Should legal action be taken against him?!

magick

Student sued over CD piracy study


A US student is being sued for showing how to get around anti-piracy technology on a new music CD. Princeton graduate John Halderman published a paper online showing how to defeat the copy-protection software by pressing a single computer key.

This has angered the company behind the software, SunnComm Technologies, which is now planning to sue him.

It is just one of the firms working on ways to make it harder to copy and trade music over the internet.

Press shift

Mr Halderman found that SunnComm's MediaMax CD-3 software could be bypassed by simply holding down the shift key on a Windows PC when a copy-protected CD was inserted into a disc drive.

This temporarily disables the autorun function on Windows, stopping a anti-piracy program from installing itself on the computer.

I don't think telling people to press the shift key is a violation of the DMCA


John Halderman, graduate student


The software was used on a CD, Anthony Hamilton's Comin' From Where I'm From, released last month

In a statement, SunnComm said Mr Halderman had violated criminal provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, (DMCA), by revealing the secrets of the anti-piracy measures.

"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," said the firm.

It said the company had lost more than $10 million of its market value since the report had appeared on the web.

But there are suggestions that the company may not pursue the matter.

The Daily Princeton campus newspaper has quoted SunnComm CEO Peter Jacobs as saying that a lawsuit would do little to reverse the damage done.

Digital piracy

Mr Halderman, who is studying for a doctorate in computer science, said SunnComm had not contacted him directly.

"I'm still not very worried about litigation under the DMCA, I don't think there's any case," he said.

"I don't think telling people to press the shift key is a violation of the DMCA."

Various firms are trying to find ways of protecting future album releases from piracy.

The music industry blames a sharp fall in CD sales on digital piracy through online file-sharing services.

But so far, most technologies developed to protect music against copying have fallen short.

Lawnkiller

In one word - no.

In three words - its just stupid.

elexes

the case will be thrown out if the judge has ever used a pc in his life . they dont stand a chance of making this stick .

irishgeo

Dont think they are bothering now as its too much bad press.

i_am_dogboy

Maybe they should sue microsoft for having a function that disables autorun and wont let their anti-piracy software work, there would be far more money to get than from a student and it's a far less ridiculous reason to sue someone.

Valentia

Mabye he shoulld sue SunnComm for attempting to install a programme on HIS PC without his permission :mad:

Capt'n Midnight

How did that company expect to sell such a lame product. Surely thier customers should sue them. "eh, yes well the anti-piracy software only works if the user allows it to.."

Can you uninstall the software afterwards ??
(or just set a kill bit in IE)

flamegrill

This software is obviously flawed as it would only protect the cd on windows OS anyways. Madness doing it using software, it has to be down to physical changes in the media to stop copying. They are muppets.

[CrimsonGhost]

I think legal action should be taken against the student. No court would convict him, and it would give such bad press to those who try such underhand techniques that it would benefit everyone in the long run.

Mac daddy

that is stupid if any judge convicts him that judge should be shot.
All that for pressing the SHIFT key when cd gets copied using that software :mad: :eek: