In 2000, I wrote a Linux device driver that “decrypted” the output of a certain device, and my company, which hosted open-source projects, agreed to host it.

The “encryption” was only a XOR, but that was enough for the maker of said device to sue my company under 17 U.S.C. § 1201 for hundreds of millions in damages.

The story got a lot of press back then because it highlighted how stupid the then-new DMCA was, and also because there was a David open-source enthusiasts vs. Goliath heartless corporation flavor to it.

Our lawyer decided to pick up the fight to generate free publicity for our fledgling company. For discovery, the maker of the device requested “a copy of any and all potentially infringing source code”. They weren’t specific and they didn’t specify the medium.

So we printed the entire Linux kernel source code including my driver in 5-pt font and sent them the boxes of printouts. Legally they had been served, so there was nothing they could do about it.

  • CheshireSnake@iusearchlinux.fyiEnglish
    1513·
    11 months ago

    So we printed the entire Linux kernel source code including my driver in 5-pt font

    Please tell me you used comic sans.

      • TauZero@mander.xyzEnglish
        761·
        11 months ago

        The year is 2025. A massive geomagnetic storm has fried all forms of technology, wiping out hard drives and solid-state drives alike, and scrambled all backup tapes. Coincidentally, a new plastic-eating bacterium has munched on all the compact discs without anyone noticing.

        Humanity will rebuild…

        The computer chip manufacturing pipeline has been restored, but there is no software to run them. In a dusty office previously owned by a lawyer from a long-defunct dotcom, a treasure trove is discovered. Five metal cabinets filled with paper: the printed Linux kernel source code, in 5-pt comic sans font. One brave soul will enter to transcribe. Mistakes are not an option. We all thank you for your sacrifice.

      • iks@lemmy.world
        English
        28·
        11 months ago

        Printed in wingdings + given ascii conversion table to decypher

  • Ret2libsanity@infosec.pubEnglish
    1131·
    11 months ago

    I stare at Linux source code very often looking for vulnerabilities.

    I unironically have printed pages out to sit down with.

    The idea of having the whole kernel printed… is… fun. Lol. How would your organize it for reading? Different chapters that are the directories of the kernel code ?

    • MxM111@kbin.social
      79·
      11 months ago

      Why would they organize it in any way? It was not one of the requirements… so, alphabetically.

    • waigl@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      10 months ago

      OP said it happened around the year 2000. Linux was at maybe 2.4.something back then. The kernel was much smaller then than it is today.

    • a1studmuffin 🇦🇺@aussie.zoneEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      I’d love to hear more about this - do you do it professionally (for preventative reasons), as a side hobby, or as an attacker for malicious/selfish reasons? No judgement, genuinely curious as it takes a certain personality type to do this kind of work and I find it really interesting.

  • Kinglink@lemmy.worldEnglish
    923·
    11 months ago

    Legally they had been served, so there was nothing they could do about it.

    Somehow I doubt this.

    Maybe it’s true but legally I know in California you are required to do your briefs in 12 point font. While that’s briefs, I would imagine evidence would be under the same banner. It definitely WOULD be illegal to do it in 1 pt font or intentionally making it unreadable. I would imagine if the other side wanted to make it an issue they could back to the judge and he’s probably have it out with you.

    Maybe the lawyers wisely replaced your malicious compliance with correct sized print with out telling you, maybe the other side didn’t care.

    • FeliXTV27@feddit.chEnglish
      431·
      11 months ago

      I don’t think the font size matters too much in this, it’s just the printing the whole source code, including a lot of not directly relevant things, and sending all of that over in a few boxes instead of sharing the project files with them that is very malicious.

      • rumckle@lemmy.worldEnglish
        22·
        11 months ago

        It’s also very common in legal cases to share evidence printed out, instead of in digitally, to make sure it isn’t easy for the other side.

    • JackbyDev@programming.devEnglish
      18·
      11 months ago

      The irony is that nowadays you could just say “well, the codes open source and all hosted on GitHub…”

      • TeoTwawki@lemmy.worldEnglish
        141·
        11 months ago

        Double irony is they’d also send a takedown to github claiming the code contains their IP due to being too ignorant to comprehend that none of the code contains any of thiers to do what it does

  • WhoRoger@lemmy.worldEnglish
    27·
    11 months ago

    I was a tech journalist in the early 00’s and I remember writing about that story or one like that.

    A similar thing happened with Microsoft, who either delivered or was served the full documentation of some office format printed out. It’s a pretty popular form of malicious compliance, also paying people in bags of coins.

  • csm10495@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    23·
    11 months ago

    Please tell me all the newlines were removed from the source code and it was minified to save paper.

    • Jamie@jamie.moeEnglish
      18·
      11 months ago

      Oh man, if you gave a programmer minified C code with no comments, whitespace, or newlines in printed paper, they’d probably charge more than your lawyer to read that shit.

    • Blackmist@feddit.ukEnglish
      3·
      11 months ago

      Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time.

      The guy who invented it sounds like a certified nutcase.

      In 2016, Pulitzer appeared as a treasure hunter on The Curse of Oak Island on the History Channel. He searched for the Ark of the Covenant and working with amateur historians from the Ancient Artifact Preservation Society he claimed that a sword found in the waters off Oak Island in Nova Scotia had “magical magnetic properties” and was evidence of Roman presence in North America and contact with the Miꞌkmaq, which a historian of that people dismissed. An archaeologist and a science writer criticized Pulitzer’s claim, suggested the sword was a replica said that Pulitzer threatened to sue them.

      Certainly sounds like the same guy.

  • slazer2au@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    11 months ago

    Legally they had been served, so there was nothing they could do about it.

    Pretty sure the can go to the judge and as you to deliver the information in a more friendly format.

    • fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.comEnglish
      3·
      11 months ago

      Yea, as entertaining as this is, it sounds like they already had the source from the repo and made the request to make sure nothing was being hidden from them (standard discovery). They would have just re-requested in digital format.

  • vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de
    English
    7·
    11 months ago

    “only an xor” would pretty much imply any of most stream ciphers. It’s what you xor with that matters.