, and this has been something that struck a chord with them."[2]
After listening to complaints from Digg's community about Adelson's decision to self-censor news stories about the encryption key, Rose wrote a message to his users reversing this decision.[3] He announced that Digg would stop self-censorship and he acknowledged that he understood the message from Digg's members: "After seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you've made it clear ... you'd rather see Digg go down fighting than bow to a bigger company. Effective immediately, we won't delete stories or comments containing the code, and we will deal with whatever the consequences might be."[1][2][3]
Design and message
John Marcotte, a writer and editor at the website Badmouth, created the Free Speech Flag with the intent of disseminating the secret HD DVD code on the Internet, publishing it on the website on May 1, 2007.[5][6] In his initial post announcing his flag, Marcotte criticized how the mere use of numbers had become intellectual property.[6]
"We want to start a movement", Marcotte wrote. "A movement to reclaim personal liberties and decorporatize the laws of our nation."[6] He encouraged online viewers of his work to spread his message throughout the Internet and to freely publicize his work.[6] "To that end we have made a flag, a symbol to show support for personal freedoms. Spread it as far and wide as you can."[6]
Marcotte embedded the secret HD DVD key into the colors of the flag itself, using the flag
Impact
Soon after it was first published,
Users wore the code emblazoned on T-shirts, added it to poems, integrated the code into the lyrics of
Matthew Rimmer, senior lecturer at Australian National University, commented upon the legality of the innovative ways Internet users like Marcotte chose to publicize the secret HD DVD code: "I don't think it's necessarily designed to stay within the bounds of the law. It's just a fun way to comment on what's happened. I think that it's designed to show that the law is absurd or ridiculous and should be abolished."[7]
Antonio Ceraso of Pennsylvania State University placed the flag's conception within a larger framework—"the formation of a communal ethos...the 09 F9 tribe"—and posed the question: "Would five striped colors arranged into a flag constitute an anti-circumvention device under the DMCA?"[12]
The flag inspired Jeff Thompson, assistant professor and program director of Visual Art and Technology at the Stevens Institute of Technology, to create a sound file of the AACS encryption key as a melody.[14] After a similar encryption key was cracked for the PlayStation 3 gaming system, a new flag was created by a different user as a tribute to Marcotte's original flag.[10]
See also
References
- ^ OCLC 172980082.
- ^ OCLC 793973948.
- ^ OCLC 191675023.
- ^ OCLC 647762840.
- ^ Marcotte, John (2014). "Badmouth Crew". Badmouth. Archived from the original on 30 September 2014. Retrieved October 31, 2015.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Marcotte, John (May 1, 2007). "Free Speech Flag". Badmouth.net. Archived from the original on May 4, 2007. Retrieved September 25, 2015.
- ^ a b c d e Bushell-embling, Dylan (May 15, 2007). "Digg finds the key is safety in numbers". Brisbane Times. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved September 24, 2015.
- ISBN 978-1-329-05980-1.
- ISBN 978-1-329-06394-5.
- ^ a b S, Ben (March 1, 2011). "46 DC EA D3 17 FE 45 D8 09 23 EB 97 E4 95 64 10 D4 CD B2 C2". Yale Law & Technology. Yale University. Archived from the original on March 10, 2011. Retrieved September 24, 2015.
A 'PS3 Flag', an homage to its predecessor, the 'Free Speech Flag'
- )
- ^ )
- ^ a b Stone, Brad (May 3, 2007). "In Web Uproar, Antipiracy Code Spreads Wildly". The New York Times. Retrieved October 29, 2015.
- ^ Thompson, Jeff (August 13, 2011). "AACS encryption key". Jeff Thompson, Assistant Professor and Program Director of Visual Art & Technology at the Stevens Institute of Technology. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved September 24, 2015.
An example of this is the so-called 'Free Speech Flag', seen above.
Further reading
- Bennett, James (2011). "Architectures of Participation". Television as Digital Media. Duke University Press Books. pp. 351–355. ISBN 978-0-8223-4910-5.
- Girard, John (2009). "The Future Is Just a Day Away". A Leader's Guide to Knowledge Management. Business Expert Press. pp. 109–112. ISBN 978-1-60649-018-1.
- Tapscott, Don (2008). "The Net Generation as Consumers". Grown Up Digital. McGraw-Hill Education. pp. 188–190. ISBN 978-0-07-150863-6.
External links
- Marcotte, John (May 1, 2007). "Free Speech Flag". Badmouth.net. Archived from the original on May 4, 2007. Retrieved September 25, 2015.
- Fred von Lohmann (May 2, 2007). "09 f9: A Legal Primer". Electronic Frontier Foundation. Archived from the original on February 18, 2015. Retrieved September 25, 2015.
- Burgun, Keith (May 1, 2007). "Oh Nine, Eff Nine". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Retrieved September 25, 2015.
A very personal song ... Lyrics: "09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0"