The problem wasn't well formulated, since it didn't clearly define what can or cannot be done to the decompresser based on knowledge of the output file. But co

The problem wasn't well formulated, since it didn't clearly define what can or cannot be done to the decompresser based on knowledge of the output file. But consider a more strongly formulated problem, where you must provide the decompresser and then a file is randomly selected to be put through it - as long as it's still a matter of compressing one particular file it is statistically possible to win (especially at $5000:$100) - The idea being that you can reinterpret data to make certain outputs cheaper while others more expensive.