Syndicated Hack Watch Column 02-93 (March 93)
Title: Red Hot Dutch To Be Banned?
This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in a silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands.
William Shakespeare - King Richard II
The porn channel Red Hot Television may well be banned by the UK
government. It is no longer called Red Hot Dutch since it does not
uplink from Holland any more. It now uplinks from Denmark. Some
how the title "Red Hot Danish" would not sound right and it
appears that Continental Television, the owners of Red Hot
Television opted for the more conservative name.
The current feeling among some of the more conservative members of
the UK government is that Red Hot Television is polluting and
corrupting the British public. It is in a sense a cultural
insularity. As you can see from the quotation from Shakespeare's
Richard II, this element of insularity existed even then. Perhaps
these people are the victims of selective amnesia.
Shakespeare's writings were often of a more colourful nature than
these people would ever care to admit. The reason that this
information is not immediately obvious is because it requires some
knowledge of the slang of Shakespeare's time. Regicide and
homicide. Sex and politics. If Shakespeare was around today he
would probably be working in Hollywood.
The prime minister of the UK mentioned in a speech recently that
the UK had a thousand years of history to be proud of. A thousand
years? What happened to the other thousands of years? The years of
Celtic history, of Roman history, of Anglo-Saxon history? It seems
that this thousand years of history began with the Norman invasion
of Britain.
This culture of which the British are proud is a tapestry woven
from the threads of many cultures. The epic Beowulf, reckoned to
be the first epic in the Anglo-Saxon language is actually based on
the Irish epic Tain Bo Fraic. The Anglo-Saxon king who wrote
Beowulf was educated in Ireland. Throughout England, the Celtic,
Roman, Anglo-Saxon and Norman influences can be seen in the
landscape and heard in the everyday speech. Other influences from
subsequent migrations are also making themselves felt.
Seen in the light of the previous paragraphs, the arguments in
favour of maintaining cultural sanctity by banning Red Hot
Television is not logical. But then the psychology of human beings
is never logical. Many of those in favour of banning it are male
and either in or past their forties.
Of course there are other arguments in favour of banning the
channel. Some of these are based on the fact that the movies are
exploitational and immoral. In the background you can almost hear
that great moralist Saint Augustine feverishly indenting
parchment. Interestingly enough Saint Augustine became extremely
moral when after a life of debauchery he was afflicted with
impotence.
Legally, the UK Government are on even thinner ice. If they
proscribe Red Hot Television, they are, in the opinion of some
legal experts, in contravention of EC law. The situation may arise
that while it might be legal to ban Red Hot Television under UK
law, it would be illegal for the UK government to ban the channel
under EC law. EC law has precedent over national law.
However, the EC may chose to allow the UK government to interpret
the law in a flexible fashion. In the light of the present
situation, it would be stupid for the UK government to ban Red Hot
Television. By forcing the channel underground, they would cause
the viewing figures to mushroom. Now if they were clever, they
would create a new tax.
The programming on Red Hot Television is definitely hard core
porn, one viewer referred to it as zero-simulation programming. In
its defence it could be argued that there is a similar level of
programming available via TV1000 or Canal Plus.
Title: The Advent Of Opt Out
While in the United States, local advertising on cablenets is the
norm, it is relatively new in Europe. Perhaps there is an
exception in the UK. The Independent Television Franchises in the
UK who sometimes slot in advertising during networked programmes.
Cablelink are awaiting the licence from the Irish Government to
sell opt out advertising time on various channels. Apparently Sky
One and Sky News will be restored to the Cablelink cable and MMDS
nets after this licence is granted. Cablelink will then sell
advertising time which will be inserted in place of the UK
originated adverts.
Among the subscribers on Cablelink's nets Sky One is sorely
missed. Sky One however is not considered that much of a loss and
many people would prefer CNN.
The likelihood of Cablelink being granted a licence to sell opt
out advertising may have increased. The advertising revenue cap
that the Broadcasting Act had placed on the state monopoly
broadcaster, RTE has been removed. There are also some rumours
that RTE is thinking about running a channel on ASTRA.
Title: Red Hot Television To Scramble With Enigma on March 20th
Red Hot Television will introduce its new Enigma 1 scrambling
system on March 20th. The new scrambling system is based on line
video cut and rotate scrambling and is believed to have other
elements that have not yet been announced.
At one stage it was considered that Red Hot Television would use
the Cryptovision scrambling system. There has been no reason given
for Red Hot Television's choice of system. Some hackers believe
that the reason could be connected with the present deployment of
Cryptovision. This system is used in Scandinavia on cablenets and
also in Ireland on the Cablelink cable and MMDS nets. With a
potential pirate market of some 200,000 decoders in Ireland, the
system could become the target of a hack. At present the main
deterrent in Ireland is the fact that hacking a cable system for
the purposes of commercial piracy is a crime punishable by a fine
of twenty thousand pounds and or a two year prison sentence.
Anyway the Irish hackers are currently more concerned with hacking
satellite borne channels as the law does not cover these channels.
Title: Card Tricks EuroCrypt Update
It appears that the Card Tricks Pseudo Card has greatly disturbed
FilmNet and TV1000. The response from the would-be viewing public
was phenomenal. The release date for the P-card is now March. The
sheer quantity of orders has caused a backlog.
What is now apparent is that the EuroCrypt card system has been
compromised. The EuroCrypt system was based on the concept of the
detachable secure microcontroller. This concept is a good concept
though any hack on such a system would be catastrophic.
There are three types of hack; non-critical, critical and
catastrophic. A non-critical hack can be rapidly overcome by a
slight modification to the system and often has a lifetime of a
few weeks. A critical hack is naturally more dangerous. While it
does attack the very heart of the system, it is possible for the
system to recover. The catastrophic hack is perhaps the most
dangerous for a system. In order for the system to recover, an
element or indeed the complete system has to undergo a redesign.
The hack on the EuroCrypt system can be designated a catastrophic
hack. The central element of the EuroCrypt system, namely the
smart card, must now be redesigned. This would not be a major task
as it would involve replacing the existing EPROM card with an
EEPROM card. The problem here is that the control word generation
algorithms and the HASH algorithms have to be rewritten.
The new smart cards will be EEPROM and therefore slightly more
secure than the EPROM type that has just been hacked. One thing is
certain, those associated with the EuroCrypt system will never
again have such blind faith in the system.