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
    1483·
    1 year 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
        741·
        1 year 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.

  • Ret2libsanity@infosec.pubEnglish
    1151·
    1 year 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
      78·
      1 year ago

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

    • a1studmuffin@aussie.zoneEnglish
      231·
      1 year 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.

      • ngdev@lemmy.worldEnglish
        32·
        1 year ago

        I think they just stare at it, hoping the vulnerabilities come to them in a moment of revelation. A Linux Joseph Smith, the kernel playing the part of the Golden Plates.

      • Ret2libsanity@infosec.pubEnglish
        20·
        1 year ago

        Professionally

        My title is senior vulnerability researcher. Focus on mobile devices. That’s all I can really say without doxing too much

        But the Linux kernel is always a juicy target because of the coverage and exploit there gets you.

        • crbn@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          3·
          1 year ago

          Neat. Why is Linux kernel relevant for many mobile users? Is iPhone built off of it the same way Mac OS is?

          What do you mean by coverage and exploit?

          • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.socialEnglish
            11·
            1 year ago

            MacOS and iOS have Darwin as their base, which is really a mutt. Apple started with the NeXTSTEP kernel, which was a mix of 4.3BSD and Mach, then folded in some FreeBSD, other open source components, and some in-house code.

            It’s Android that uses the Linux kernel as its base, and the millions of phones makes it a juicy target.

            • crbn@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
              12·
              1 year ago

              Not too surprising that iOS has linux in its DNA, but never realized Android does too. Always assumed it was more windows-based. Good to know.

              • kbotc@lemmy.worldEnglish
                4·
                1 year ago

                iOS doesn’t have any Linux.

                FreeBSD is not Linux. Linux is a kernel and Apple uses Mach, a different kernel. They do both share that they’re POSIX, but OS X is actual, factual, UNIX, and Linux has never paid the money to qualify.

                • crbn@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
                  1·
                  1 year ago

                  My bad I’m conflating bash and Unix. From my end both apple and Linux use bash so they have the same underlying base…but I realize that’s not accurate, and even unix and bash are not synonomous.

                • Butters@lemmywinks.comEnglish
                  1·
                  1 year ago

                  How different is the FreeBSD kernel from the Linux kernel?

                  Like in terms of interfaces, if I were to port a device driver, am I just changing some header files and some constants/enums/ifdefs?

                  Or there’s like entirely different function signatures / APIs?

    • waigl@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      1 year 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.

  • Kinglink@lemmy.worldEnglish
    943·
    1 year 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·
      1 year 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·
        1 year 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.

    • ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.orgOPEnglish
      1252·
      1 year ago

      I don’t know. I didn’t do the printing. The law firm did it. But I remember our lawyer mentioning that they fedexed over 20 cartons of printing paper. Assuming 500 sheets per ream and 5 reams per carton, that would be 50,000 sheets, or 100,000 pages since it was printed on both sides to be even more annoying.

    • JackbyDev@programming.devEnglish
      18·
      1 year ago

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

      • TeoTwawki@lemmy.worldEnglish
        151·
        1 year 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
    29·
    1 year 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.

    • Jamie@jamie.moeEnglish
      17·
      1 year 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·
      1 year 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·
    1 year 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·
      1 year 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.