Amerika Just Got More Stoopider

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OK, so there’s this new anti-piracy CD out. The anti-piracy measures were encoded into Anthony Hamilton’s “Comin’ From Where I’m From,” which was released last month (no, I’ve no idea who Anthony Hamilton is….).

On Tuesday (Oct. 7), I saw a news.com article detailing how a Princeton student had figured out how to disable this anti-piracy messure using the hi-tech method of … holding down the SHIFT key while loading the CD (disables autorun, so the anti-piracry program cannot run).

I laughed when I read it, but I thought to myself, “Someone is going to sue this guy for this…”

Yesterday, on Kuro5hin I read a (humor) story about how the Bertelsmann Group (parent of whatever company that released said CD) was suing the student based on DMCA violations.

Judging from the comments on the story, a lot of people were at least initially sucked in because, hey, it could happen. Look at all the other silly (to me) suits filed because of alleged DMCA violations and how crazy the RIAA is about file swapping/pirating and so on.

Sure, it’s a stretch – the SHIFT key, fer god’s sake – but it could happen.

*SIGH*

Guess what?

That’s right.

It happened.

The company that developed the anti-piracy measure – SunnComm Technologies Inc. – is planning on suing the student for potentially both DMCA violations, and for damaging the reputation of the company (its stock has dropped as a result of the disclosure).

So potentially both civil (reputation damages) and crimminal (DMCA violations) suits.

Super.

First of all, this is moronic, and a new low in hi-tech lawsuits.

Secondly, I love that SunnComm may sue for damage to their reputation. Here is a quote from a Reuter’s article:

“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.”

— SunnComm statement

How can a system be robust and efficacious if it can be disabled by that considerably low-tech circumvention of holding down a SHIFT key???

Are these guys morons?

(Hint: Yes! – see next graph!)

In the original Cnet story on the student’s findings, here was the record company’s (BMG) spokesman’s response to the finding:

“This is something we were aware of,” BMG spokesman Nathaniel Brown said. “Copy management is intended as a speed bump, intended to thwart the casual listener from mass burning and uploading. We made a conscious decision to err on the side of playability and flexibility.”

— BMG spokesman Nathaniel Brown

So, they knew about it – and admitted such to the press – yet are still are considering multiple suits against the evil-shift-key-finder.

So, they knew about it, yet still tout their system as robust.

Uh, can you say, “We f***ed up?”

And a couple of other random notes about this issue:

  • SunnComm says they knew about the SHIFT key issue, and their protection was a speed bump of sorts, to deter the casual pirate. OK…which means that the REAL pirates – the ones the RIAA etc. are so worried about – are the ones that SunnComm expects to be able to figure out the circumvention method? Shouldn’t they be more worried about these bad guy pirates more than the casual user?

  • And once ANY CD is compromised, it’s ripped and then it’s in the wild. And then anyone can get to it, so all the copy protection in the world is too late, correct? (Closing the barn door after the horses have fled or whatever the phrase is…)

  • While probably covered by some stupid EULA, isn’t there an issue with loading a program – not just the music – on a computer? Sounds like spyware. And I wonder if this program works on all platforms? And what possible damage this program could do (including simple privacy invasion potential…)

Sounds like SunnComm is trying to spin this issue to make themselves look less idiotic.

Guess what?

Not working…