Monday, October 13, 2003

http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2003/10/2003101302t.htm

Software Maker Backs Off Threat to Sue Graduate Student for Uncovering Security Flaw
By ANDREA L. FOSTER

SunnComm Technologies Inc. said on Friday that it would not sue a Princeton University graduate student for issuing a report critical of the software the company designed to thwart music piracy. The announcement was an abrupt about-face for the Phoenix-based company, which only a day before had said it would sue the student (The Chronicle, October 10).

The graduate student, John Alex Halderman, is studying computer science. His report says consumers can easily defeat the company's MediaMax copyright-protection technology on CD's. By simply holding down the shift key for a few seconds after inserting a CD into a computer that runs Microsoft's Windows operating system, the MediaMax system can be defeated, he asserts.

Peter Jacobs, chief executive officer of SunnComm, said the publicity surrounding Mr. Halderman's report caused the company's stockholders to lose $10-million from Monday to Wednesday. But he distanced himself from SunnComm's news release on Thursday, which stated that Mr. Halderman had violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. A provision of the copyright act makes it illegal to disable any technology aimed at protecting copyrighted works from unauthorized duplication.

Mr. Jacobs said SunnComm had decided against litigation "in deference to the bigger picture."

"We feel that bringing legal action for damages against researchers in a higher-learning environment may contribute to a chilling effect on the type of research that faculty, staff, and students elect to pursue."

He maintained that Mr. Halderman's review of the MediaMax technology was inaccurate. The company considered security features as "second in importance to achieving SunnComm's goal of near-universal playability and the delivery of an exceptional consumer experience," he said.

"He was reviewing a rabbit, and we were selling a duck," added Mr. Jacobs.

SunnComm says MediaMax's primary goal is to provide CD buyers with a legal way to make and share copies of the music they purchase, and have it securely stored on their computers.

But Mr. Halderman said an early news release from SunnComm had boasted about MediaMax's security features.

"I think they were painting a much-less-clear picture of the technology's capabilities before my report was released," he says.

Mr. Halderman, a first-year graduate student who is 22, says his research adviser is Edward W. Felten. Mr. Felten is a noted Princeton computer scientist who unsuccessfully sought immunity from prosecution under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act on grounds that the anti-disabling provision hinders the ability of computer scientists to do research.