Student CD piracy lawsuit dropped

[Skunk]

What fool thought up a protection system based on Windows Autorun - when most computer savvy people permanently disable this annoying feature?

In any event, the Music company itself should be thankful that this student spotted their error before it was released into the European markets, not only because of the sheer waste of money - but also because they would have themselves been guilty of a massive computer crime: hacking.

The crime of 'Hacking' in the EU shares the same definition as that laid down recently in India, namely:
Whoever with the intent to cause or knowing that he is likely to cause wrongful loss or damage to the public or any person destroys or deletes or alters any information residing in a computer resource or diminishes its value or utility or affects it injuriously by any means, commits hacking."

or in the UK, where it is defined in the Computer Misuse Act as:
A person is guilty of an offence if—
he does any act which causes an unauthorised modification of the contents of any computer; and
(b) at the time when he does the act he has the requisite intent and the requisite knowledge.
(2) For the purposes of subsection (1)(b) above the requisite intent is an intent to cause a modification of the contents of any computer and by so doing—
(a) to impair the operation of any computer;
(b) to prevent or hinder access to any program or data held in any computer; or
(c) to impair the operation of any such program or the reliability of any such data.",

So, if you install software that disables/modifies other computer programs and or alters the normal running of the machine, without the knowledge of the user, then you are guilty of hacking...


Student CD piracy lawsuit dropped

software company has dropped a threat to sue a US student who published details on how to get around anti-piracy technology on a new music CD.
The company behind the software, SunnComm Technologies, said it did not want to hamper academic research.

Last week computer science graduate John Halderman showed how to defeat the copy-protection software by pressing a single computer key.

Several firms are looking at ways to make it harder to share music online.

Mr Halderman found that SunnComm's MediaMax CD-3 software could be bypassed by holding down the shift key on a Windows PC when a copy-protected CD was inserted.

This temporarily disables the autorun function on Windows, stopping a anti-piracy program from installing itself on the computer.

The software was used on a CD, Anthony Hamilton's Comin' From Where I'm From, released last month

SunnComm has originally said it was going to sue to Mr Halderman for revealing the secrets of the anti-piracy measures.

But following publicity surrounding the case, the company's boss has backed away from the threat of legal action.

"It wasn't our intention to strike a blow against research," Peter Jacobs told the news agency Reuters.

"We sincerely thought that the research was not founded on the premise for which the technology was invented in the first place."

"(The research) doesn't dilute our technology at all, nor does it nullify our technology."

The music industry blames falling CD sales on digital piracy and file-sharing online.

It is looking at new technologies to stop what it sees as rampant copying of compact discs and the sharing of those files online.

But so far, most technologies developed to protect music against copying have fallen short.

[wellard]

Thanks for the info Skunk [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

[Timber Loftis]

Maybe CD sales have fallen in part due to file sharing, but I would also say that we shouldn't be expected to buy when lots of crappy music is churned out these days. Besides, what's the shelf life of a song -- like 3 minutes? I mean I can turn on the radio today and hear the newest Linkin Park/Puddle of Mudd/Justin song, which sounds very similar to the one released last month, and will be very similar to the one next month.

The rapid pace of the industry should share the blame, I think. If they created a system where a new album is yesterday's news by the time it hits the shelf (especially since the "teaser" single was released 2 months prior and has already played through the charts to #2 and back down again), can they blame me for not bothering to buy such a short-lived product?

Anyway, I do buy CDs. Lots of them. Some have a long shelf-life: the Offspring's Americana still sees regular radio play, for instance, and it's 5 years old. But, I do understand why sales could be dropping. Between the radio, MTV, and Mitsubishi commercials, we have plenty of other non-pirating places to get our tunes.

However, I will flip sides here at the end and note that the few high schoolers I know rip CDs from offline LIKE IT'S GOING OUT OF STYLE (erm... which it may be).

Howabout rather than the record industry suing parents (who aren't the ones at fault) they lobby Congress to pass a law mandating detention and community service after school for ripping files? that would get 90% of the wrongdoers. [img]graemlins/biglaugh.gif[/img]

[Zero Alpha]

Originally posted by Timber Loftis: Howabout rather than the record industry suing parents (who aren't the ones at fault) they lobby Congress to pass a law mandating detention and community service after school for ripping files? that would get 90% of the wrongdoers. [img]graemlins/biglaugh.gif[/img]

'Ripping' files isnt the issue. ripping is turning an original CD into an MP3. the problem is people who share files via a peer to peer system are breaking the DMCA and copywrite law in america. i canada of course its completely legal . and lol @ Detention. i agree, most music 'pirates' seem to be teenagers who got their hands on Kazaa or its 'Lite' flavor. .