• Clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    54
    ·
    15 hours ago

    09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

    A cryptographic key for Blu-Rays. The MPAA used to send out C&Ds and DMCA takedowns left and right to hide this code.

    • Jerkface (any/all)@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      4 hours ago

      Copyright is civil, not criminal. Oh but I guess the DMCA added some criminal elements… Still, requires more than posting a string of octets.

  • Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    15
    ·
    14 hours ago

    Instructions how to build a nuclear bomb.

    They have been so very illegal during the very first years of the internet that the scanning of content by police and 3 letter agencies was invented especially because of that.

    Then many people made fun of the fact, for example by putting fake hints into the footers of their e-mails or forum posts, and maybe this was the beginning of all memes.

  • jrs100000@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    15
    ·
    16 hours ago

    War plans. Classified information in general will cause some trouble, but mostly for the person who leaked it. War plans, on the other hand, will be recovered by any means necessary, up to and including lethal force without warning.

    • Hugin@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      13 hours ago

      Or accessing it if you have a security clearance. I’m not allowed the look at any of the documents Snowden leaked. Because even though they are easily obtained they have not been declasified. I don’t have a need to know or the necessary SC.

  • jbrjake@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    45
    ·
    19 hours ago

    When the first DVD cracking util was released, DeCSS, it violated the DMCA and people were getting sued and threatened with felonies for sharing it. Very quickly people figured out loopholes to make it an archivable creative work, like putting it on tshirts and encoding it as a prime number: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_prime

  • DagwoodIII@piefed.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    ·
    17 hours ago

    “Pornography” was illegal to own. Things like abortion information or anything mentioning homosexuality was pornographic.

    • neidu3@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      16
      ·
      19 hours ago

      Not just PGP, but any encryption strength above a certain level was considered “munitions” from a legal standpoint. Because of this, finding a windows Ssh client was a PITA for quite a while.

      • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        18 hours ago

        Wait does imply that other encryption is broken since what would it matter if you used encryption greater than something the government allowed you to

        • Treczoks@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          6 hours ago

          There was a limit on key strength at 40 bits. Americans were allowed 56 bits (OK, they didn’t really get the full 56 bits, but that is another story). The Electronic Frontier Foundation built “Deep Crack” in 1998, a custom machine that broke the 56 bit DES in two seconds, so it probably would have taken them 1/8 second to crack the 40 bit. This happened when the ban was still active.

          This led to two movements: creative export and hosting of >40 bit algorithms outside the US, and development of better algorithms outside the US, like Rijndaal, SERPENT, IDEA, E2, and other non-US AES-candidates.

        • neidu3@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          edit-2
          16 hours ago

          Nah, this was ages ago. I don’t remember the exact encryption strength, but it was pretty low, even by yesteryear standards. This was a remnant from when cryptography was ruled by whichever government could find the biggest autistic savant.

          • Em Adespoton@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            12 hours ago

            I believe the encryption restrictions were relaxed in 1998.

            However, certification for import/export of nuclear weapons and other dangerous goods was still needed for strong encryption (such as phone SIM cards) as recently as 2006. To get on that list of people who could legally transport SIM cards not for personal use over the US border, you needed the same background check and government clearance as someone transporting enriched uranium.

  • BertramDitore@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    19
    ·
    19 hours ago

    High level leaks of classified material is the first example that comes to mind. The raw Wikileaks data, for example, was widely accessible and easily found by anyone with a quick search, and yet possessing that material was technically illegal, because it was never declassified.

    • eightpix@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      17 hours ago

      Julian Assange has something to say about this.

      Edward Snowden has something to say about this.

      Reality Winner has something to say about this.

      Chelsea Manning has something to say about this.

      Woodward and Bernstein had something to say about this.

      • BertramDitore@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        17 hours ago

        No doubt. It being illegal doesn’t mean it wasn’t morally justified and right in most cases. Just means it took more courage and personal risk to do the right thing.

    • Treczoks@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      6 hours ago

      Even the Catholic church does not do that anymore. With some American Evangelicals, I’m not that sure…

  • TheKracken@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    18 hours ago

    I’d say classified documents if you don’t have the clearance and process to legally possess them