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Shift-key lawsuit withdrawn

12 October 2003 13:00 by Jari Ketola | 14 comments

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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loaded (Moderator) 12 October 2003 15:03
Interesting to note that the word 'shift' is similar in all but one letter to the word 'shit' hmmmm Paul. I'm back... ...can't you smell the fear? [ + quote]
Toiletman (Senior Member) 12 October 2003 15:29
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. When you are on your deathbed, you will wonder, "Did I waste my life? Was it worth spending all that time on that?" Do not despair, no one has wasted their life. After all, you can only waste something if you throw it away. And you can't throw life away. [ + quote]
alxdotnet (Inactive) 13 October 2003 4:30
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. Comp 1: Dell Inspiron P4 2.4Ghz / 512 MB RAM Comp 2: Dell Dimension P3 550Mhz / 384MB RAM [ + quote]
phuocle (Junior Member) 13 October 2003 9:36
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. Phuoc Le http://www.phuoc.com [ + quote]
symon (Newbie) 13 October 2003 10:23
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. [ + quote]
symon (Newbie) 13 October 2003 10:23
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. [ + quote]
alxdotnet (Inactive) 13 October 2003 12:14
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. Comp 1: Dell Inspiron P4 2.4Ghz / 512 MB RAM Comp 2: Dell Dimension P3 550Mhz / 384MB RAM [ + quote]
Toiletman (Senior Member) 13 October 2003 14:32
They ignore that fact, that's what they do. When you are on your deathbed, you will wonder, "Did I waste my life? Was it worth spending all that time on that?" Do not despair, no one has wasted their life. After all, you can only waste something if you throw it away. And you can't throw life away. [ + quote]
Hrtbrkn (Newbie) 13 October 2003 14:46
I always disable the "autoplay" feature in Windows..... for data and DVD's... [ + quote]
Praetor (Moderator) 13 October 2003 15:21
Aye... that damn autoplay is a pain in the arse.... a good intent ill give them but poor implementation at best. ASUS A7V8X-X, AMD2500+ Samsung 1024MB, PC2700 360GB [3x120GB, 7200, 8MB] MSI Starforce, GeForce4 Ti4400 128MB AFTERDAWN IRC: irc.emule-project.net, #ad_buddies COME SAY HI! [ + quote]
alxdotnet (Inactive) 13 October 2003 15:47
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. [ + quote]
Random69 (Inactive) 14 October 2003 8:03
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? [ + quote]
alxdotnet (Inactive) 14 October 2003 10:32
Good point Random69. DMCA is out of control. We need a case similar to Roe vs. Wade to set a much more favorable precedent. Comp 1: Dell Inspiron P4 2.4Ghz / 512 MB RAM Comp 2: Dell Dimension P3 550Mhz / 384MB RAM [ + quote]
PARALLAXX (Newbie) 22 June 2004 17:55
MediaMax copy protection...What is the driver name and where is it located(if you don't hit the shift key first that is...)? [ + quote]