"205/365" by _rockinfree on Flickr (CC-BY)

On July 30th, a rather curious posting was made on United TI, a forum devoted to discussing Texas Instruments graphing calculators. The post, made by Benjamin Moody — known as “FloppusMaximus” on the site — gave the factors of a very large number. It was quickly deduced to be the RSA modulus of a key — particularly, one needed to sign the OS on a TI calculator — which Moody confirmed:

This one is for the TI-83+.

The TI-83+, like all modern TI calculators, has its OS cryptographically signed by TI for validation purposes; if someone tries to upload an unsigned OS — like, say, an open-source OS — into the calculator, it is rejected. Thus, the discovery of the signing key is a major breakthrough, which ticalc.org, a popular TI calculator site, makes clear:

With this achievement, any operating system can be cryptographically signed in a manner identical to that of the original TI-OS. Third party operating systems can thus be loaded on any 83+ calculators without the use of any extra software…Complete programming freedom has finally been achieved on the TI-83 Plus!

A few days ago, however, the original post was removed and replaced with this:

Dear community,

I have been politely asked to remove the former contents of this post.

No further explanation was given by Moody as to who asked him to remove the key or why it had to be removed. However, Brandon Wilson, a developer who reposted the key on his website, explained:

Ben was hit by TI with a DMCA notice as was I. We of course must comply with whatever is specifically requested, but you can’t stop a group of people from factoring large integers. I will not be silenced.

Wilson has posted the DMCA notice and his reply on his website. Meanwhile, a distributed computing project has been set up to use Moody’s brute-force methods to obtain the keys for all other TI calculators.

It seems pretty clear to me that TI is abusing the DMCA to maintain a stranglehold on their hardware. The key in question does not encrypt the OS, so it’s unclear how the key counts as a device to circumvent access controls on copyrighted works. You don’t need it to obtain a copy of the OS, as copies of the latest OS are freely downloadable on TI’s website. The only thing the keys are useful for is to be able to upload another OS onto the calculator such that it can be installed. One poster on the United TI forum drew parallels between this situation and the situation with iTunesDB, and I think that’s a valid point to make.

TI is not trying to protect their copyright, but merely trying to protect their lockdown on their hardware. If TI is really interested in promoting the education of young people, they should stop trying to harrass others whose only crime was to explore what they could do with the hardware they legally purchased.

• “Fun Number Theory Facts” thread on United TI Forums
• “TI-83 Plus OS Signing Key Cracked” — ticalc.org
• Brandon Wilson’s website containing the DMCA notices

Serial Console - Credit: jmcar on Flickr (CC BY)

Matthew Crippen, a 27 year old student from California, was arrested for hacking video game consoles in violation of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.

“Matthew Crippen was arrested yesterday for hacking game consoles (for profit) in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. He was released on a $5,000 bond, but faces up to 10 years in prison. This is terribly disturbing to me; a man could lose 10 years of his freedom for providing the service of altering hardware. He could well lose much of his freedom for providing a modicum of it to others. There is no piracy going on, necessarily — the games a modified console could run may simply not be signed by the vendor. It’s much like jailbreaking an iPhone. But it seems because he is disabling a ‘circumvention device’ it is a criminal issue. Guess it’s time to kick a few dollars over to the EFF.”

We are now one step closer of turning our world into the dystopian future found in Richard Stallman’s The Right to Read.

• Slashdot

Electronic Waste (Credit : takomabibelot on Flickr CC-BY)

Top mobile telephone suppliers have agreed to back an EU-wide harmonization of phone chargers, the European Commission said on Monday, hailing the pact as good news for consumers and the environment.

“People will not have to throw away their charger whenever they buy a new phone,” said EU Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen, estimating that unwanted phone accessories accounted for thousands of tons of waste in Europe each year.

What about the data transfer and headphone? Doesn’t every second mobile buyer buys/gets a headphone?

• Reuter
• Slashdot

HotHardware reports that id Software has released an official free software port of Wolfenstein 3D for the iPhone. The source code for the port can be downloaded from id’s Web site.

Earlier this week id Software released an iPhone port of Wolfenstein 3D as open source, but at the time it wasn’t in the App Store. Wait no longer, it’s there.

Besides having its own website (which you absolutely have to visit, right?), the game that id Software calls “the grandfather of the FPS at your fingertips” is located here in the App Store.

Sorry, you can’t have everything. While the code has been released as open source, the game itself is a relatively high for the App Store $4.99. But come on: it’s Wolfenstein 3D.

While I detest the iPhone, and really wish id would go ahead and release the media for such an old game under a free license as well, it’s good to hear that their port is free software just like the PC version. Hopefully it will be ported to Android and the FreeRunner soon.

Also, when is id Software releasing id Tech 4?

• HotHardware
• Digg

Michael Geist reports that the Songwriter’s Association of Canada, which in 2007 proposed a blanket music license, has changed their proposal so that the new license is now voluntary rather than compulsory.

The foundation of the proposal remains the same – the creation of a new right of remuneration for music file sharing in return for the consumer freedom to share an unlimited amount of music across all platforms including peer-to-peer networks, mobile devices, instant messaging, and even email. The SAC notes that downloading music for non-commercial purposes is arguably already lawful in Canada due to the private copying levy, but that its proposal would cover more broadly all music file sharing activities.

The most important change to the SAC proposal is that it would now be voluntary for both creators and consumers. Artists could choose to participate, thereby addressing international copyright law concerns about mandated participation. The proposal also envisions providing consumers with the right to opt-out of the plan if they do not share music files. The voluntary approach – which resembles elements of a plan the Electronic Frontier Foundation began promoting in 2003 – should remove the consumer concerns associated with stiff monthly fees for non-music sharers. While some artists may reject the plan, the SAC is betting that most will participate given the opportunity to benefit from a new source of revenue.

Voluntary or compulsory, my feelings on such a license remain the same. See my Choruss post for my commentary on such licensing.

• Michail Geist
• Slashdot

iPod Shuffle 3G. Source: bfishadow on Flickr. License: CC-BY 2.0

Boing Boing’s article on the supposed DRM in Apple’s new iPod Shuffle has been updated, reporting that Apple has stated that the chip does not use encryption or authentication, and is thus not subject to the DMCA’s prohibitions on circumvention.

Update 2: Just spoke with Apple. There is no encryption or authentication on the chip, so clones could conceivably be made, just not with “Made for iPod” official certification. And now we know!

While the move to remove controls from the unit itself still makes the new Shuffle incompatible with just about every set of headphones and anything with a TRS audio cable, at least we can expect a workaround in due time, since third parties do not have to go through Apple first unless they want to bear the “Made for iPod” mark. Hopefully an adapter will be made by someone that contains the controls and allows the customer to use his or her existing headphones or audio cables.

• Boing Boing Gadgets
• Slashdot

Good Gear Guide reports that One Laptop per Child, due to power concerns over the current Geode chip, will be using ARM processors in the XO-2. Unfortunately, they are trying to get Windows ported to the ARM so that it can be offered as an option.

OLPC’s goal is to extend the battery life of the XO-2 laptop while building in more functionality than is in the XO-1, said Ed McNierney, chief technology officer at OLPC. OLPC officials said Arm-based integrated chips will draw less power than x86 integrated chips while building in functionality such as graphics and wireless networking.

However, the Arm chip could lead to problems for XO-2 in trying to load a full version of Windows, Negroponte said. As with the XO-1, OLPC wants to offer a dual-boot option on XO-2 where users can choose to load either Linux or a full Windows OS. While Arm processors can run Windows Mobile operating systems, they can’t run a full Windows OS.

“Like many, we are urging Microsoft to make Windows — not Windows Mobile — available on the Arm. This is a complex question for them,” Negroponte said.

OLPC is in talks with Microsoft to develop a version of a full Windows OS for XO-2, Negroponte said. The XO-2 is still 18 months away from release, so “a lot can change with regard to Microsoft and Arm,” Negroponte said.

I doubt Windows is likely to be ported to ARM anytime soon, seeing as previous ports of Windows NT to other architectures failed to gather support due to developers not porting their software to the other architectures.

• Good Gear Guide
• Slashdot

"Money Clip Shuffle" by re-ality on Flickr (CC-BY)

Apple’s third iteration of the iPod Shuffle contains a nasty surprise for consumers — headphones with DRM:

[...]the new shuffle doesn’t fully work with any headphones except Apple’s. Because of what Apple has done here—something sneaky and arguably terrible for consumers, especially if it continues with other iPod and iPhone products in 2009—if you plug your old third-party headphones of any sort into the new shuffle, you’ll find that you can’t do anything with the device other than have it continuously play music, without volume controls or interruption, unless of course of you turn it off. Surprise: the only third-party headphones that will work are ones that haven’t even entered manufacturing yet, because they’ll need to contain yet another new Apple authentication chip, which will add to their price.

The EFF remarked on how little this had been covered by other reviewers:

One final thought: why have so many of the reviews of iPods failed to notice the proliferation of these Apple “authentication chips”? If it were Microsoft demanding that computer peripherals all include Microsoft “authentication chips” in order to work with Windows (or Toyota or Ford doing the same for replacement parts), I’d think reviewers would be screaming about it.

Yes, and rightfully so. Granted, Apple’s pulled shenanigans like this before, but having one pair of headphones just for your iPod Shuffle and one pair for everything else is ridiculous. Maybe people are becoming accustomed to being treated like crap by Apple. That’s a dangerous thought in and of itself.

• iLounge review pointing out the DRM (first paragraph after the second picture)
• EFF Commentary on the DRM

T-Mobile G1. Source: jonathansin on Flickr. License: CC-BY-SA 2.0

Macworld reports that the unlocked version of the T-Mobile G1 is not permitted to access Google’s Android Market.

Last week, Google employees began replying to questions people posted on the Android Market Help Web site about being unable to see copy protected applications in the store. “If you’re using an unlocked, developer phone, you’ll be unable to view any copy-protected application,” wrote Google employee Ash on the help site in reply to a user’s question on Friday. “This is a change that was made recently.”

While Google offered only slim details about why it made the change, it could be an attempt to close a loophole that reportedly allows users of the unlocked phone to download paid applications for free. “The Developer version of the G1 is designed to give developers complete flexibility,” Google said in a statement. “These phones give developers of handset software full permissions to all aspects of the device… We aren’t distributing copy protected applications to these phones in order to minimize unauthorized copy of the applications.”

The Android Market has DRM? What’s the point of having a free software operating system on an un-crippled phone if your downloads have DRM on them?

• Macworld
• Digg

TomTom. Source: Mr ATM on Flickr. License: CC-BY 2.0

TechFlash reports that Microsoft has sued GPS manufacturer TomTom for patent infringement. Some of these patents have to do with TomTom’s implementation of Linux.

Five of the patents in dispute relate to in-car navigation technologies, while the other three involve file-management techniques. Gutierrez said Microsoft has reached licensing agreements with with other in-car navigation vendors over the same patents, and it remains open to “quickly resolving” the TomTom dispute through licensing.

Microsoft has said previously that Linux and other open-source programs violate more than 200 of its patents — elevating the tension that has long existed between Microsoft and the open-source community. Asked if this TomTom case is the start of a broader legal campaign over those alleged violations, Gutierrez said no.

Well, we’ll have to just wait and see.

• TechFlash [Print version]
• Slashdot