From shift keys to felonies

[R. Andrew Lamonica]

Using a clever combination of the DMCA an Audio CD from BMG’s with SunnComm’s  latest Digital Rights Management and your keyboard you can commit a felony.  Here is how and why.

1.   To allow CD players and other non-computers to play the latest DRM CD’s from  BMG the company SunnComm proposed that rather then corrupt the index track of the CD as most Digital Rights Management software does it would be better to just use Windows’ AutoRun feature.  

2.   Using this feature software is installed on your computer when you put CD in your drive.  This software is in the form of a CD-ROM driver that looks at the CD it is about to read and prevents it from being read if it has protected content.  

3.   Any Windows’ security document you read says that it is a bad idea to let an un-trusted CD run software.  

4.   So when you put a CD in the drive that you do not expect to have software on it or one whose contents are unknown you should disable the autorun setting first or hold the shift key down (which does the same thing only on a one time basis).

5.   However, beware; the DMCA makes it illegal to circumvent copy protections of any kind regardless of how stupid or worthless they are.  So, technically, preventing the install of this driver is illegal and thus if you time it correctly so is pressing the shift key.

Admittedly, even the music industry is not vindictive enough to go after people from pressing the shift key.  However, they (SunnComm) are going after a CS student who wrote a paper describing how to use the shift key to stop this copy protection.

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/10/09/2211259

[Chris Swingler]

I don't care how screwed up the DMCA or our legal system is, that case doesn't stand a chance.  The EFF will probably defend the student, if neccessary.  Using a well-documented Windows command is not illegal, under any circumstances.  SunComm is trying to do nothing other than save face.

The EFF released a short statement regarding it today... I found this a little humorus:

"What more proof do you need that the DMCA is chilling legitimate research?" asked EFF senior staff attorney Fred von Lohmann. "In America today, scientists shouldn't have to fear legal action for publishing the truth. Based on the apparent weakness of its technology, perhaps SunnComm should be hiring more Princeton computer scientists, instead of threatening to sue them."

See http://www.eff.org/news/breaking/archives/2003_10.php#000585

--Beanie

[Chris Swingler]

This didn't last too long.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=12041

"IT SEEMS that Sunncomm, which wanted to throw the book at a student for describing a method using the SHIFT key to circumvent its copy protection, has backed off, probably sensing the full blown mess of a PR Catastrophe."

Damn... I was hoping it would show the public just how ridiculous the DMCA can be.

--Beanie

[DaleDoe]

Illegal to stop autorun?  If anything should be illegal, it should be illegal to automatically run software without the knowledge and consent of the user.  I think autorun is a bad idea, but forcing a user to autorun would be a very bad idea.