A very interesting number. The first time I learned about it was through this Youtube video https://youtu.be/LnEyjwdoj7g.
Illegal Prime Number? (2001)
31–40 of 47 posts
Re: Illegal Prime Number? (2001)
#32tl;dr- Programming code serialized to binary seems like a Base-2 number to them, so they were looking for "illegal" C scripts that would be prime when read as a Base-2 number. They give the example of a C script that breaks an old DRM crypto scheme. It seems kinda silly since primes have a fairly regular distribution, so all they need to do is: 1. Pick any program they want to be "prime". 2. Serialize it and check if…
Step 2 (checking if huge numbers are prime) is a hard problem.
Additionally, the author wanted to find a prime that encoded the program that was also notable for some other reason (to give people a legitimate pretext to host it). He decided to try to make it one of the largest primes ever discovered, and it was, though it no longer is.
Re: Illegal Prime Number? (2001)
#33tl;dr- Programming code serialized to binary seems like a Base-2 number to them, so they were looking for "illegal" C scripts that would be prime when read as a Base-2 number. They give the example of a C script that breaks an old DRM crypto scheme. It seems kinda silly since primes have a fairly regular distribution, so all they need to do is: 1. Pick any program they want to be "prime". 2. Serialize it and check if…
Step 2 (checking if huge numbers are prime) is a hard problem. Additionally, the author wanted to find a prime that encoded the program that was also notable for some other reason (to give people a legitimate pretext to host it). He decided to try to make it one of the largest primes ever discovered, and it was, though it no longer is.
FYI, prime number test can be done in determining polynomial time (instead of NP). So it is not a hard problem.
Re: Illegal Prime Number? (2001)
#34Some context for people younger than me: This was a Big Thing On The Internet back in 2000. It was lovely, and it was where I discovered how a bunch of motivated nerds on the internet could make a dent. So anyway, the thing was DVDs were pretty new, and DVDs had "region protection". Cutting corners, this means that data on DVDs could be encrypted with different keys depending on which continent you were on, to allow…
Sadly the region lock thing still exists in blue ray age.
Re: Illegal Prime Number? (2001)
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Another aspect you didn't mention is how the number came to be illegal in the first place. The law for it was signed in 1998 and is one of very few laws that outlaws distributing information regardless of how you got the information. It outlaws bypassing any DRM, regardless of how trivial it is mathematically, the legitimate purpose of doing so, or even whether the content inside the DRM is copyrighted.
Yes. > > You could change the "region" on your DVD player or computer, but only 3 times or so. Before this law the shops selling DVD players (for TVs, not computers) would also give you a sheet of paper with a controller code to turn your machine into a region free player. You'd tap some numbers into the remote control. After these laws (which were introduced across the world) shops would no loner do this because it…
Most "normal" TV-compatible DVD players, in the US, at least, were region-locked and had no way to change region (or at least, no such information was distributed with them).
Region-free players existed, mostly from sketchy/low-end sources.
Re: Illegal Prime Number? (2001)
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
I recall a version that was an ascii string that you could save as a file with a .zip extension and it would unzip into the source.
And I remember someone was selling t-shirts with that string!
I had the RSA "this shirt is a munition" t-shirt that was technically illegal to take outside of the United States due to export controls.
Though, it wasn't 1/100th as ugly as this block of graffiti spam.
Re: Illegal Prime Number? (2001)
#37pi, e, √2 are thought to be normal [0], which would make them Disjunctive sequences [1]. This means that every finite string appears as a substring in them, including for example all Shakespeare works, and the ADN of every person [2]. In particular they contain this illegal prime number, and the gzipped and non-gzipped versions of this program in every programming language possible. Does that mean that they may becom…
Not to mention there's a full archive of all tentacle porn ever produced in there.
Re: Illegal Prime Number? (2001)
#38pi, e, √2 are thought to be normal [0], which would make them Disjunctive sequences [1]. This means that every finite string appears as a substring in them, including for example all Shakespeare works, and the ADN of every person [2]. In particular they contain this illegal prime number, and the gzipped and non-gzipped versions of this program in every programming language possible. Does that mean that they may becom…
Nah.
What does it mean to "contain" information?
These discussions often use an implicit definition "if you enumerate an infinite series of digits according to some rule, you will eventually generate any arbitrary string". But that'll never fly legally. Under this definition, the boring old system of counting up from 0 also "contains" every number, and in fact is a much more efficient system for doing so. Pickover's pi-based mysticism loses its magic a bit!
On the other hand, the practical, everyday sense is "meaningful information can be extracted, with an input of information very much smaller". Hard drive images "contain" files, requiring only a few dozen bytes to specify which one. Encrypted files likewise generally only require a few dozen bits to recover. This is much more legally relevant, as it allows the possessor of the "container" to act on its contents.
Pi does not qualify, as the index to any meaningful information in its digits will be far larger than the information itself. Writing "pi" on the back of my hand will not help me cheat on my Shakespeare exam. It's merely a highly inefficient coding scheme.
Re: Illegal Prime Number? (2001)
#39Some context for people younger than me: This was a Big Thing On The Internet back in 2000. It was lovely, and it was where I discovered how a bunch of motivated nerds on the internet could make a dent. So anyway, the thing was DVDs were pretty new, and DVDs had "region protection". Cutting corners, this means that data on DVDs could be encrypted with different keys depending on which continent you were on, to allow…
> This was a Big Thing On The Internet back in 2000 . . . before the Pirate Bay, broadband, and Netflix. Just a nitpick, but this was not before Netflix; I remember this vividly because I was called to a friend's house to troubleshoot their problems with Netflix DVDs and it was because their DVD player had been purchased off ebay for cheap and was region-locked. The super-cheap DVD rentals offered by Netflix were rea…
I'd never have guessed that. Netflix must have been around for quite a while before it became a big thing.
Re: Illegal Prime Number? (2001)
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This was a Big Thing On The Internet back in 2000 . . . before the Pirate Bay, broadband, and Netflix. Just a nitpick, but this was not before Netflix; I remember this vividly because I was called to a friend's house to troubleshoot their problems with Netflix DVDs and it was because their DVD player had been purchased off ebay for cheap and was region-locked. The super-cheap DVD rentals offered by Netflix were rea…
I'd never have guessed that. Netflix must have been around for quite a while before it became a big thing.
This was circulating on Twitter this week:
https://twitter.com/JonErlichman/status/947909247836319744
Here's how old these companies will be turning in 2018:
Snapchat: 7 years
Uber: 9 years
Twitter: 12 years
Facebook: 14 years
Tesla: 15 years
Google: 20 years
Netflix: 21 years
Amazon: 24 years
Apple: 42 years
Intel: 50 years
HP: 79 years
Disney: 95 years
IBM: 107 years