Illegal number

An illegal number is a number that under some interpretations and under some legislation represents information which is illegal to possess, utter or propagate. Any information that can be represented in binary format is, "ipso facto", representable as a number, and therefore if the information itself is illegal in some way, the pure number itself may be called illegal.cite web |author=Phil Carmody |title=An Executable Prime Number? | url=http://asdf.org/~fatphil/maths/illegal.html |accessdate=2007-05-08 |quote=Maybe I was reading something between the lines that wasn't there, but if arbitrary programs could be expressed as primes, the immediate conclusion is that all programs, including ones some people wished didn't exist, can too. I.e. the so called 'circumvention devices' of which my previous prime exploit was an example.] cite news | author=Thomas C Greene |title=DVD descrambler encoded in ‘illegal’ prime number |work=The Register |date=2001-03-19 |url=http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/03/19/dvd_descrambler_encoded_in_illegal/ |quote=The question, of course, is whether an interesting number is illegal merely because it can be used to encode a contraband program. |accessdate=2007-05-08] [cite web|url=http://primes.utm.edu/glossary/page.php?sort=Illegal|title=The Prime Glossary: illegal prime|quote=The bottom line: If distributing code is illegal, and these numbers contain (or are) the code, doesn't that make these number [sic] illegal?|accessdate=2007-05-09] To date, the idea of a number being illegal has not been tested in the courts.

An illegal number may represent some type of classified information or trade secret, legal to possess only by certain authorized persons. An AACS encryption key that came to prominence in May 2007 is an example of a number claimed to be a secret, and whose publication or inappropriate possession is claimed to be illegal in the United States. It allegedly assists in the decryption of any HD DVD or Blu-ray Disc released before this date. The issuers of a series of cease-and-desist letters claim that the key itself is therefore a copyright circumvention device, [cite web |title=AACS licensor complains of posted key |date= |url=http://www.chillingeffects.org/anticircumvention/notice.cgi?NoticeID=7180 |work=Chilling Effects |quote=Illegal Offering of Processing Key to Circumvent AACS Copyright Protection [...] are thereby providing and offering to the public a technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof that is primarily designed, produced, or marketed for the purpose of circumventing the technological protection measures afforded by AACS (hereafter, the "circumvention offering"). Doing so constitutes a violation of the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the "DMCA") |accessdate=2007-05-08 ] and that publishing the key violates Title 1 of the American Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

In part of the DeCSS court order [http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/MPAA_DVD_cases/20000202_ny_memorandum_order.html Memorandum Order, in MPAA v. Reimerdes, Corley and Kazan (NY; Feb. 2, 2000) ] ] and in the AACS legal notices, the claimed protection for these numbers is based on their mere possession and the value or potential use of the numbers. This makes their status and legal issues surrounding their distribution quite distinct from that of mere copyright infringement.

Any image file or an executable program [cite web|url=http://primes.utm.edu/curios/page.php?number_id=953|title=Prime Curios: 48565...29443 (1401-digits)|quote=What folks often forget is a program (any file actually) is a string of bits (binary digits)--so every program is a number.|accessdate=2007-05-09] can be regarded as simply a very large binary number. In certain jurisdictions, there are images that are illegal to possess, [cite web|url=http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/content.aspx?LegType=All+Legislation&title=criminal+justice+act&Year=1988&searchEnacted=0&extentMatchOnly=0&confersPower=0&blanketAmendment=0&sortAlpha=0&TYPE=QS&PageNumber=1&NavFrom=0&activeTextDocId=2116852&parentActiveTextDocId=2116646&hideCommentary=0&showProsp=0&suppressWarning=0&showAllAttributes=1#attrib
title=Criminal Justice Act 1988 + amendments|accessdate=2007-05-09] [ [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aniconism_in_Islam&oldid=106022656 Aniconism in Islam] ] [ [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jyllands-Posten_Muhammad_cartoons_controversy&oldid=129022672#Aniconism Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy#Aniconism] ] due to obscenity or secrecy/classified status, so the corresponding numbers could be illegal.

ee also

*Illegal prime
*AACS encryption key controversy

References

External links

* [http://monolith.sourceforge.net/ Monolith, muddying the waters of the digital copyright debate]
* [http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1154 Why the 09ers Are So Upset]
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* Guadamuz, Andres L., "Trouble with Prime Numbers: DeCSS, DVD and the Protection of Proprietary Encryption Tools" . Journal of Information, Law & Technology, Vol. 3, 2002 Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=569103
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* [http://www.bloggernews.net/16450 ‘Illegal Number’ Triggers Flood of MPAA Cease-and Desist Letters]
* [http://ecyrd.com/ButtUgly/wiki/Main_blogentry_010507_1 Another illegal number]
* [http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/censorship-backfires-thanks-to-mpaa-takedown-notice-illegal-number-becomes-popular-on-diggcom/2007/05/02 Censorship backfires: thanks to MPAA takedown notice “illegal number” becomes popular on digg.com]
* [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/03/19/dvd_descrambler_encoded_in_illegal/ DVD descrambler encoded in ‘illegal’ prime number]