Re: 10/10/03 - [STEH] CNET: SunnComm won't sue grad student
SunnComm won't sue grad student
Last modified: October 10, 2003, 9:07 AM PDT
By Declan McCullagh
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
In an abrupt reversal, SunnComm Technologies said Friday that it would not sue a Princeton University graduate student who had published a paper that describes how to bypass CD copy protection technology simply by pressing the Shift key.
SunnComm had angrily assailed Princeton doctoral student John "Alex" Halderman just a day before, claiming that his academic paper was "at best, duplicitous and, at worst, a felony." The company had pledged to file a civil suit against Halderman under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and lobby federal prosecutors to indict him on criminal charges.
Without specifying a reason, SunnComm president William Whitmore told CNET News.com on Friday that the company had abandoned its promised litigation. Whitmore said the company was preparing a statement to be released later in the day.
SunnComm's threats had drawn enormous attention in a short time, with some legal analysts saying a lawsuit would represent an egregious abuse of the DMCA, which broadly prohibits "circumventing" copy-protection technologies. The law does contain narrow exceptions for reverse engineering and academic research, though two proposals in Congress would make the exemptions far broader.
Halderman's paper, published Monday and titled "Analysis of the MediaMax CD3 Copy-Prevention System," describes flaws in the MediaMax technology SunnComm sold and BMG Entertainment used on an Anthony Hamilton CD it released last month. It concludes that "most users who would be affected can bypass the system entirely by holding the shift key every time they insert the CD," an action that prevents the MediaMax drivers from loading.
Since Halderman's paper appeared, SunnComm's shares have slipped precipitously, losing about $10 million in value. The company's stock appears on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board and was trading at $0.109 on Friday morning.
Without giving specifics, SunnComm's original statement indicated that the company had planned to sue Halderman and claim libel or defamation in addition to the DMCA charges. "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," the original statement said. "SunnComm is taking a stand here because we believe that those who own property, whether physical or digital, have the ultimate authority over how their property is used."
Halderman could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday. "I expect I will be well-represented in the case of a lawsuit," the computer science student said Thursday. "If pressing the Shift key is a violation of the DMCA, then the law needs to be changed."
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