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Japher
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Ook! Ook! Ack! Ack! Ack!
Jun 2002
time: 05:31
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LINK
quote:
Student skirts CD's piracy guard
SOFTWARE COMPANY SAYS IT KNEW OF `SHIFT' TRICK
By Elise Ackerman
Mercury News
A Princeton University student has found he can defeat a highly touted computer program to prevent music piracy with the stroke of a single key: ``Shift.''
In a paper posted on his Web site Monday, graduate student John Halderman, 22, said he got around restrictions built into the CD ``Comin' From Where I'm From,'' by Anthony Hamilton, a soulful R&B artist. The CD, released by BMG's Arista Records last month, was heavily promoted as the first to use copy-management technology. Software included on the CD limited consumers to burning only three regular copies or to sending promotional copies that timed out after 10 days.
But Halderman managed to stop the software from installing itself on his PC.
``In practice, many users who try to copy the disc will succeed without even noticing that it's protected, and all others can bypass the protections with as little as a single key stroke,'' he wrote.
Nathaniel Brown, a BMG spokesman, admitted the restrictions could be bypassed by a determined consumer. But he likened the software, made by SunnComm Technologies, to a ``speed bump'' that would deter ordinary consumers from casually making multiple illegal copies.
``It's not going to stop a hacker or someone who wants to mass-copy,'' he said.
Brown said the company chose to use the technology anyway because it ``offers a new level of playability'' -- which means consumers can now play the CD in their cars.
Lawsuits filed
BMG, a Bertelsmann subsidiary, and other music companies have sought to discourage mass copying by taking 261 people to court last month for sharing songs without permission and threatening other lawsuits.
SunnComm said Halderman made circumventing its software sound too easy, and that the company already knew about the loophole. Halderman's paper could be considered a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a controversial law which prohibits making devices that circumvent copy-prevention measures, said Peter Jacobs, president of the Phoenix company.
``I don't see how telling people to press the shift key can be a circumventive device,'' said Halderman in an interview.
`Hall of fame'
``This technology is going to end up in the hall of fame beside the previous Sony technology that was famously defeated by drawing on the CD with a felt-tipped pen,'' wrote Edward Felton, Halderman's adviser, who publishes a Weblog, ``Freedom to Tinker.'' A Princeton professor, Felton was threatened by the Recording Industry Association of America in 2001 when he sought to publish research on vulnerabilities in digital watermarking technology.
Jacobs said he had no intention of suing Halderman under the copyright act, and that the student should spend his time researching something more worthwhile. He said, ``This just isn't one of the weighty issues of the world.''
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Man. I don't pirate anything nor do I really buy any CDs. Yet the stupidty surrounding these people is beyond me. The RIAA puts security measures on their CDs and some kid says "Hey, I can get around it by pressing SHIFT, and that's it, you should make it harder." And the RIAA says stop wasting your time, we should sue you, this isn't a world issue... Yet they'll make it one by suing everyone in the world with a SHIFT key!
I hate RIAA and I hope the get thrown from a helicopter
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mrmitchell
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quote:
``It's not going to stop a hacker or someone who wants to mass-copy,'' he said. |
Bullshit. It's not going to stop anyone. At all. My grandma could figure out how to circumvent ANY copy-protection idea they've released yet.
...we haven't had an RIAA thread in a while. they suck
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08-10-2003 23:53
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