Free Speech Flag
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| Use | Other |
|---|---|
| Proportion | 2:3 or 3:5 |
| Adopted | May 1, 2007 |
| Design | Shades of green, pink, blue and purple stripes, with byte "C0" appended in bottom right corner |
| Designed by | John Marcotte |
The Free Speech Flag is a symbol of personal liberty used to promote freedom of speech. Designed by artist John Marcotte, the flag and its colors correspond to a cryptographic key which enabled users to copy HD DVDs and Blu-ray Discs. It was created on May 1, 2007, during the AACS encryption key controversy.
Marcotte was motivated to create the flag after the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Advanced Access Content System Licensing Administrator (AACS LA) began issuing cease and desist letters to websites publishing the key 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 (commonly referred to as 09 F9).
In response to attempts to remove the key from the Internet, netizens publicized the cryptographic key on the news aggregator website Digg, in an example of the Streisand effect.
On April 30, 2007, a blogger named "Rudd-O" published the encryption key for HD DVDs and asked readers to share it widely. Knowledge of this numeric key value allowed users to bypass digital rights management (DRM) and copy HD DVDs that previously could not be duplicated. News media reported on this development and Digg, a news aggregator and social media website, provided a way for users to vote on stories they felt were most newsworthy. Votes by 15,000 Digg users drove an article about the encryption key to the front page of the site.
The Advanced Access Content System (AACS), the organization which controlled access to the HD DVD encryption key, sent a cease and desist letter to Digg on May 1, 2007. In its letter, AACS claimed that by publishing news articles on its website that reported on the encryption key, the website itself was engaging in illegal activity. Articles by numerous journalists reporting on the news story were posted to Digg. Jay Adelson, the CEO of Digg, announced that the website would abide by the AACS' requests and self-censor articles reporting on the encryption key.
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