[ql06] Re: PROPERTY: DMCA suits get out of hand
- From: Sheldon Erentzen <sheldon.erentzen@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: ql06@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2003 09:08:26 -0400
Hey Steve,
good to see a new name on this newslist. Seems to me that Sunncomm's got
no case whatsoever (besides the waaa, waaa he said my pogram's no
good...to which the answer is of course: there...there Sunncomm, maybe
you shouldn't play in the big playground).
There is no contract here and therefore no breach. As a consumer,
Halderman should be well within his rights to report or complain about
the Sunncomm's shoddy work. I know, I know...Halderman wasn't acting as
your everday consumer but the question still arises, if he were, would
his publication of the system failures in the form of a complaint be
suit-worthy ?
sheldon
Steve Kennedy wrote:
>As reported earlier this month by the CBC, a Princeton student noticed,
>while loading a music CD into his PC, that pressing the Shift key
>disables BMG's copy-protection software. The CD can then be easily ripped.
>
>Ah, basic compensation principles in contract law ought to take care of
>our nerdy hacker friend you might be thinking. Buddy read the EULA (ha,
>ha ha - who the hell reads those?!), clicked Yes, then started messing
>around with reverse engineering and all that. Let him chew on the
>"Hadley" rules...
>
>Let's see... Software company says it lost $10 million since our friend
>breached contract and posted his info. Part 1 of "Hadley" says that in
>breach of contract the P. can recover losses that fairly and reasonably
>arise from the nature of the contract or losses that were supposed to
>have been contemplated by the parties at the time the contract was made.
>Part 2 says P. can recover losses that flow from his communication of
>special circumstances when D's knowledge of those special circumstances
>would reasonably allow him to realize that P. might suffer some
>extraordinary loss. QED cough up the $10 million.
>
>But wait, this gets better... Did our hacker hero agree to the bound by
>the evil EULA contract?
>
>Not really, he simply ignored it. Ordinarily, clicking on the "No"
>button under the EULA causes the CD to be ejected. Of course, clicking
>"Yes" means you agree to be bound by pages of legal handcuffs that make
>sure you spend the rest of your life doing workfare if you break the
>copy protection scheme. But in this case, the software protection was so
>shoddy you could ignore the EULA screen altogether and still access the
>music on the CD -- all without consenting to the EULA's contract clauses.
>
>Now the software-maker is suing the student for publicizing his find on
>the 'net. We'll see if their lawyers are as crappy as their engineers.
>
>Here's the link to the student's web site:
>http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~jhalderm/cd3/
>
>By the way, did you know that pressing the Start key on the photocopiers
>in the law library allows you to disable the copy-protection on books?
>Oops,I better shut up, I can't afford a lawsuit right now.
>
>
>
>
>Princeton Student Sued Over Paper on CD Copying
>Thu October 9, 2003 06:07 PM ET
>By Ben Berkowitz
>
>LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Three days after a Princeton graduate student
>posted a paper on his Web site detailing how to defeat the
>copy-protection software on a new music CD by pressing a single computer
>key, the maker of the software said on Thursday it would sue him.
>
>In a statement, SunnComm Technologies Inc. said it would sue Alex
>Halderman over the paper, which said SunnComm's MediaMax CD-3 software
>could be blocked by holding down the "Shift" key on a computer keyboard
>as a CD using the software was inserted into a disc drive.
>
>"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," it said.
>
>SunnComm, which trades on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board, said it
>has lost more than $10 million of its market value since Halderman
>published his report.
>
>The software was used on a CD, Anthony Hamilton's "Comin' From Where I'm
>From," released last month. Halderman, who has done research in the past
>on other CD protection technologies, said the software could also be
>disabled by stopping a driver the software loads on the computer when
>the CD is played.
>
>SunnComm alleged Halderman violated criminal provisions of the Digital
>Millennium Copyright Act in disclosing the existence of those driver files.
>
>Halderman -- who received an undergraduate degree from Princeton earlier
>this year and is now pursuing a doctorate in computer science with an
>emphasis on computer security -- said he had not yet heard directly from
>SunnComm in regards to litigation but was unconcerned.
>
>"I'm still not very worried about litigation under the DMCA, I don't
>think there's any case," he told Reuters. "I don't think telling people
>to press the 'Shift' key is a violation of the DMCA."
>
>A spokesman for BMG, the unit of Bertelsmann AG that licensed SunnComm's
>software and released the Hamilton CD, declined to comment on the
>planned suit.
>
>The music industry, claiming a sharp decline in CD sales is the result
>of digital piracy through online file-sharing services, has worked to
>develop methods to secure music on discs and restrict its copying.
>
>Halderman's graduate advisor at Princeton is Ed Felten, a computer
>science professor who once sued the Recording Industry Association of
>America in a challenge to the constitutionality of the DMCA.
>
>The RIAA had threatened action under the DMCA against Felten and
>colleagues after they said they would publish a paper disclosing flaws
>in an industry security initiative. That suit was eventually dismissed.
>
>
>
>
>
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