When I buy something and it pisses me off I typically ruin the architecture on which it’s built. For example, when my car broke down I went and desecrated Henry Ford’s grave. Recently, I raped an ancestor of the Earl of Sandwich when I stabbed the roof of my mouth on a hoagie’s toothpick. I mean, why just write a letter with harsh language when you can cause damage and fight fire with nuclear war and pestilence?
Case in point; the work of a computer hacker named "Slyck", a fellow who bypassed the security of HD-DVD because a disc he bought didn’t work. I mean, why return the disc when you can unzip and cockblast the whole format…
From a BBC article about the hacking:
"I’m just an upset customer. My efforts can be called ‘fair use enforcement’," he said.
He said he had grown angry when a HD-DVD movie he had
bought would not play on his monitor because it did not have the
compliant connector demanded by the movie industry.
As part of the copy protection system on high-definition
DVD, content providers can insist that movies will only play correctly
if there are HDMI – or in some specific cases, compliant DVI – ports on
the player and screen as these two connectors can handle the HDCP copy
protection system.
"Not being able to play a movie that I have paid for,
because some executive in Hollywood decided I cannot, made me mad,"
said the hacker."
Let me say that I do not think I’m smarter or better than Slyck even though I have better spelling. I couldn’t hack my way out of a TI99, but I think the chap is just looking for an excuse to fight the power and show off his skills in DOS. And really, is it fighting the power when all you’re doing is attacking a medium whose goal is primarily to entertain people just like Slyck? It’s just typical misspent talent. Like me writing for this site instead of finishing my 2,000 page autobiography of Denise Crosby.
I’m not thusly a fan of BluRay (what Mrs. Charles did) or HD-DVD (what Mrs. Charles whished she could do) but hacking just ain’t the solution. And there is your dose of low rent preaching, courtesy of The Steady Leak.