Student faces suit over key to CD locks

SunnComm Technologies, a developer of CD antipiracy technology, said Thursday that it will likely sue a Princeton student who early this week showed how to evade the company's copy protection by pushing a computer's Shift key.

Princeton Ph.D. student John "Alex" Halderman published a paper on his Web site on Monday that gave detailed instructions on how to disarm the SunnComm technology, which aims to block unauthorized CD copying and MP3 ripping. The technology is included on an album by Anthony Hamilton that was recently distributed by BMG Music.

On Thursday, SunnComm CEO Peter Jacobs said the company plans legal action and is considering both criminal and civil suits. He said it may charge the student with maligning the company's reputation and, possibly, with violating copyright law that bans the distribution of tools for breaking through digital piracy safeguards.

"We feel we were the victim of an unannounced agenda and that the company has been wronged," Jacobs said. "I think the agenda is: 'Digital property should belong to everyone on the Internet.' I'm not sure that works in the marketplace."

The cases are already being examined by some intellectual-property lawyers for their potential to test the extremes of a controversial copyright law that block the distribution of information or software that breaks or "circumvents" copy-protection technologies.

Several civil and criminal cases based on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act have been filed against people who distributed information or software aimed at breaking through antipiracy locks. In one, Web publisher Eric Corley was banned by a federal judge from publishing software code that helped in the process of copying DVDs.

In a criminal case, Russian company ElcomSoft was cleared of charges that it had distributed software that willfully broke through Adobe Systems' e-book copy protection.

Both of those cases dealt with software or software code, however. The issue in Halderman's case is somewhat different.

In his paper, published on the Princeton Web site on Monday, the student explained that the SunnComm technique relies on installing antipiracy software directly from the protected CD itself. However, this can be prevented by stopping Microsoft Windows' "auto-run" feature. That can be done simply by pushing the Shift key as the CD loads.

If the CD does load and installs the software, Halderman identified the driver file that can be disabled using standard Windows tools. Free-speech activists said the nature of Halderman's instructions--which appeared in an academic paper, used only functions built into every Windows computer, and were not distributed for profit--meant they would not fall under DMCA scrutiny.

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ROFL Yeah... right. Like they are going to sucessfully sue someone for somthing like that.

Now... if they wrote software or something to disable the software...

I'm not sure of the limits of the DMCA.... :rolleyes:

Guess I'm off to read more bout the DMCA.

I'm wondering if this company can be sued because they are installing software onto your computer without your concent. If it is automatically installed, and you don't agree to the terms of use, etc.

Another qustion I have... I disabled the auto-run feature for ALL my CDs. Not specifically to bypass the protection that this company installs on your computer. Can I be sued for that?!

<(bearly) sarcasm>
In other news, all keyboard and computer makers will be sued for making and shipping computers with a shift key as well as microsoft for making it possible to turn off the auto-run feature. Other operating system makers that do not have a auto-run feature or is not enabled by default will also be sued...
</(bearly) sarcasm>

Ammo

I dunno.... It sounds like a lame "security" company producing _really_ lame "security" and then whining like a three year old when their Auntie Martha breaks it......

C'mon.... Holding down the <shift> key disables half of M$' products..... Why do they think that someone wouldn't try it????? Utter Morons........

So if you don't press the shift key then the software is installed without your concent? hmm
Or is there a note saying that by playing the CD you concent to having thier software installed?

well the fact that they are invoking the DMCA is a bad thing, and most likely means they will go forward with this suit.

waverebel - the files are undisclosed BUT installed at the users express consent.

I found another article on this on yahoo

As far as I know linux has never autoplayed a cd without asking me? So would they sue me for listening to it on my linux computer and not clicking yes to autoplay?

They don't have a chance of winning that law suit

Although i want to agree with crashburn...but something is telling me they might have a chance with the suit, ridiculous as it may sound. The wording on the DMCA is so vague that it seems to cover everything related to copy protection. even if the copy protection in this case is very lame. it so easy to break, my grandmother could break it. and they try to protect it using the DMCA. they just realised that they are not gonna make any $ from this so they try to sue a student who is showing the flaws of the protection.

They already conned BMG into using their method and BMG probably paid for it. they were thinking that more record companies will pay them and then someone showed the flaws on the system and they are pissed.

I think the DMCA should be scrapped. if the protection is so easy to break people should be able to publish ways around the protection. we can read books on lock picking but how come no one is sued for publishing those books. isnt it the same thing?

they really are wasting their time

Quote:

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Originally posted here by r8devil
they just realised that they are not gonna make any $ from this so they try to sue a student who is showing the flaws of the protection.
They already conned BMG into using their method and BMG probably paid for it. they were thinking that more record companies will pay them and then someone showed the flaws on the system and they are pissed.

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Thier stock has dropped by 20%, according to slashdot. CNET said this:

Quote:

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The damage to SunnComm's reputation, while not necessarily permanent, was quickly seen in a drop in its markt value, totaling close to $10 million over several days,

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So yes, they have a legal right to sue. One line from this guy was all it took to make this happen. Granted, they made a shitty product, but they can still sue when someone does them damage like that. Whether or not they win depends on whether or not it's a product flaw or this guy's fault. And that's for a judge to decide. But the fact is that they lost $10 million in 5 days because of him.

Striek: I see what you are saying.

But the truth of the matter is... anyone with half of a brain could have figured that one out!
BMG and SunnComm said they KNEW that their product could be bypassed by this method. If they knew that... then why would they use it?

A simple product like http://www.xteq.com/ has the option to disable the autorun, or it can be done with a simple registry tweak. Not to mention the shift key.
So... anyone who has a product or information on how to disable the autorun feature can be sued!? That includes www.registryguides.com www.microsoft.com www.xteq.com and I'm sure quite a few more too!

Quote:

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<(bearly) sarcasm>
In other news, all keyboard and computer makers will be sued for making and shipping computers with a shift key as well as microsoft for making it possible to turn off the auto-run feature. Other operating system makers that do not have a auto-run feature or is not enabled by default will also be sued...
</(bearly) sarcasm>

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Don't give them any ideas... :p

Did they really think that it was going to stay private? That is a HUGE gamble... they lost.

You wouldn't go to the racetrack and put 10 Million on a horse that you know could break its leg mid race!

this is such a sad case of corporate stupidity. they made an absolutely CRAPPY product that they knew could be broken easily and now they want to sue a student for writing a paper on it. not all systems have the auto-run feature so are they going to sue all of the OS vendors that do not implement this....f'ing ridiculous. did they lose $$$ due to this paper, YES, but they released a flawed product knowingly. if anything, BMG should sue SunnComm, course supposedly BMG knew that the product was flawed also, so that probably won't fly.

i wonder what impact this crap will have on the acadamic coummunity and innovation from within it?

Ah, better yet. They thought better of suing this student...

Quote:

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Sunncomm backs down from shift key prosecution

Mescalin wears off...

By INQUIRER staff: Friday 10 October 2003, 15:38

IT SEEMS that Sunncomm, which wanted to throw the book at a student for describing a method using the SHIFT key to circumvent its copy protection, has backed off, probably sensing the full blown mess of a PR Catastrophe.
See Software company to sue student over using shift key.

John Halderman published his findings on Sunncomm's Media Max software and was threatened with prosecution under DMCA legislation, but according to Broadband Reports, pointing to Professor Edward Felten's blog, here, Sunncomm has seen sense and decided not to sue the chap instead.

So all is well that ends well, except for Sunncomm, which complains it's lost $10 million or so since the big hullabaloo hullabalooed earlier this week. µ

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Source

good thing they backed off, they would have lost even with the DCMA. The DCMA explicitly states a robust security infrustructure, if something can be bypased y holding down one key it is not robust.

Crazy...

LMAO, I don't care what they do, no matter how many security measures the make and try, someone is going to figure a way around it! It's always going to happen and all they can do is scare you with a lawsuit. Still it's going to be done. The only surefire way to keep people from breaking copyright laws would be to ship an armed guard with every CD to stand watch. You would have feed and shelter this guard, and if you tryed to break the security measures he would flog you. That's the only way. ;)

lol @ "nate_k9" post ....... it mad me lol....... alot....... well he is right... ther is always a way......and any way....... the couldnt win the case anyway...... coz they said they knew that there was a flaw...... so they gave it up... before is started........ it is kinda crazy...... :Dlol;)