Secure Print Release System — Complete Documentation & Simulation

Overview & System Context

Secure Print Release System: Comprehensive Web-Sourced Technical Investigation Exhaustive Research Dossier · Pure Web-Scraped Content: ~8924 Words · Real Software Screenshots: 3 1. Executive Overview & Technical Background The Secure Remote Password protocol (SRP) is an augmented password-authenticated key exchange (PAKE) protocol, specifically designed to work around existing patents. Like all PAKE protocols, an eavesdropper or man in the middle cannot obtain enough information to be able to brute-force guess a password or apply a dictionary attack without further interactions with the parties for each guess. Furthermore, being an augmented PAKE protocol, the server does not store password-equivalent data. This means that an attacker who steals the server data cannot masquerade as the client unless they first perform a brute force search for the password. In layman's terms, during SRP (or any other PAKE protocol) authentication, one party (the "client" or "user") demonstrates to another party (the "server") that they know the password, without sending the password itself nor any other information from which the password can be derived. The password never leaves the client and is unknown to the server. Furthermore, the server also needs to know about the password (but not the password itself) in order to instigate the secure connection. This means that the server also authenticates itself to the client which prevents phishing without reliance on the user parsing complex URLs. The only mathematically proven security property of SRP is that it is equivalent to Diffie-Hellman against a passive attacker. While mature and widely deployed, SRP is an older design with some variants showing subtle weaknesses; it is not UCIsecure, lacks resistance to all precomputation attacks, has weaker formal proofs, and offers no protection against certain modern attack models. For these reasons, SRP is now largely considered superseded. OPAQUE is the preferred augmented PAKE, while CPace or SPAKE2 are favored for balanced PAKE scenarios where both parties share the password.

q and N = 2q + 1 are chosen such that both are prime (which makes q a Sophie Germain prime and N a safe prime). N must be large enough so that computing discrete logarithms modulo N is infeasible. All arithmetic is performed in the ring of integers modulo N, Z N {\displaystyle \scriptstyle \mathbb {Z} _{N}} . This means that below gx should be read as gxmod N g is a generator of the multiplicative group Z N ∗ {\displaystyle \scriptstyle \mathbb {Z} _{N}^{*}} . H() is a hash function; e.g., SHA-256. k is a parameter derived by both sides; in SRP-6, k = 3, while in SRP-6a it is derived from N and g : k = H(N, g). It is used to prevent a 2-for-1 guess when an active attacker impersonates the server. s is a salt. I is an identifying username. p is the user's password. v is the host's password verifier, v = gx where at a minimum x = H(s, p). As x is only computed on the client it is free to choose a stronger algorithm. An implementation could choose to use x = H(s | I | p) without affecting any steps required of the host. The standard RFC2945 defines x = H(s | H ( I | ":" | p) ). Use of I within x avoids a malicious server from being able to learn if two users share the same password. A and B are random one time ephemeral keys of the user and host respectively. | (pipe) denotes concatenation. All other variables are defined in terms of these. First, to establish a password p with server Steve, client Carol picks a random salt s, and computes x = H(s, p), v = gx. Steve stores v and s, indexed by I, as Carol's password verifier and salt. Carol must not share x with anybody, and must safely erase it at this step, because it is equivalent to the plaintext password p. This step is completed before the system is used as part of the user registration with Steve. Note that the salt s is shared and exchanged to negotiate a session key later so the value could be chosen by either side but is done by Carol so that she can register I, s and v in a single registration request. The transmission and authentication of the registration request is not covered in SRP. Then to perform a proof of password at a later date the following exchange protocol occurs: Carol → Steve: generate random value a; send I and A = ga Steve → Carol: generate random value b; send s and B = kv + gb Both: u = H(A, B) Carol: SCarol = (B − kgx)(a + ux) = (kv + gb − kgx)(a + ux) = (kgx − kgx + gb)(a + ux) = (gb)(a + ux) Carol: KCarol = H(SCarol) Steve: SSteve = (Avu)b = (gavu)b = [ga(gx)u]b = (ga + ux)b = (gb)(a + ux) Steve: KSteve = H(SSteve) = KCarol Now the two parties have a shared, strong session key K. To complete authentication, they need to prove to each other that their keys match. One possible way is as follows: Carol → Steve: M1 = H[H(N) XOR H(g) | H(I) | s | A | B | KCarol]. Steve verifies M1. Steve → Carol: M2 = H(A | M1 | KSteve).

Carol verifies M2. This method requires guessing more of the shared state to be successful in impersonation than just the key. While most of the additional state is public, private information could safely be added to the inputs to the hash function, like the server private key. Alternatively, in a password-only proof the calculation of K can be skipped and the shared S proven with: Figure 1: About Secure Print Release | PaperCut Carol → Steve: M1 = H(A | B | SCarol). Steve verifies M1. Steve → Carol: M2 = H(A | M1 | SSteve). Carol verifies M2. When using SRP to negotiate a shared key K which will be immediately used after the negotiation, it is tempting to skip the verification steps of M1 and M2. The server will reject the very first request from the client which it cannot decrypt. This can however be dangerous as demonstrated in the Implementation Pitfalls section below. The two parties also employ the following safeguards: Carol will abort if she receives B = 0 (mod N) or u = 0. Steve will abort if he receives A (mod N) = 0. Carol must show her proof of K (or S) first. If Steve detects that Carol's proof is incorrect, he must abort without showing his own proof of K (or S) 2. System Architecture & Core Working Principles Carol → Steve: generate random value a; send I and A = ga Steve: u = H(A, B); S=Avu; K=H(S) Steve: generate message m and encrypts it to produce c=ENC(K,m) Steve → Carol: generate random value b; send s, B = kv + gb and c Carol doesn't know x or v. But given any password p she can compute: xp = H(salt, p) Sp = (B - kgxp)(a + uxp) Kp = H(Sp) Kp is the key that Steve would use if p was the expected password. All values required to compute Kp are either controlled by Carol or known from the first packet from Steve. Carol can now try to guess the password, generate the corresponding key, and attempt to decrypt Steve's encrypted message c to verify the key.

As protocol messages tend to be structured, it is assumed that identifying that c was properly decrypted is easy. This allows offline recovery of the password. This attack would not be possible had Steve waited for Carol to prove she was able to compute the correct key before sending an encrypted message. Proper implementations of SRP are not affected by this attack as the attacker would be unable to pass the key verification step.

ISO/IEC 11770-4:2006 "Key Agreement Mechanism 2" (calls the method "SRP-6, but has the k calculation of 6a) RFC 5054 TLS-SRP of 2007 (again referred to as "SRP-6", but corrected in erratum) IEEE Std 1363.2-2008 "DLAPKAS-SRP6" (again referred to as "SRP-6") IEEE 1363.2 also includes a description of "SRP5", a variant replacing the discrete logarithm with an elliptic curve contributed by Yongge Wang in 2001. It also describes SRP-3 as found in RFC 2945.

The Encyclopædia Britannica (Latin for 'British Encyclopædia') is a general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published since 1768 and, after several ownership changes, is currently owned by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. The 15th edition, published in 2010, spans 32 volumes and 32,640 pages and was the last printed edition. Since 2016, it has been published online at Britannica.com. Printed for 245 years, the Britannica was the longest-running in-print encyclopaedia in the English language. It was first published between 1768 and 1771 in Edinburgh, Scotland, in weekly instalments that came together to form three volumes. At first, the encyclopaedia grew quickly in size from edition to edition. The second edition expanded to 10 volumes, and by its fourth edition (1801–1810), it had expanded to 20 volumes. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, its size, measured as total word count, has remained roughly steady at about 40 million words. The Britannica has had many notable contributors. The 9th (1875–1889) and 11th editions (1911) are considered landmark encyclopaedias for scholarship and literary style. Following its acquisition in 1901 by an American firm and starting with the 11th edition, the encyclopaedia shortened and simplified articles to broaden its appeal to the North American market. Though published in the United States since 1901, the Britannica has mostly maintained British English spellings. In 1932, the Britannica adopted a policy of "continuous revision," in which the encyclopaedia is continually revised and reprinted, with every article updated on a schedule. The publishers of Compton's Pictured Encyclopedia had already pioneered such a policy.

The 15th edition (1974–2010) has a three-part structure: a 12-volume Micropædia of short articles (generally fewer than 750 words), a 17-volume Macropædia of long articles (two to 310 pages), and a single Propædia volume to give a hierarchical outline of knowledge. The Micropædia was meant for quick fact-checking and as a guide to the Macropædia; readers are advised to study the Propædia outline to understand a subject's context and to find more detailed articles. In the 21st century, Britannica faced competition: initially from the digital and multimedia encyclopaedia Microsoft Encarta, and later from the online mass-collaboration encyclopaedia Wikipedia. While it continued to score well in assessments of overall quality, compared to its competitors, it could not (as an expert-authored compilation of a limited number of articles on important subjects only) match their breadth of coverage and continuous updating. In March 2012, it announced it would no longer publish printed editions and would focus instead on the online version.

Figure 2: Print authentication Past owners have included, in chronological order, the Scottish printers Colin Macfarquhar and Andrew Bell, the Scottish bookseller Archibald Constable, the Scottish publisher A. & C. Black, Horace Everett Hooper, Sears Roebuck, William Benton, and Jacqui Safra, a Swiss billionaire residing in New York. Recent advances in information technology and the rise of electronic encyclopaedias such as Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite, Encarta and Wikipedia have reduced the demand for print encyclopaedias. To remain competitive, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. has stressed the reputation of the Britannica, reduced its price and production costs, and developed electronic versions on CD-ROM, DVD, and the World Wide Web. Since the early 1930s, the company has also promoted spin-off reference works.

In the first era (1st–6th editions, 1768–1824), the Britannica was managed and published by its founders, Colin Macfarquhar and Andrew Bell, and by Archibald Constable. The Britannica was first published in serial instalments between December 1768 and about August 1771 in Edinburgh as the Encyclopædia Britannica, or, A Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, compiled upon a New Plan. The new plan in question was an organizational one, namely to include two kinds of typographically distinct entries (articles and longer "treatises") in a single alphabetical sequence. In principle, "treatises" were to cover the arts and sciences, leaving articles to deal with their subordinate objects. The idea may have been inspired by Dennis de Coetlogon's Universal History of Arts and Sciences, an alphabetical encyclopaedia that contained only treatises. Regardless, the Britannica continued to intermix formally distinguished articles and treatises through the 10th edition. According to Arthur Herman's book How the Scots Invented the Modern World, the Encyclopaedia Britannica is one of the most enduring legacies of the Scottish Enlightenment. It is important to be more specific, however, about how the early Britannica was and was not Scottish and a monument to the Scottish Enlightenment. The two publishers and William Smellie, whom they engaged to compile the work, were all Scots. Much of the first edition was compiled by Smellie from Scottish sources. At the same time, despite working in Edinburgh, the centre of the Scottish Enlightenment, neither Smellie nor James Tytler, the editor of the second edition, arranged for contributions from any local luminaries. Nor does the work seem to have been much noticed by participants in the Scottish Enlightenment before its third edition. Likewise, it is significant that the title chosen was the Encyclopaedia Britannica (and not the Encyclopaedia Scotorum, or 'Scottish Encyclopaedia'). Indeed, by the time of the third edition, the Britannica was starting to evolve into a symbol of Britishness. In this era, the Britannica grew significantly in size, sales, and reputation. Just as important were changes to the way it was compiled and edited. On his tombstone, Smellie was characterized as the editor of the first edition of the Britannica, but he was not an editor in anything like the sense in which Macvey Napier, who edited the Supplement to the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Editions, was. Smellie compiled nearly all the articles in the first edition himself, although we know he had minor help from at least one contributor, James Anderson, who wrote the articles "Dictionary," "Pneumatics," and "Smoke." For the third edition and its Supplement, editors still compiled the bulk of the articles, but they were assisted by dozens of collaborators. We know of thirty-five who wrote for the third edition, for example, some of them named in the preface, including the chemist Joseph Black and the natural philosopher John Robison.

Then, by the time of the Supplement, Napier had become mostly a managing editor. He still wrote some articles, but his main job was recruiting collaborators, for the prospectus stipulated that "the various articles, in the Supplement, shall be written by the most Eminent Men, in the different departments of Science." Several other encyclopaedias competed with the Britannica throughout this period, among them editions of Ephraim Chambers' and Abraham Rees's Cyclopædia, Coleridge's Encyclopædia Metropolitana, and David Brewster's Edinburgh Encyclopædia.

3. Software Implementation, Frameworks & Protocols In the third era (10th–14th editions, 1901–1973), the Britannica was managed by American businessmen who introduced direct marketing and door-to-door sales. The American owners gradually simplified articles, making them less scholarly for a mass market. The 10th edition was an eleven-volume supplement (including one each of maps and an index) to the 9th, numbered as volumes 25–35, but the 11th edition was a completely new work; its owner, Horace Hooper, lavished enormous effort on the project. When Hooper fell into financial difficulties, the Britannica was managed by Sears Roebuck for 18 years (1920–1923, 1928–1943). In 1932, the vice-president of Sears, Elkan Harrison Powell, assumed presidency of the Britannica; in 1936, he began the policy of continuous revision. This was a departure from earlier practice, in which the articles were not changed until a new edition was produced, at roughly 25-year intervals, some articles unchanged from earlier editions. Powell developed new educational products that built upon the Britannica's reputation. In 1943, Sears donated the Encyclopædia Britannica to the University of Chicago. William Benton, then a vice president of the university, provided the working capital for its operation. The stock was divided between Benton and the university, with the university holding an option on the stock.

Benton became chairman of the board and managed the Britannica until his death in 1973. Benton set up the Benton Foundation, which managed the Britannica until 1996, and whose sole beneficiary was the University of Chicago. In 1968, the Britannica celebrated its bicentennial. In the fifth era (1994–present), digital versions have been developed and released on optical media and online. In 1996, the Britannica was bought by Jacqui Safra at well below its estimated value, owing to the company's financial difficulties.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. split in 1999. One part retained the company name and developed the print version, and the other, Britannica.com Incorporated, developed digital versions. Since 2001, the two companies have shared a CEO, Ilan Yeshua, who has continued Powell's strategy of introducing new products with the Britannica name. In March 2012, Britannica's president, Jorge Cauz, announced that it would not produce any new print editions of the encyclopaedia, with the 2010 15th edition being the last. The company will focus only on the online edition and other educational tools. Britannica's final print edition was in 2010, a 32-volume set. Britannica Global Edition was also printed in 2010, containing 30 volumes and 18,251 pages, with 8,500 photographs, maps, flags, and illustrations in smaller "compact" volumes, as well as over 40,000 articles written by scholars from across the world, including Nobel Prize winners. Unlike the 15th edition, it did not contain Macro- and Micropædia sections, but ran A through Z as all editions up through the 14th had. The following is Britannica's description of the work: The editors of Encyclopædia Britannica, the world standard in reference since 1768, present the Britannica Global Edition.

Developed specifically to provide comprehensive and global coverage of the world around us, this unique product contains thousands of timely, relevant, and essential articles drawn from the Encyclopædia Britannica itself, as well as from the Britannica Concise Encyclopedia, the Britannica Encyclopedia of World Religions, and Compton's by Britannica. Written by international experts and scholars, the articles in this collection reflect the standards that have been the hallmark of the leading English-language encyclopedia for over 240 years. In 2020, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. released the Britannica All New Children's Encyclopedia: What We Know and What We Don't, an encyclopaedia aimed primarily at younger readers, covering major topics. The encyclopaedia was widely praised for bringing back the print format. It was Britannica's first encyclopaedia for children since 1984.

The logo of the Britannica has long been a thistle, the floral emblem of Scotland (see also plant badge). From 1985, it consisted of four parts: the Micropædia, the Macropædia, the Propædia, and a two-volume index. The Britannica's articles are contained in the Micro- and Macropædia, which encompass 12 and 17 volumes, respectively, each volume having roughly one thousand pages. The 2007 Macropædia has 699 in-depth articles, ranging in length from two pages to 310 pages, with references and named contributors. In contrast, the 2007 Micropædia has roughly 65,000 articles, the vast majority (about 97%) of which contain fewer than 750 words, no references, and no named contributors. The Micropædia articles are intended for quick fact-checking and to help in finding more thorough information in the Macropædia. The Macropædia articles are meant as authoritative, well-written commentaries on their subjects, as well as storehouses of information not covered elsewhere. The longest article (310 pages) is on the subject of the United States, and it resulted from merging separate articles on the individual US states. A 2013 "Global Edition" of Britannica contained approximately 40,000 articles. Information can be found in the Britannica by following the cross-references in the Micropædia and Macropædia; these are sparse, however, averaging one cross-reference per page. Readers are instead recommended to consult the alphabetical index or the Propædia, which organizes the Britannica's contents by topic. The core of the Propædia is its "Outline of Knowledge", which aims to provide a logical framework for all human knowledge. Accordingly, the Outline is consulted by the Britannica's editors to decide which articles should be included in the Micro- and Macropædia. The Outline can also be used as a study guide, as it puts subjects in their proper perspective and suggests a series of Britannica articles for the student wishing to learn a topic in depth. However, libraries have found that it is scarcely used for this purpose, and reviewers have recommended that it be dropped from the encyclopaedia. The Propædia contains colour transparencies of human anatomy and several appendices listing the staff members, advisors, and contributors to all three parts of the Britannica. Taken together, the Micropædia and Macropædia comprise roughly 40 million words and 24,000 images. The two-volume index has 2,350 pages, listing the 228,274 topics covered in the Britannica, together with 474,675 subentries under those topics. The Britannica generally prefers British spelling over American; for example, it uses colour (not color), centre (not center), and encyclopaedia (not encyclopedia). There are some exceptions to this rule, such as defense rather than defence. Common alternative spellings are provided with cross-references such as "Color: see Colour." Since 1936, the contents (articles) of Britannica have been revised on a regular schedule, with at least 10% of the articles considered for revision each year. According to one Britannica website, 46% of the articles in the 2007 edition were revised over the preceding three years; however, according to another Britannica website, only 35% of the articles were revised over the same period. The alphabetization of articles in the Micropædia and Macropædia follows strict rules. Diacritical marks and non-English letters are ignored, while numerical entries such as "1812, War of" are alphabetized as if the number had been written out ("Eighteen-twelve, War of"). Articles with identical names are ordered first by persons, then by places, then by things. Rulers with identical names are organized first alphabetically by country and then by chronology; thus, Charles III of France precedes Charles I of England, listed in Britannica as the ruler of Great Britain and Ireland. (That is, they are alphabetized as if their titles were "Charles, France, 3" and "Charles, Great Britain and Ireland, 1".) Similarly, places that share names are organized alphabetically by country, then by ever-smaller political divisions. In March 2012, the company announced that the 2010 edition would be the last printed version. This was part of a move by the company to adapt to the times and focus on its future using digital distribution. The peak year for the printed encyclopaedia was 1990, when 120,000 sets were sold, but sales had dropped to 40,000 per annum by 1996. There were 12,000 sets of the 2010 edition printed, of which 8,000 had been sold by March 2012. By late April 2012, the remaining copies of the 2010 edition had sold out at Britannica's online store. As of 2016, a replica of Britannica's 1768 first edition is available via the online store.

Figure 3: Touch-Free Secure Print Release | PaperCut Britannica Junior was first published in 1934 as 12 volumes. It was expanded to 15 volumes in 1947, and renamed Britannica Junior Encyclopædia in 1963. It was taken off the market after the 1984 printing. A British Children's Britannica edited by John Armitage was issued in London in 1960. Its contents were determined largely by the eleven-plus standardized tests given in Britain. Britannica introduced the Children's Britannica to the US market in 1988, aimed at ages seven to 14. In 1961, a 16-volume Young Children's Encyclopaedia was issued for children just learning to read. My First Britannica is aimed at children ages six to 12, and the Britannica Discovery Library is for children aged three to six (issued 1974 to 1991). Compton's by Britannica, first published in 2007, incorporating the former Compton's Encyclopedia, is aimed at 10- to 17-year-olds and consists of 26 volumes and 11,000 pages. There have been, and are, several abridged Britannica encyclopaedias. The single-volume Britannica Concise Encyclopædia has 28,000 short articles condensing the larger 32-volume Britannica; there are authorized translations in languages such as Chinese created by Encyclopedia of China Publishing House and Vietnamese. Since 1938, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. has also published an annual Book of the Year to 'update' the encyclopaedia proper: this covers the past year's events and presents a variety of updated statistics (e.g. as to national populations, Nobel Prize winners, and the like). A given edition of the Book of the Year is named in terms of the year of its publication, though the volume actually covers the events and statistics of the previous year. The company also publishes several specialized reference works, such as Shakespeare: The Essential Guide to the Life and Works of the Bard (2006).

With a temerity almost appalling, [the Britannica contributor, Mr. Philips] ranges over nearly the whole field of European history, political, social, ecclesiastical... The grievance is that [this work] lacks authority. This, too—this reliance on editorial energy instead of on ripe special learning—may, alas, be also counted an "Americanizing": for certainly nothing has so cheapened the scholarship of our American encyclopaedias.

4. Practical Deployment, Analysis & Case Studies As of 2007, in the 15th edition of Britannica, Dale Hoiberg, a sinologist, was listed as Britannica's Senior Vice President and editor-in-chief. Among his predecessors as editors-in-chief were Hugh Chisholm (1902–1924), James Louis Garvin (1926–1932), Franklin Henry Hooper (1932–1938), Walter Yust (1938–1960), Harry Ashmore (1960–1963), Warren E. Preece (1964–1968, 1969–1975), Sir William Haley (1968–1969), Philip W. Goetz (1979–1991), and Robert McHenry (1992–1997).

As of 2007 Anita Wolff was listed as the Deputy Editor and Theodore Pappas as Executive Editor. Prior Executive Editors include John V. Dodge (1950–1964) and Philip W. Goetz. Paul T. Armstrong remains the longest working employee of Encyclopædia Britannica. He began his career there in 1934, eventually earning the positions of treasurer, vice president, and chief financial officer in his 58 years with the company, before retiring in 1992. The 2007 editorial staff of the Britannica included five Senior Editors and nine Associate Editors, supervised by Dale Hoiberg and four others. The editorial staff helped to write the articles of the Micropædia and some sections of the Macropædia.

The main online alternative to Britannica is Wikipedia. The key differences between the two lie in accessibility; the model of participation they bring to an encyclopaedic project; their respective style sheets and editorial policies; relative ages; the number of subjects treated; the number of languages in which articles are written and made available; and their underlying economic models: unlike Britannica, Wikipedia is not-for-profit, does not carry advertising on its site, and is not connected with traditional profit- and contract-based publishing distribution networks. Britannica's articles either have known authorship or a set of possible authors (the editorial staff). With the exception of the editorial staff, most Britannica's contributors are experts in their field—some are Nobel laureates. By contrast, the articles on Wikipedia are written by people of unknown degrees of expertise; most do not claim any particular expertise, and of those who do, many are anonymous and have no verifiable credentials. It is for this lack of institutional vetting or certification that former Britannica editor-in-chief Robert McHenry noted his belief in 2004 that Wikipedia could not hope to rival the Britannica in accuracy. In 2005, the journal Nature chose articles from both websites in a wide range of science topics and sent them to what it called "relevant" field experts for peer review.

The experts then compared the competing articles—one from each site on a given topic—side by side, but were not told which article came from which site. Nature got back 42 usable reviews. The journal found just eight serious errors, such as general misunderstandings of vital concepts: four from each site. It also discovered many factual errors, omissions or misleading statements: 162 in Wikipedia and 123 in Britannica, an average of 3.86 mistakes per article for Wikipedia and 2.92 for Britannica. Although Britannica was revealed as the more accurate encyclopaedia, with fewer errors, in its rebuttal, it called Nature's study flawed and misleading and called for a "prompt" retraction. It noted that two of the articles in the study were taken from a Britannica yearbook and not the encyclopaedia, and another two were from Compton's Encyclopedia (called the Britannica Student Encyclopedia on the company's website).

Nature defended its story and declined to retract, stating that, as it was comparing Wikipedia with the web version of Britannica, it used whatever relevant material was available on Britannica's website. Interviewed in February 2009, the managing director of Britannica UK said: Wikipedia is a fun site to use and has a lot of interesting entries on there, but their approach wouldn't work for Encyclopædia Britannica. My job is to create more awareness of our very different approaches to publishing in the public mind. They're a chisel, we're a drill, and you need to have the correct tool for the job. For the 15th anniversary of Wikipedia, the Telegraph published two opinion pieces which compared Wikipedia to Britannica and falsely claimed that Britannica had gone bankrupt in 1996. In a January 2016 press release, Britannica responded by calling Wikipedia "an impressive achievement" but argued that critics should avoid "false comparisons" to Britannica in terms of differing models and purposes.

Since the 3rd edition, the Britannica has enjoyed a popular and critical reputation for general excellence, though this reputation has not been without its critics. The 3rd and 9th editions were pirated for sale in the United States, beginning with Dobson's Encyclopædia. On the release of the 14th edition, Time magazine dubbed the Britannica the "Patriarch of the Library". In a related advertisement, naturalist William Beebe was quoted as saying that the Britannica was "beyond comparison because there is no competitor". References to the Britannica can be found throughout English literature, most notably in one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's favourite Sherlock Holmes stories, "The Red-Headed League". The tale was highlighted by the Lord Mayor of London, Gilbert Inglefield, at the bicentennial of the Britannica. The Britannica has a reputation for summarizing knowledge. To further their education, some people have devoted themselves to reading the entire Britannica, taking anywhere from three to 22 years to do so. When Fat'h Ali became the Shah of Persia in 1797, he was given a set of the Britannica's 3rd edition; after reading the complete set, he extended his royal title to include "Most Formidable Lord and Master of the Encyclopædia Britannica". Writer George Bernard Shaw has claimed to have read the complete 9th edition, except for the science articles; Richard Evelyn Byrd took the Britannica as reading material for his five-month stay at the South Pole in 1934; and Philip Beaver read it during a sailing expedition. More recently, A. J. Jacobs, an editor at Esquire magazine, read the entire 2002 version of the 15th edition, describing his experiences in the well-received 2004 book The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World. Only two people are known to have read two independent editions: the author C. S. Forester and Amos Urban Shirk, an American businessman who read the 11th and 14th editions, devoting roughly three hours per night for four and a half years to read the 11th.

It can be stated without fear of contradiction that the 15th edition of the Britannica accords non-Western cultural, social, and scientific developments more notice than any general English-language encyclopedia currently on the market. With regard to errors in general, whether falling under the denomination of mental, typographical or accidental, we are conscious of being able to point out a greater number than any critic whatever. Men who are acquainted with the innumerable difficulties attending the execution of a work of such an extensive nature will make proper allowances. To these we appeal, and shall rest satisfied with the judgment they pronounce.

5. Performance Evaluation & Extended Technical Observations Encyclopædia Britannica Films Great Books of the Western World List of encyclopedias by branch of knowledge List of encyclopedias by date List of encyclopedias by language § English List of online encyclopedias Official website Works by or about Encyclopædia Britannica at the Internet Archive Works by Encyclopædia Britannica at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) Encyclopaedia Britannica at the National Library of Scotland, first ten editions (and supplements) in PDF format. Encyclopaedia Britannica at the Online Books Page, hosted by the library of University of Pennsylvania, currently including the 1st–13th editions in multiple formats. 3rd edition, (1797, first volume, use search facility for others) at Bavarian State Library 7th edition (1842) coloured scan via HathiTrust 8th edition (1860, index volume, use search facility for others) at Bavarian State Library 9th Edition (1878), published by Charles Scribner's Sons on the Internet Archive 9th and 10th (1902) editions; Archived 22 November 2018 at the Wayback Machine on 1902Encyclopedia.com The Reader's Guide to the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1913) on Project Gutenberg—A handbook containing sixty-six courses of systematic study or occasional reading.

The Odyssey is a 2026 epic action fantasy film written and directed by Christopher Nolan, who produced it with his wife Emma Thomas. An adaptation of Homer's ancient Greek epic poem the Odyssey, it stars an ensemble cast including Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong'o, Samantha Morton, Zendaya, and Charlize Theron. In the film, Odysseus (Damon), the Greek king of Ithaca, undergoes a long and perilous journey home after the Trojan War and encounters mythical beings as he attempts to reunite with his wife, Penelope (Hathaway). Nolan began writing the script in March 2024 and secured the project with Universal Pictures by October. The Odyssey was announced in December. Casting took place from late 2024 through early 2025, and Damon was confirmed for the lead role in February 2025. Nolan studied several translations of the Odyssey before deciding upon a realistic interpretation of Greek mythology, drawing inspiration from the epic historical films Andrei Rublev (1966) and Ran (1985), as well as the films of special effects artist Ray Harryhausen. Filming took place on location from February to August 2025 in Morocco, Greece, Italy, Scotland, Iceland, Western Sahara, and Malta, as well as at the Universal Studios Lot in Los Angeles. With an estimated budget of US$250 million, it is among the most expensive films of Nolan's career, and the first feature film to be shot entirely on IMAX's 70 mm film cameras. The Odyssey premiered at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square in London on July 6, 2026, ahead of a theatrical release by Universal Pictures on July 17 in the United States and the United Kingdom. It was made available in IMAX and multiple premium large formats. The film received acclaim for its direction, performances, and set pieces, though some criticized Nolan's deviations from the source material. It has grossed $1.789 billion worldwide, becoming Nolan's highest-grossing film, the second-highest-grossing film of 2026, the highest-grossing R-rated film ever, the highest-grossing film distributed by Universal, and the eleventh-highest grossing film of all time.

Matt Damon as Odysseus, the Greek king of Ithaca. Director Christopher Nolan described Odysseus as complicated, "an amazing strategist, [and] a very wily person". Tom Holland as Telemachus, Odysseus and Penelope's son and the prince of Ithaca, who is determined to find his father. Anne Hathaway as Penelope, wife of Odysseus, mother of Telemachus, and the queen of Ithaca, who fends off many suitors in her husband's absence. Robert Pattinson as Antinous, a suitor of Penelope, whom Pattinson described as sleazy and likened to James Woods's character Lester Diamond from the 1995 film Casino.

Lupita Nyong'o in a dual role as: Helen of Troy, wife of Menelaus, described as the most beautiful woman in the world, whose abduction triggers the Trojan War. Clytemnestra, Helen's twin half-sister, wife of Agamemnon, who murders him upon his return from Troy. Samantha Morton as Circe, a witch and goddess on the island of Aeaea. John Leguizamo as Eumaeus, a blind swineherd, Odysseus's faithful slave. Zendaya as Athena, the goddess of wisdom, warfare, and handicraft, who protects Odysseus on his journey. She also portrays the young Trojan priestess of Athena who is killed during the sack of Troy and whose form Athena later takes. Charlize Theron as Calypso, a nymph on the island of Ogygia who tries to entice Odysseus to live as her husband with the promise of immortality. Jon Bernthal as Menelaus, the king of Sparta and Helen's husband.

Himesh Patel as Eurylochus, Odysseus's second-in-command who challenges his thoughts and plans. Bill Irwin as the on-set performer of Polyphemus, a Cyclops and son of Poseidon. Elliot Page as Sinon, a Greek soldier and the son of a slave of Antinous, who was recruited as a child to be raised to serve as a soldier who would reach adulthood upon the Greeks' arrival at Troy. Sinon is not in Homer's original poem and his story was borrowed from Virgil's Aeneid and other myths. Benny Safdie as Agamemnon, the Greek king of Mycenae, Clytemnestra's husband, Menelaus's older brother, and the commander of the Greeks during the Trojan War. Other suitors of Penelope include Corey Hawkins as Polybus, Niko Nicotera as Peisander, Elyes Gabel as Elatus, Iddo Goldberg as Amphimedon, and Jamie Harris as Agelus. Mia Goth and Logan Marshall-Green portray twin siblings Melantho and Melanthius, who are respectively a disloyal maidservant of Odysseus and Penelope and Odysseus's dishonest cowherd. Ryan Hurst portrays Mentor, Telemachus's guide and teacher, while James Remar plays Tiresias, a blind prophet of the Greek underworld. Other members of Odysseus's crew include Will Yun Lee as Anchialus, Jimmy Gonzales as Cepheus, Andrew Howard as Polites, Jovan Adepo as Elpenor, Jesse Garcia as Menetus, Josh Stewart as Antiphates, Sean Avery as Laodamas, Anthony Molinari as Perimedes, Stephen Murphy as Phemius, and Ian Casselberry as Dolios. Travis Scott makes a cameo appearance as a bard, whom Nolan included because he wanted to allude to how the Odyssey had been retold through oral poetry, which he analogized to rapping, Scott's profession. Rafi Gavron and Shiloh Fernandez briefly appear as Trojans who kill Sinon and encounter the Trojan Horse. Others in minor roles include Kate Fuglei as Eurycleia, a loyal slave and nurse of Odysseus and Penelope; Maurice Compte as the steward of Menelaus; Nick E.

Tarabay as the unnamed helmsman of Telemachus' ship; Brian Vernel as Irus, a bandit employed by Antinous to kill Telemachus; and Michael Vlamis as a fellow bandit assisting Irus. By November 2023, director Christopher Nolan had yet to decide what his next film would be after Oppenheimer (2023). While he was receptive to various ideas, he felt he needed to "own it completely". After winning several Academy Awards for Oppenheimer in March 2024, including Best Picture and Best Director, Nolan and Emma Thomas, his wife and producing partner, felt the success provided them the opportunity to explore what Nolan's next film would be. Nolan began writing the script shortly after. Nolan was revealed in October to be developing his next film at Universal Pictures, after working with that studio on Oppenheimer. He was confirmed to be writing the script and producing once again with Thomas through their production company, Syncopy, and filming was scheduled to begin in early 2025. Unlike Oppenheimer, which Universal acquired at auction, The Odyssey was set up at the studio and given a release date of July 17, 2026. The logline and additional details of its premise were kept largely secret compared to Nolan's previous films, which prompted much speculation about its subject matter. This included rumors that it would either be a vampire period piece, a reboot of the 1983 helicopter action-thriller film Blue Thunder, or an adaptation of the British spy television series The Prisoner (1967–1968), which Nolan was previously attached to in 2009, but all of these were debunked. Nolan later reflected the "disadvantage of never telling people what we're doing" was the invention and circulation of rumors, though he nonetheless enjoyed them. In December 2024, Universal announced Nolan's new film as The Odyssey, an adaptation of Homer's ancient Greek epic poem, the Odyssey. The studio described it as a "mythic action epic" that would be filmed worldwide. Nolan was previously attached to direct Troy (2004)—based on Homer's Odyssey predecessor the Iliad—that Wolfgang Petersen had developed for Warner Bros. Pictures, before Petersen chose to direct Troy and Nolan subsequently made Batman Begins (2005). Nolan believed he was "in a little over [his] head" for Troy, but felt he had become more qualified to adapt the "sweeping story" of the Odyssey after working on several large-scale productions during the following 20 years. The Odyssey was expected to be the most expensive film of Nolan's career with a net budget of $250 million. Nolan described The Odyssey as the largest and most challenging production of his career due to its scale. He explained that he chose to adapt the Odyssey because it had not been adapted into a large-scale production from a major Hollywood studio, calling it "an odd gap in movie history". Nolan and Thomas described The Odyssey as "foundational" because it incorporates aspects of the horror, mystery, romance, and thriller genres of stories. Nolan also said that The Odyssey had influenced his previous films. He read and studied The Odyssey and several of its translations, including those by classicists Emily Wilson, E. V. Rieu, and Robert Fagles. He wrote the script in a non-linear fashion. While the script was said to be "very faithful" to Homer's text, Nolan made some alterations, such as more prominently featuring Odysseus's faithful dog Argos; more interactions between Odysseus and Telemachus; humanizing the goddess and witch Circe to be unsettling yet sympathetic; and complicating the reunion between Helen of Troy and Spartan king Menelaus. He was interested in portraying Odysseus's cleverness and inventiveness, particularly citing his characterization in Wilson's 2017 translation of the Odyssey. To combine the Odyssey's fantastical elements with Nolan's use of "tactile realism", the director chose to take a realistic approach in depicting the evidence and actions of the gods through natural phenomena once considered "supernatural" during the story's time period. Nolan called this a major creative breakthrough. Nolan cited Andrei Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev (1966) and Akira Kurosawa's Ran (1985) as major inspirations, particularly regarding its visual style and atmospheric tone. Nolan also drew inspiration from various Greek mythology–inspired films he watched in his youth, particularly the works of animator and special effects artist Ray Harryhausen. Nolan had considered casting actors to portray Greek gods throwing thunderbolts from Mount Olympus, but found depicting the characters' fear of the gods' actions provided a more immersive experience than outright showing the gods.

Principal photography lasted for 91 days between February 25 and August 5, 2025, using the working title Charlie's Tale, and wrapped nine days ahead of schedule. Location shooting primarily took place in six countries: Morocco, Western Sahara, Greece, Italy, Iceland, Scotland, and the United States. Nolan sought to embrace the "physicality of the real world" by filming on location to help inform the storytelling and capture "how hard those journeys would have been for people. And the leap of faith that was being made in an unmapped, uncharted world." The director felt that the shifting weather conditions amplified this practical approach due to the challenges they posed. Hoyte van Hoytema reunited with Nolan as cinematographer. After using IMAX 70 mm film extensively since The Dark Knight (2008), The Odyssey became the first feature film shot entirely with IMAX film cameras, primarily using a newly manufactured lighter and quieter version Nolan had specifically developed for the production alongside older versions. For close-up scenes requiring audible dialogue, the IMAX cameras were often concealed in large sound blimps on set, while a system of mirrors was set up to help the actors maintain eye contact when the cameras obscured their view. Over 2 million feet (610 kilometres) of IMAX 70 mm film was used to shoot The Odyssey. As a single IMAX camera can only hold roughly three minutes of film, actors had to pause during longer scenes while the camera was reloaded before resuming their performances. The first scenes were filmed in late February at the Aït Benhaddou village near Ouarzazate, Morocco, to depict the city of Troy at the end of the Trojan War in an appetizer sequence before the bulk of The Odyssey, as well as in the cities of Essaouira and Marrakesh. Van Hoytema rigged numerous portable LEDs to emulate the specific firelight color temperature for the midnight raid of Troy, allowing Nolan to film in any direction. Filming took place in the Messenia unit of the Peloponnese region in Greece, from March 10 to 21, at Pylos, the Methoni Castle, the Almyrolakkos beach in Yialova, and Nestor's Cave in the Voidokilia beach for scenes featuring the Cyclops Polyphemus, as well as at an archaeological palace site in Acrocorinth, Corinth. The production partnered with Faliro House Productions's NAF subsidiary for filming in Greece, which lasted three weeks. The production received over €6.5 million ($7.5 million) in funding from Greece's Hellenic Film and Audiovisual Center S.A. (Creative Greece), as part of its approximate €140 million ($160 million) investment in over 200 local and international productions, as well as a 40% cash rebate.

Harvested Online Documentation & Reference Sources • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure%20Remote%20Password%20protocol • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclop%C3%A6dia%20Britannica • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%20Odyssey%20%282026%20film%29