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Shift-key lawsuit withdrawn

Written by Jari Ketola @ 12 Oct 2003 1:00 User comments (14)

SunnComm Technologies, Inc. has stepped down from the lawsuit it was planning against a student for revealing how their copy protection can be circumvented.
Alex Halderman released his findings regarding MediaMax CD3 copy protection, and revealed, that it can be simply diverted by disabling Windows' autorun -feature, or just by pushing the shift-key when inserting the CD.

According to SunnComm CEO Peter Jacobs suing Halderman would do little good at this point -- the harm has already been done, and SunnComm doesn't want to scare computer scientists from studying copy-protection technologies in the future.

Source:
Daily Princetonian

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14 user comments

112.10.2003 15:03
loaded
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Moderator

Interesting to note that the word 'shift' is similar in all but one letter to the word 'shit' hmmmm Paul.

212.10.2003 15:29
Toiletman
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Senior Member

intresting to note that the word shift is smiliar in all but one letter to the word "sift". But anyway, one lawsuit down, (insert big number here) more to go.

313.10.2003 04:30
alxdotnet
Inactive

They knew they couldn't win. I mean, come on. How long would it have taken some hacker to figure that out. I personally always use shift when inserting any CD I'm going to rip, because I don't want the 'enhanced' content loading while I'm copying the CD.

413.10.2003 09:36
phuocle
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Junior Member

Actually, I would have liked to see this go to trial and have the company lose its ass. We need something in the case law to support us consumers and show how far companies are taking the DMCA.

513.10.2003 10:23
symon
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Newbie

What would be really funny is if the record companys that use SunnComm sues them because there anti copying system is crap and no longer work as it should.

613.10.2003 10:23
symon
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Newbie

What would be really funny is if the record companys that use SunnComm sues them because there anti copying system is crap and no longer work as it should.

713.10.2003 12:14
alxdotnet
Inactive

DMCA seems to go against the innoncent-until-proven-guilty concept. Programs that circumvent copy protection are illegal because people COULD use them to pirate DVDs and CDs. What about the other 99.999% of us who just want to rip a DVD once in a while to play on an old laptop without a DVD drive or something.

813.10.2003 14:32
Toiletman
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Senior Member

They ignore that fact, that's what they do.

913.10.2003 14:46
Hrtbrkn
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Newbie

I always disable the "autoplay" feature in Windows..... for data and DVD's...

1013.10.2003 15:21
Praetor
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Moderator

Aye... that damn autoplay is a pain in the arse.... a good intent ill give them but poor implementation at best.

1113.10.2003 15:47
alxdotnet
Inactive

No reliable copy protection scheme can depend on the secrecy or tricks like that. Did they honestly expect every single person to fall for that? I sure hope not. I'd question their intelligence if they did.

1214.10.2003 08:03
Random69
Inactive

Hmmmm.. Should have sued Microsoft because their software allow circumvention of copy protection... (after all, they designed the shift key to prevent autorun, thereby defeating the copy protection). How far WILL this DMCA crao go?

1314.10.2003 10:32
alxdotnet
Inactive

Good point Random69. DMCA is out of control. We need a case similar to Roe vs. Wade to set a much more favorable precedent.

1422.6.2004 17:55
PARALLAXX
Inactive

MediaMax copy protection...What is the driver name and where is it located(if you don't hit the shift key first that is...)?

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