Secrets and Lies

Over the past week an online war has been raging that only the geek set and the movie studios really care about. You see someone dicovered one of the keys used to encrypt the content on HD-DVDs. For the uninitiated, HD-DVD is one of two formats (Blue-Ray being the other) currently competing to be the successor to DVD. The content on these disks if encrypted to keep people from being able to easily copy the movies on the disk. The HD-DVD players know the key and are therefore, able to decrypt and play the movie. You computer, for example, may not know the key and not be able to play the movie. As with most content protection schemes, this one was dooned from the start. Someone has already discovered this key and posted it on the Internet. Hollywood lawyers quickly followed up with a threatening cease and desist letter. Aparently, Hollywood doesn't really understand how the Internet works because, once a piece of information is out there, making it go away is nearly impossible. A Google search for the key returned 1,110,000 hits at the time I wrote this.

So, why does all this matter to "regular folks"? Well, what we all need to understand is that the days of keeping secrets are over. What matters to companies most now are customers. If you treat a customer poorly, you risk alienating those other 1,110,000 people as well. If you try to protect your product though obscurity and secrets, you will fail. Litigation will not help, you can't sue 1,110,000 people. The record companies are trying and failing miserably. Companies that embrace transparency will win in the end.

If you're interested in the whole story, you can check out a good Wired article here.