Current & Past Events
The Colour of Concealment
A 32-digit number, a code shared online to make illegal copies of encrypted HD DVDs, recently came to the attention of the worldwide media when the Motion Picture Association of America began forcing websites to take down any web pages containing the code. Hackers and free speech activists argued that an ordinary number cannot be made illegal, and began distributing the number through a variety of techniques, which are undetectable to web searches conducted by the MPAA. The many methods of concealment include the conversion of the code into a chromatic spectrum and an embedding of the numbers in songs, photographs, and videos distributed on flickr and youtube. This talk discusses some of the ingenious, humorous, and bizarre ways in which this putatively illegal number has spread, and situates this case with other instances of activist practices (e.g. in China) that attempt to sidestep corporate and government censorship.
- host:
- Alan McConchie
- date & time:
- May 16th, 2007 at 7 pm
- location:
- 6363 Stores Road Studio 2A University of British Columbia
- contact:
- [info@colourschool.org]
Host Biographies
Alan McConchie is a MSc student in the department of Geography at the University of British Columbia. His current research explores the critical and emancipatory potential of web mashups and mapping on the internet. He is the author of the popular linguistic mapsite PopVsSoda.com.