A reference to the AACS Cryptographic Key Controversy of April 2007, during which an encryption key used for HD DVD and Blu-ray discs was discovered and publicized.

The flag is designed to carry the cryptographic key, encoded as two digits in white and a series of color stripes. The digits represent the first byte of the key while each color stripe's hex value contains 3 bytes of the key (bytes 2 through 16) in sequence from left to right.

This is a redesign of a previous Free Speech Flag circulated online which encodes the first 15 bytes as color, rendering the 16th byte as text. This redesign yields a more vibrant palette and makes the first byte human-readable as text, rather than the last, improving recognition of the key which is often referred to as "09 F9" for short. The "09" is positioned nine pixels to the left and nine pixels down from the upper-left-hand origin. It is set in Microgramma, the typeface used frequently in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Word.