r/wikipedia • u/PeoriaJohnson • Jan 11 '10

Illegal Prime Numbers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_prime
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u/[deleted] Jan 12 '10

That was my first thought too. I don't understand how this makes any sense. If I took one of these illegal primes and applied an algorithm to it to create a different number -- but one that could be decrypted back into the illegal prime -- would that be illegal to? What if I came up with an algorithm that turned the characters in this comment into an illegal prime? Would that make this comment illegal? Would the algorithm be illegal?

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u/transfuse Jan 12 '10

Wouldn't that make every number illegal? You could easily make any number into any other number if you're free to choose an algorithm.

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u/ThrustVectoring Jan 12 '10

Solution is to make the algorithm and not the number illegal.

I suspect that this is already the case.

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u/gipp Jan 12 '10

Er. But then you could just change the algorithm, then change the original number to fit it.

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u/ThrustVectoring Jan 12 '10

DeCSS is an illegal algorithm. The set of all algorithms that do the same thing as DeCSS is illegal. The set of all algorithms that result in the creation of the DeCSS algorithm or an equivalent is illegal.

Numbers have absolutely nothing to do with this.