Another Stupid RIAA type Lawsuit

[ChasingBlueSky 0]

Princeton Student Sued Over Paper on CD Copying
Thu Oct 9, 6:07 PM ET

By Ben Berkowitz

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Three days after a Princeton graduate student posted a paper on his Web site detailing how to defeat the copy-protection software on a new music CD by pressing a single computer key, the maker of the software said on Thursday it would sue him.



In a statement, SunnComm Technologies Inc. said it would sue Alex Halderman over the paper, which said SunnComm's MediaMax CD-3 software could be blocked by holding down the "Shift" key on a computer keyboard as a CD using the software was inserted into a disc drive.


"SunnComm believes that by making erroneous assumptions in putting together his critical review of the MediaMax CD-3 technology, Halderman came to false conclusions concerning the robustness and efficacy of SunnComm's MediaMax technology," it said.


SunnComm, which trades on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board, said it has lost more than $10 million of its market value since Halderman published his report.


The software was used on a CD, Anthony Hamilton's "Comin' From Where I'm From," released last month. Halderman, who has done research in the past on other CD protection technologies, said the software could also be disabled by stopping a driver the software loads on the computer when the CD is played.


SunnComm alleged Halderman violated criminal provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (news - web sites) in disclosing the existence of those driver files.


Halderman -- who received an undergraduate degree from Princeton earlier this year and is now pursuing a doctorate in computer science with an emphasis on computer security -- said he had not yet heard directly from SunnComm in regards to litigation but was unconcerned.


"I'm still not very worried about litigation under the DMCA, I don't think there's any case," he told Reuters. "I don't think telling people to press the 'Shift' key is a violation of the DMCA."


A spokesman for BMG, the unit of Bertelsmann AG (news - web sites) that licensed SunnComm's software and released the Hamilton CD, declined to comment on the planned suit.


The music industry, claiming a sharp decline in CD sales is the result of digital piracy through online file-sharing services, has worked to develop methods to secure music on discs and restrict its copying.


Halderman's graduate advisor at Princeton is Ed Felten, a computer science professor who once sued the Recording Industry Association of America (news - web sites) in a challenge to the constitutionality of the DMCA.


The RIAA had threatened action under the DMCA against Felten and colleagues after they said they would publish a paper disclosing flaws in an industry security initiative. That suit was eventually dismissed.

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you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....

[adamT 0]

Whats funny about this is a standard function of windows was used to circumvent this "protection" People who have disabled auto-play wouldn't even need to press shift. The only people who deserve to be sued here is sunncomm for marketting and selling a completely defective product.

[JeffD 0]

Come on. This is like the people that wont let you (right-click save as) on some pictures. all you have to do is hit "Print screen" and voala its saved on your clipboard. Oh well.

[tonyhays 86]

Has anyone heard the scoop on http://www.es5.com? Supposedly it's the next best thing in downloading music & movies.

“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”

[kallend 2,150]

Mumbles something about the First Amendment...

So RIAA can suppress free speech? Doesn't seem to me that saying "press the shift key" falls into quite the same category as shouting "fire" in a crowded theatre.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[darkvapor 0]

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/2150107

Quote

Oct. 10, 2003, 5:26PM

Suit threats over Princeton CD paper dropped
Reuters News Service

LOS ANGELES - A software company, citing academic freedom, has backed away from a threat to sue a Princeton student who published details on how to thwart its CD copy-protection technology.

Peter Jacobs, the chief executive of SunnComm Technologies Inc. , told Reuters today the company disputed the conclusion by Princeton student Alex Halderman that its software was "irreparably flawed," but would not pursue the matter because it did not want to chill academic research.

Halderman, who is working on a doctorate in computer science, posted a paper on his Web site earlier this week detailing the ways SunnComm's MediaMax software could be defeated. These included simply holding down the "Shift" key on a keyboard, while loading the disc in to a CD drive.

SunnComm did not contest that finding, but earlier said the paper cost the company more than $10 million in market capitalization.

"R&D is our life," Jacobs said. "It wasn't our intention to strike a blow against research. We sincerely thought that the research was not founded on the premise for which the technology was invented in the first place."

Earlier this year, Phoenix-based SunnComm and BMG, a unit of the German conglomerate Bertelsmann AG , signed a deal for BMG to license SunnComm's MediaMax CD-3 copy protection software.

The music industry, faced with slumping CD sales it blames on digital piracy, has actively sought new technologies to cut down on what it sees as rampant copying of compact discs and the sharing of those files online.

In late September, BMG's Arista label released "Comin' From Where I'm From," a CD from singer Anthony Hamilton. It was the first major release using the SunnComm software.

In his Web posting, Halderman also explained how to stop the driver that the MediaMax software installs on a computer when the CD is first played, leaving the user free to copy the disc.

SunnComm said Thursday it would sue Halderman and urge felony charges against him for alleged violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

But Jacobs said he had a change of heart.

"I'm looking at the big picture," Jacobs said. "I'm feeling better already. (The research) doesn't dilute our technology at all, nor does it nullify our technology."

Halderman's graduate advisor at Princeton is Ed Felten, a well-known academic who once filed suit against the Recording Industry Association of America after the record industry trade group suggested it would use the DMCA to prosecute Felten for publishing a paper on flaws in an industry-devised digital security system.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has led the charge against the DMCA, also spoke out against SunnComm.

"What more proof do you need that the DMCA is chilling legitimate research?" EFF senior attorney Fred von Lohmann said in a statement Thursday.

"In America today, scientists shouldn't have to fear legal action for publishing the truth. Based on the apparent weakness of its technology, perhaps SunnComm should be hiring more Princeton computer scientists, instead of threatening to sue them."

Jacobs, whose company counts the Chinese government as a minority investor, argued the dispute came down to a misunderstanding over the intent of his software.

"The problem was that he declared this an unrepairable flaw and that was the part that really hurt us," he said. "He was reviewing a drama when we were writing a comedy."