geplaatst
SunnComm to sue 'Shift key' student for $10m
SunnComm has threatened Princeton PhD student Alex Halderman with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) for exposing a key weakness in the company's latest CD copy protection technology, MediaMax CD3.
The company said today it will take legal action against Halderman for revealing how MediaMax CD3 can be bypassed by holding down a Windows PC's Shift key when a protected disc is inserted.
Doing so temporarily disables Windows' Autorun facility - which many Reg readers have turned off anyway, they tell us - which prevents a small installation app from being launched off the CD. That software installs a device driver which detects the presence of a copy-protected disc and prevents attempts to copy such CDs.
The installer apparently asks for the users permission to install the file, and does not do so unless the user clicks on the equivalent of an OK button. If the UK rejects the 1800-word End User Licence Agreement (EULA), the disc is automatically ejected.
The EULA says: "This audio compact disc utilizes MediaMax technology by SunnComm to deliver enhanced features to your computer. In order to properly utilize this CD on your computer, it is necessary to install a small software program on your computer hard drive."
It's worth noting that the BMG distributed CD Halderman tested lacks the familiar CD logo. Thanks to the inclusion of SunnComm's technology the disc can no longer be described as a CD - an item that has a very specific description as detailed in the standards documentation written by the format's creators, Sony and Philips. A disc that doesn't follow the standard to the letter can't be described by its supplier as a CD.
Odd, then, that the EULA, as quoted above, claims it is a CD - and is arguably in violation of the CD licensing regulations. Just a thought...
Bypassing Autorun allows full access to the CD's songs.
As revealed by The Register yesterday, Halderman detailed his discovery in an online paper published after he analysed a CD - Anthony Hamilton's Comin' From Where I'm From - which incorporates the technology.
SunnComm today said the paper was "erroneous" and contains "false conclusions". On the back of said, "Halderman and Princeton University have significantly damaged SunnComm's reputation and caused the market value of SunnComm to drop by more than $10 million," the company alleges.
And then there's the DMCA angle. SunnComm claims Halderman broke the law by revealing the name of the driver the app installs.
In a statement released today, SunnComm said: "SunnComm intends to refer this possible felony to authorities having jurisdiction over these matters because: 1. The author admits that he disabled the driver in order to make an unprotected copy of the disc's contents, and 2. SunnComm believes that the author's report was 'disseminated in a manner which facilitates infringement' in violation of the DMCA or other applicable law".
SunnComm's statement is, of course, a tacit admission that Halderman's information is correct: "Once the file is found and deleted according to the instructions given in the Princeton grad student's report, the MediaMax copy management system can be bypassed resulting in the copyright protected music being converted or misappropriated for potentially unauthorized and/or illegal use," it says.
If Halderman is incorrect, then the outcome described above can't happen, and the DMCA hasn't been violated. Yet SunnComm claims the law has been broken - ergo Halderman's conclusion is correct.
In which case, SunnComm's technology is indeed flawed, and the company can't argue the student has damaged its reputation. We'd say it did that itself by relying on a technology that any user - and indeed many already do - can circumvent perfectly legally. Bypassing Autorun by holding down the Shift key is a documented feature, after all.
"Critical reviews written in part as an attempt to pressure the record industry into abandoning further development of technically protected audio CDs are ethically suspect when based on inaccurate assumptions," says SunnComm - without stating what those assumptions are or in what way they are inaccurate.
Of course, legal action was a possibility Halderman was well aware of when he published his paper. "I hardly think that telling people to push shift constitutes trafficking in a (copy-protection technology) circumvention device," Halderman yesterday told US newswires. "I'm not very worried."
geplaatst
Wat een enorme trieste bedoening zeg. Gaan ze zometeen nog toetsenboarden zonders shift-toetsen verkopen omdat daar een kopieer beveiliging omzeiler op zit
-------------------- People are like pieces of a puzzle. We all fit together, but not all of us connect. Berichten: 6985 | Plaats: Zeist | Geregistreerd: Jul 2002
| IP: Gelogd |
Een student van de Amerikaanse universiteit Princeton wordt vervolgd omdat hij op internet uit de doeken doet hoe je de kopieerbeveiliging van een cd kunt omzeilen. Dat meldden verschillende Amerikaanse media vrijdag.
John Halderman publiceerde zijn bevindingen op de site van de universiteit. Uit de publicatie blijkt dat de MediaMax CD-3 software van SunnComm omzeild kan worden door de shifttoets ingedrukt te houden wanneer een cd in het laatje van de pc wordt gedaan. Hierdoor kan de software die op het schijfje staat, zich niet op de computer installeren.
SunnComm Technologies, gaat de student nu vervolgen. Volgens het bedrijf heeft Halderman de regels van de Digital Millennium Copyright Act gebroken. De marktwaarde van SunnComm zou door de openbaring met 10 miljoen dollar zijn gedaald. Halderman maakt zich nog geen zorgen. Volgens hem is het indrukken van de shifttoest geen overtreding.
De platenindustrie wijt de dalende cd-verkoop aan het illegaal kopiëren van muziek en de verspreiding daarvan via internet. Om de daling te stoppen, zijn veel nieuwe cd's op verschillende manieren beveiligd tegen kopiëren. Kenners weten de beveiliging echter in de meeste gevallen te omzeilen.
-------------------- People are like pieces of a puzzle. We all fit together, but not all of us connect. Berichten: 6985 | Plaats: Zeist | Geregistreerd: Jul 2002
| IP: Gelogd |
Sunncomm has apparently had second thoughts about suing Princeton's John Halderman for revealing, among other things, that BMG's uncopy-able Anthony Hamilton CD - which relies on Sunncomm technology to make it copy-proof - can be easily copied.
All you have to do is press the shift key when you're inserting it, as Halderman's research paper states.
"If SunnComm or BMG really believed this disc was difficult to copy, then its actual weakness should be as embarrassing as the discovery in 2002 that Sony's key2audio scheme can be defeated using only a felt-tipped pen," said Halderman when his paper became public.
Sunncomm responded with angry threats of legal action and lawsuits under the DMCA. But last night Sunncomm ceo Peter Jacobs said a successful lawsuit would do little to reverse the damage done by Halderman's disclosure and would probably hurt Sunncomm by making computer scientists think twice about researching copy-protection technology.
"I don't want to be the guy that creates any kind of chilling effect on research," Jacobs is quoted as saying in the The Daily Princetonian here.
"The harm's been done ... if I can't accomplish anything [with a lawsuit] I don't want to leave a wake," he told Josh Brodie.
"I think it's a sensible decision given the situation, given that what [Halderman] was doing was perfectly legitimate," Brodie quotes computer science professor Edward Felten as saying. "[Jacobs is] to be commended for not wanting to interfere with research."
A couple of years ago the RIAA did its best to smear Felten and his research team for describing the defects in the proposed Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) lock-down schemes for audio CDs.
"When The Daily Princetonian informed Halderman that the suit was not going to proceed, he was relieved," says Brodie.
Last November Halderman said he was concerned about presenting his junior paper research to an audience of scientists for fear of being sued under the DMCA, says the Princetonian. He said at the time the existence of the DMCA forced him to carefully word his research so as to avoid a lawsuit.
"I don't want to be the people my parents warned me to stay away from," said Jacobs of his decision. "It's 10 million bucks, but maybe I can make it back, and maybe [Halderman] can learn a little bit more about our technology so as not to call it brain dead."
Sunncomm Technologies ziet toch af van een rechtszaak tegen de student die openbaar maakte dat de cd-beveiliging met de Shift-toets omzeild kan worden.
Hoewel Sunncomm donderdag nog voornemens was om de Amerikaanse student Alex Halderman voor het gerecht te slepen, is het bedrijf op zijn beslissing teruggekomen. Een rechtszaak tegen de student zou een verkeerd signaal geven, aldus Suncomm-directeur Peter Jacobs.
Halderman publiceerde hoe de zogeheten Mediamax CD-3 cd-beveiliging simpelweg uitgeschakeld kan worden door de Shift-toets in te drukken. Deze cd-beveiliging van Sunncomm wordt onder meer gebruikt door BMG Music.
Volgens Sunncomm is het onderzoek dat Halderman heeft gedaan 'onnauwkeurig'. Zowel de aannames als conclusies van Halderman berusten op fouten, zo stelt Sunncomm in een verklaring.
"De Mediamax-beveiliging werkt met Windows Media Player 9 en digital rights management-technologie en staat wel toe dat van een cd een kopie wordt gemaakt op de harde schijf van een pc. Vanaf daar kan de muziek, als de artiest het toestaat, worden overgezet op een mp3-speler en zelfs is het toegestaan om een een beperkt aantal cd's voor eigen gebruik te maken", aldus Sunncomm. Maar hierbij gaat het volgens het bedrijf om geautoriseerde kopieën van de muziekbestanden.
Bovendien denkt Sunncomm dat een rechtszaak tegen een student een verkeerd signaal afgeeft aan onderzoekers, onderwijsinstellingen en studenten. Uiteindelijk zijn juist dat de mensen die later bij bedrijven als Sunncomm dergelijke technologieën ontwikkelen.
Sunncomm ziet daarom af van verdere juridische stappen tegen Halderman.
Berichten: 3613 | Plaats: Venray | Geregistreerd: Jul 2002
| IP: Gelogd |
UBBFriend: Email deze pagina naar iemand!
Printer-versie van dit onderwerp
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
