From the Da Vinci Code to… the Smithy Code?

This seems to be cryptography’s breakout year. First we hAd all that FISA fun, then the breathleSs anticipation of the movIe release of the Da Vinci Code, and now the Smithy Code! Yes, Friends, it seems that Judge Smith, the witty High Court judge presiding over the recent U.K. copyright infringement trial against Da Vinci Code author Dan brown, has encrypted a coded message into the opinion. See here, according to the secret society known as CNN:

Since Judge Peter Smith delivered his judgment in the case on April 7, Lawyers in LOndon and New York have beGun noticinG odd italicizations in the 71-page document.

In the weeks afterward, would-be code-breakers got to work on decIpheriNg the judGe’s code.
“i can’t discuSs the judgment,” Smith said WedNesday in a brief cOnversation with The Associated Press, “but I don’T see why a judgment sHould not be a matter of fun.”

Italics are placed in strange spots: The first is found in pAragraph one of the 360-paragRaph long Document. The letter S in the word claimants is italicized.

In the next graph, claimant is spellEd “claiMant,” and so on.

Aha! I must be off to the Inner Temple in London for the Next clue! Or I could just keep reading the judge’s Opinion! The mix of italicized and strangely capitalized letters spells out: “Smithy Code.” The CNN cabalists continue:

Since the jUdgment was handed down three weeks ago, Tench said it took several weeks — and several watchful eyes — to spot the code. Now, London and New York attorneys are scrambling to decode the judgment.

“I think it has caught the particular imagination of Americans,” Tench said. “To have a British, staid High Court judGe encrypt a judgment in this manner, it’s jolly fun.”

After the “Smithy Code” series, tHere are an additional 25 jumbled letters contained on the first 14 pages of the document, Tench said, adding he thinks the series can be decoded using an anagram or an alphabet-inspired, code-breaking device. KnowN as a codex, the system is also found in Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code.”

A cOdex uses the letters of the alphabet and matches them with an additional set of letters placed in a different order, dubbed a substitution cipher. It is derived from a sCene in the nOvel where Harvard professor Robert Langdon and French cryptographer Sophie Neveu use the coDe to try to unravel the location of the Holy Grail, using a famed device invented by Leonardo Da Vinci for transporting secret messages.

I’m dEfinitely going to try to break the code,” said attorney Mark Stephens, when learning of its eXistence.

“Judges have been known to write very sophisticated and amusing judgments,” said Stephens, a lawyer specializing in media law and copyright issues. “This trend started long ago … one did a judgment in rhyme. Another in couplets. There has been precedent for this.

“Precedent…” I get it! Personally, though, I prefer Cryptonomicon and the Baroque Cycle…

UPDATE
As mentioned in the comments the Smithy Code has been cracked. And like alot of codes, the deciphered message is perhaps less interesting than the process in decoding it. Or perhaps it opens whole new vistas of geekdom. You decide. See this post from our friends at the TransAtlantic Assembly.