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SunnComm Says Pointing to Shift Key 'Possible Felony'
The Importance of writes "A couple of weeks ago BMG released an audio CD with a new type of DRM. Earlier this week, a computer science graduate student at Princeton wrote a report showing the DRM was ineffective - it could easily be defeated by use of the 'shift' key. The stock of the DRM company (SunnComm) has since fallen by 20%. Now, SunnComm plans to sue the student under the DMCA and claim that SunnComm's reputation has been falsely damaged. According to SunnComm's CEO, 'No matter what their credentials or rationale, it is wrong to use one's knowledge and the cover of academia to facilitate piracy and theft of digital property.'"
Disabling autorun via the use of the Shift key is pretty well known, isn't it?
/. pointing out that the use of the Shift key would probably disable this kind of copy "protection" when the story about this "system" was first posted.
I recall a post on
Pierre
Precedent!
STEH currently sells at 11 cents per share, a 20% drop means it's down from 15 cents. This is a low-end penny stock, almost completely worthless even before the alleged "damage." Any amateur spammer could move this stock more than 4 cents with even a badly executed pump and dump.
Does this guy have a legal defense fund? If he does, I'll gladly donate the $25 I was going to spend on CDs this month.
Oh wait, make that CD. You can't buy two CDs for only $25.
Proud member of the Weirdo-American community.
Those *SAME* instructions are there. Posted over 2 years ago. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb; en-us;126025
Anonymous Cowards generally receive no replies because you're a coward and I'm a bitch
Use the address for investors.
investor@sunncomm.com
I sent them an email stating simply that they are doing a disservice to thier clients and the artists they represent by making such an easily defeatable "encryption" system and that you'll check for and never buy a product using thier systems.
Having it rely on a default setting in the OS is just plain stupid.
yes there is. he specifically states in his paper that he never agreed to the EULA for the DRM program -- he actually states that he can only speculate on it's inner workings because he never installed the thing.
so basically, he's being sued even though he didn't do anything to their DRM software at all.
filter: +3. Hey, look! all the trolls went away!
I just called the company. I first talked to a woman whose name I did not get (she answered the phone), and she transferred me to someone else, who introduced himself as "Bill". I believe him to be the COO, Bill Whitmore. We had a rather long conversation about the press release and how SunnComm feels about the information being published. Yes, they did "threaten" Alex with DMCA charges, and they may or may not report this for investigation, but from what Bill told me, they have no plans to file suit against Alex Halderman. I'm not sure if Bill agreed with me that the press release was rather extreme in its implications, but I think he acknowledged something to that fact. don't hold me to that. Bill did, however, seem upset that Alex did not contact the company first, before releasing this information to the world. Perhaps they would have threatened him, perhaps they would have offered him a chance to help fix the problem (Bill said the latter). I don't know. Bill also said that while "all software solutions can be bypassed", his company was trying to create a "licence system" for people to listen to their music legally, without "having to make copies" of it in an illegal manner. So, he said, this is not really a software anti-copying solution, but more of a licence framework for the use of the music. That was what was said, to the best of my recollection.
When /. covered the story originally, one poster half seriously suggested (and got modded informative) using the shift key to defeat the protection. Hmmmmmm. See this comment. /bg
Tell them what I told them: the use of the DMCA against a student who exercised his right to free speech and his right to publish an academic paper has made me strongly decide not to invest in their company, and tell most people I know to avoid their stock like the plague.
On a side note, wasn't the DMCA supposed to specifically protect academic research? Of course this same question was asked when SDMI pulled this shit too, so I guess we all know the answer.
--Kylus
Idiot-proof something, and Life will build a better Idiot.
Yea, besides, the fact that the truth hurts your company should not restrict my freedom to speak it. What an insane view of the world these idiots have.
4,134,800 "penny" stocks add up to quite a bit. From the FA: 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. Based on several of these incorrect assumptions, Halderman and Princeton University have significantly damaged SunnComm's reputation and caused the market value of SunnComm to drop by more than $10 million.
But the way our legal system works, they can go on claiming both for a while until it looks like they are for sure going to lose/win one claim or the other. Then they can drop the claim that's not working for them. It's all lawyer games. (NOTE: IANAL and NBAYROS (Never Believe Anything You Read On Slashdot))
Furry cows moo and decompress.
That little cutie on TechTV (Jessie) did a story on this too. Maybe they're going to sue and arrest her for broadcasting this "circumvention device" to the public?
I'm not sure how the shift key is a circumvention device here though. Holding the SHIFT key down to prevent a CD from autoloading is documented in Windows help, windows tech sites, tip books and microsoft's manuals and website themselves.
This doesn't "cirumvent" anything anymore than simply not putting the CD in your computer woudl "circumvent" anything.
That is a BIG assumption saying they can't win!
Tell that to Dmitry and his employer!
Good news! Dmitry and his employer won!
We tah ded.
Considering that this is a documented feature of Windows which is has already been published all over the Internet as a quick way of squelching the AutoPlay feature and an attempt at a lawsuit on these grounds would have a snowball in Hell commenting, "Wow! That was over with fast". Searching for this information is ridiculously easy...
Sample Google Search #1
Sample Google Search #2
...and for once, a lawsuit clearly filed for the purposes of harassment is highly likely to result in a successful counter-suit for damages, simply by the fact that this is a documented feature of Windows. Demonstrating that SunnComm's suit had absolutely no merit on the basis that the information in question was already common knowledge should be a walk in the park.
DMCA "Violation" #1
DMCA "Violation" #2
What makes this especially stupid is that they'll be suing someone who has very little (if any) money, although I imagine that may well change after the counter-suit. If the people at SunnComm weren't complete idiots, they'd go after someone who has money, like Jeffrey Richter, who writes books on using Windows as well as articles for the MSDN network and who already published this information in 1998.
Yet Another DMCA "Violation"
I know what you're thinking right now, but even really stupid companies don't try to sue Microsoft over things this trivial.
Actually, if you read the original paper that the student published, you will realize that CD case stated that it would install software when you tried to play it on a PC.
amazing how the position has changed so rapidly (the above article was from 10ish EDT on the 8th)
actually, according to the Register article you have to click "yes" to an EULA before it installs the copy protection program . . .
Not exactly.
Princeton does not have any professional schools. There is no "Princeton Law" as there is, for example "Harvard Law."
However, Princeton, unlike many universities, actually has a rather strong tradition of backing up its faculty members against stupid-ass lawsuits. They've supported Ed Felten, and I can report that, as a graduate student, when I was harrassed and threatened with a lawsuit by net.kook Right Reverend Colin James III, they assured me that not only had I done nothing wrong, but that should he actually bring his threatened legal action, the University would stand behind me.
And Princeton has got *quite* deep pockets.
SunnComm doesn't realize yet that it probably picked the wrong target to threaten.
Adam
Microsoft's how to for disabling autorun. This how-to is also quoted as a link in the original publication and holding down the shift key is probably easier for most people but its fun to make sure that all those who would circumvent the DMCA are known to the appropriate authorities. (Bill should call his lawyer)
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.
Ben
But if you read the article, they didn't claim that his revelation about the shift key was the DMCA violation.
:)
They said, "Halderman has violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by disclosing unpublished MediaMax management files placed on a user's computer after user approval is granted."
They're still total, utter morons, and they deserve to see their stock tank, and then get delisted
.sigs are for post^Hers.
Pressing the shift key is not a violation of the DMCA. Telling someone to press the shift key is a violation of the DMCA.
It's not about the shift key, it's about deleting a few files from your own computer. SunnComm doesn't believe you are allowed to remove the Trojan Horse they put onto your computer. It's far from obvious if they are wrong or not, as the Trojan Horse is certainly an effective way to restrict copying on a machine on which it has been installed.
(This reminds me that I should write an IETF draft for a very simple DRM scheme for HTTP which relies on the DMCA and other laws for effectiveness.)
sunncomm says it won't sue. guess they finally saw reason.
See this Daily Princetonian story for an update.
SunnComm's CEO decided late last night to change his mind. "I don't want to be the guy that creates any kind of chilling effect on research," he said.
The hate you spew makes you no better than the man you condemn, despite the fact that he is demonstrably the worst President we've had since Nixon. The solution of the radical is always to kill what they fear, never realizing that eventually the guillotine will claim them as well.
PS: You still haven't explained how death threats are "civilized."
You can only drink 30 or 40 glasses of beer a day, no matter how rich you are.
-- Colonel Adolphus Busch