CD Copy-Protection Firm SunnComm Says Won't Sue Researcher

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 10, 2003 - 4:41am.

Phoenix, Ariz. -- Less than twenty-four hours after announcing its intention to sue a Princeton grad student who published a report showing that its CD copy-protection technology could be defeated by depressing a PC's "Shift" key, SunnComm Technologies said Friday that it no longer intends to sue Alex Halderman. In a statement, the company now says that, "legal action would not repair the damage done and could potentially cause a 'chilling effect' on the type of research that faculty, staff, and students of institutions of higher learning elect to pursue in the future." Last Friday, Halderman published a report revealing that SunnComm's MediaMax CD3 technology, which was recently used to protect a mass market consumer album release from major label BMG, could be defeated by either depressing the "Shift" key or altering existing Windows files. Yesterday, SunnComm announced it would sue Halderman for damaging the company's reputation, and would turn over evidence to authorities for a possible criminal case against Halderman under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. "Had Mr. Halderman evaluated the product as a copy management solution that was purposely designed to deliver a licensed and legal structure for limited copying and sharing, he would have most likely yielded a different result," said SunnComm president Bill Whitmore. "Instead of being rated as 'flawed' his final conclusion may have found that it performed as it was intended to perform."
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/031010/105383_1.html
http://www.eff.org/news/breaking/archives/2003_10.php#000585
http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5089448.html
http://www.sunncomm.com