The Advanced Access Content System (AACS) is a copy protection technology used by the motion picture and software industries in order to prevent unauthorized duplication and redistribution of copyrighted content. The system works by encoding information in such a way that it must be decrypted using various code keys in order to be played or displayed; said keys are wired into certain devices and media players directly and not made available for public use, lest a consumer extract information, such as a film or a computer game, to resell privately without the manufacturer's permission.
In early 2007, one such key surfaced on various Internet technology and digital media forums, containing the appropriate tools required to access and copy the information encoded on high-definition DVD and Blu-Ray optical video discs. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the consortium administrating AACS demanded that websites cease publishing the key or providing links to information about it, in compliance with the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Certain sites removed the information, but the Internet community at large persisted in distributing it in great numbers in the name of free speech, defiantly blanketing common channels with the very information that was meant to be suppressed.
Although defenders of the DMCA maintained that the released key, known for short as 09 F9, encouraged widespread copyright infringement, the counter-argument was aided by a fascinating loophole in the nature of the key itself, which is a 128-bit hexadecimal number. Any information encoded in binary format – condensed into a lengthy series of ones and zeroes, or bits – can, in principle, be stretched back into a very long number, meaning that to outlaw possession or propagation of a trade secret (such as an encryption key) or classified information in digital form is, in essence, to make a certain number illegal. If publishing a key for copying high-definition DVDs is an unambiguous violation of copyright law, using a 38-digit number that also happens to encode that key is much more of a gray area, and one with no real legal precedent.
While the controversy surrounding 09 F9 aired a longstanding discontent on the part of the technological community with the provisions of the DMCA, the AACS-related outcry represents more than an objection to overly stringent copyright law: a collective bristling at the notion that something as elemental as an integer can be owned, in a private and legally binding sense, by a company is the philosophical crux of the issue, and that which will make it so difficult to resolve.
1. The author's purpose in this passage is to:(A) expose an unanticipated flaw in a common copy protection technology.
(B) clarify an ambiguous legal and philosophical loophole in American copyright law.
(C) criticize the overly restrictive modalities that led to widespread Internet protest.
(D) opine that modern copyright law must change to accommodate new technologies.
(E) shed light on a paradoxical feature of regulating digital media distribution.
2. Which of the following best describes the structure of the passage?(A) Description of a problem followed by various proposed solutions
(B) Consideration of a philosophical issue alongside a concrete example
(C) Anecdote followed by consideration of its historical implications
(D) General legal discussion preceded by specific technical background
(E) Context of an issue and then inquiry into the details of one stance
3. All of the following can be concluded from the passage except:(A) It is in the best interest of the MPAA that the DMCA be observed.
(B) DMCA regulations are unpopular among many Internet users.
(C) The AACS encryption key copyright controversy is unprecedented.
(D) Any set of digitally encoded information is technically an integer.
(E) AACS is a relatively new copy protection standard.
4. Which of the following would not be an example of a DMCA violation?(A) A bootleg copy of an advance promotional copy of a music album
(B) An Internet post of a deleted scene from a special-edition DVD
(C) A duplicate of a photo-editing software program made free of charge
(D) A version of a computer game copied from a retail CD and sold to friends
(E) A home-video capture of a movie recently released in theaters