No, not to eliminate stupidity. To cover it up.
That’s the only thing I can figure behind the suit filed by SunnComm against Alex Halderman for revealing the big secret to bypassing SunnComm’s music CD copy protection scheme: hold down the Shift key.
See, SunnComm’s software is on the CD itself, and is read/installed automatically when the CD is put into a PC’s drive. Except you can apparently bypass that automatic installation by holding down the Shift key when loading the disc; the user gets the option of what components to run/install, and can simply skip over the protection programs.
Halderman posted this information on his web site. SunnComm, horrified that someone could reveal their cunning plan (and threaten the revenues they are counting on from the music industry) is suing.
“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.
Halderman also noted that the protection scheme could be disabled by stopping certain drivers the software loads. This, SunnComm claims, means that Halderman has violated the DMCA — not for actually doing anything, but for discussing how someone could do it.
(Insert usual rant about the DMCA. I have too much to do.)
(via Stupid Evil Bastard)
I found http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/33322.html “target=”new”>this amusing.
“It’s worth noting that the BMG distributed CD Halderman tested lacks the familiar CD logo. Thanks to the inclusion of SunnComm’s technology the disc can no longer be described as a CD – an item that has a very specific description as detailed in the standards documentation written by the format’s creators, Sony and Philips. A disc that doesn’t follow the standard to the letter can’t be described by its supplier as a CD.
Odd, then, that the EULA, as quoted above, claims it is a CD – and is arguably in violation of the CD licensing regulations. Just a thought… “
That’s funny.
I’d heard about Sony/Phillips putting the screws to folks that screwed around with the CD standard this way. The question is whether CD is a formal trademark as such, or whether all that they can restrict is using the familiar CD (“Compact Disc Digital Audio”) logo.
And that’s a much better article on the dust-up, Stan, than the one I linked to.