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The Hindenburg and the AACS

There was a bit on NPR this morning about the Hindenburg (today is the 70th anniversary of its crash) and the part of the story that stood out the most to me was that the majority of deaths were caused by people jumping out of the burning ship, rather then staying on-board. Wikipedia has this to say:

Despite the violent fire, most of the crew and passengers survived. Of the 36 passengers and 61 crew, 13 passengers and 22 crew died. Also killed was one member of the ground crew, Navy Linesman Allen Hagaman. Most deaths did not arise from the fire but were suffered by those who leapt from the burning ship. (The lighter-than-air fire burned overhead.) Those passengers who rode the ship on its descent to the ground survived. (Via Wikipedia.)

Its interesting how counter-intuitive it is that riding a burning ship to the ground would be safer. Although perhaps people have learned that lesson. The recent explosion in public mockery of the AACS decryption keys certainly hasn't deterred the HD-DVD crowd from hanging on to a technology that's going down in flames. Calling it a "lost cause" isn't close to capturing the humor in this statement:

Michael Ayers, the chairman of the AACS-LA ... vows to use technical and legal means to shut down the 802,000+ websites that have reproduced the key. (Via BoingBoing "AACS vows to fight people who publish the key".)

Although perhaps the difference is that people like airships... and no one likes DRM.