AACS HD/DVD Code Competition

There has been a lot of news on the net of late with regard to the disclosure of a sequence of numbers and letters 'into the wild' which will (apparently) allow an individual to break the copy protection (DRM) placed on HD/DVD disks. The AACS have stated they intend to take action against anyone disclosing this. It would appear that they are going to have a busy time as this shows. The AACS are effectively declaring ownership of a string of letters and numbers and using bully tactics to enforce this. For more information BoingBoing has the skinny on it all.

What would the world be like for example if I declared ownership of the string of letters 'and' for example? Or perhaps 'aeiou'? Wht wld ppl b bl to mk f thr sntncs thn?

Even that great un-caped defender of Creative Commons, Cory Doctorow, is trying to get in on the act. He has claimed ownership of the sequence:
\/
AF BC 9C 5D DA 6B 7A A8 7C 33 A1 2B E7 D3 EA-11

which I dare NOT to use because I do not want to lose my house! The sequence above includes a hyphen so is not the same as his anyway. To show how ludicrous the AACS claim is I wrote this simple recount of a journey taken. Bring it on Cory...

A Proposal for Applying A Cholecaliferol Solution To Jet Lag
(Or by its proper title - AF BC 9C 5D DA 6B 7A A8 7C 33 A1 2B E7 D3 EA 11)

Travelling recently on Air France to British Columbia I was sitting in seat 9C but asked by the flight attendant to move to 5D. After my trip I returned home with Delta Airlines sitting in seat 6B. The plane landed at 7 AM, my wife picked me up in the car and we went via the A8 route to our apartment at 7C Rillington Place. Flights can be tiring due to jet lag.

As a 33 year old I am actually in A1 condition and find that my cure is to take a 2B pencil which I purchased recently at the E7 stationery store in East London and write. This helps my concentration although my doctor has advised me to take Cholecalciferol as a Vitamin D3 supplement to assist me. My colleague has found that playing any game from EA games helps him. He has found that being jet lagged has helped him get to level 11 in one of their platform games.

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So, I have (I believe) effectively shown the lunacy of the claim by anyone to own a sequence of numbers and letters. Now it is your turn.

The Competition

Below this text is a sequence of letters and numbers. Write a poem or half page story which must include the sequence in order. I am offering a prize here for the most creative, scathing, witty ... whatever reason I deem fit ... entry for this. I am no skinflint, but neither am I a millionaire, but the prize will be worthwhile and I will ship it at my own expense to wherever you are in the world. If Cory has the time I may even ask him to be an impartial secondary judge.

Closing date / time for entries will be midnight CET on the 15th May, 2007. Entries should be no longer than a half page in length (easier to publish as a blog entry) and posted as a comment to this blog entry. Do not forget to include a contact email address. The AACS's decision is NOT final... mine is. All works should be released as Creative Commons Fair Use. More as a show of defiance than for any other reason.

Here is the random sequence of numbers and letters:

09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0

Hmmm. Let me see. That makes me the 1.8 million plus 1 person to publish a seemingly random sequence of numbers and letters. Bring it on AACS, but remember that I am at the back ofthe queue. I have done nothing wrong and I do not even own an HD/DVD anyway.