On Monday Halderman published a report on his web site,
analysing the copy-protection system recently launched by SunnComm
Technologies on a CD album by Anthony Hamilton.
The software is designed to prevent further copies of the album
being made but, according to the report, simply holding down the
Shift key when a protected CD is inserted on a Windows PC should
prevent the software from being downloaded at all.
The report also detailed how the protection could be evaded in
the event that the software did download.
SunnComm, whose technology has already been licensed to and used
by BMG, announced yesterday that it intends to take Halderman to
court.
According to Peter Jacobs, SunnComm's CEO, "The conclusions
contained in the Princeton University grad student's report issued
last Monday were derived from incorrect assumptions by its
author."
As a result, says SunnComm, Halderman came to false conclusions
concerning the robustness and efficacy of SunnComm's MediaMax
technology. Based on several of these incorrect assumptions, says
SunnComm, Halderman and Princeton University have significantly
damaged SunnComm's reputation and caused the market value of
SunnComm to drop by more than $10 million.
SunnComm also claims that Halderman has violated the
controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which
prohibits people from using or distributing devices that can bypass
copyrights and copy prevention measures. Such action is a criminal
offence under the DMCA.
SunnComm is to refer the matter to law enforcement, on the
grounds that Halderman disclosed details of unpublished MediaMax
management files placed on a user's computer after user approval is
granted. If a user knows the identity of this file, and follows the
instructions given by Halderman, the copyright protection can be
bypassed, said SunnComm.
Jacobs remarked, "This cat-and-mouse game that hackers and
others like to play with owners of digital property is over. 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."
Fred von Lohmann, lawyer for rights group the Electronic
Frontier Foundation, had a different interpretation of events.
"What more proof do you need that the DMCA is chilling
legitimate research?" he asked. "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."
Last year it was revealed that technology developed by Sony
Music to protect CDs against copying could be cracked by using a
cheap felt-tip marker pen.
