Delivered-To: dfarber+@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2003 08:48:02 -0400
From: "Paczkowski, John" <JPaczkowski@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: SunnComm to drop lawsuit against student
To: "'dave@xxxxxxxxxx'" <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2003/10/10/news/8797.shtml
Threat of lawsuit passes for student
SunnComm backs down from lawsuit against a computer science grad student
Josh Brodie
Princetonian Staff Writer
SunnComm Technologies, Inc. announced yesterday morning it would sue
first-year graduate student John Halderman over his recent critique of the
company's new CD copy-protection method, but by the end of the day SunnComm
president and CEO Peter Jacobs said he changed his mind.
Jacobs said in an interview late last night that a successful lawsuit
would do little to reverse the damage done by the paper Halderman published
Monday about his research, and any suit would likely hurt the research
community by making computer scientists think twice about researching
copy-protection technology.
"I don't want to be the guy that creates any kind of chilling effect on
research," Jacobs said.
SunnComm plans to make that announcement this morning.
Halderman's paper hit SunnComm hard. Since Monday its stock value has
dropped $10 million - one-third of the company's total worth.
"I just thought about it and decided it was more important not to be one
of those people. The harm's been done . . . if I can't accomplish anything
[with a lawsuit] I don't want to leave a wake," he said.
In the increasingly bitter wars between those advocating stronger
anti-piracy protections and those who favor less stringent copyright
enforcement, the decision against legal action represents one of a precious
few instances of companies looking past their bottom line.
"I think it's a sensible decision given the situation, given that what
[Halderman] was doing was perfectly legitimate," said computer science
professor Edward Felten. "[Jacobs is] to be commended for not wanting to
interfere with research."
Felten and some of his colleagues had been in a similar situation in
2001 when the Recording Industry Association of America - the same group
that sued Dan Peng '05 last semester for running a campus file-sharing
website - strongly urged the research group not to publish their work on
another copy-protection technology.
The RIAA said publishing the work would violate the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act.
SunnComm's press release threatened to use the same law against
Halderman.
SunnComm had also initiatially decided to sue Halderman because the
company thought he had unfairly critiqued their product after
misunderstanding their intent in designing it. Throughout its development,
the company's software, MediaMax, was designed to be a step toward curbing
casual copying rather than a silver bullet, Jacobs said.
However, Halderman claimed the company's allegations of "incredible
security" were overstated. As he pointed out, the system would not have
worked on any computer where autorun - the feature in Microsoft Windows that
automatically launches a program when a CD is inserted - was disabled.
When The Daily Princetonian informed Halderman that the suit was not
going to proceed, he was relieved.
"I think that's a horrible precedent," he said. "A large amount of
security research is critiques of existing security systems . . . The worst
thing in the world is a false sense of security."
Last November Halderman said he was concerned about presenting his
junior paper research to an audience of scientists for fear of being sued
under the DMCA. He said at the time the existence of the DMCA forced him to
carefully word his research so as to avoid a lawsuit.
Halderman plans to continue his research toward a doctorate and hopes to
pursue a career in computer security afterwards.
Even before Halderman published his paper, SunnComm had planned to
release a new version of its software that addresses many of the same
concerns Halderman raised.
"I don't want to be the people my parents warned me to stay away from,"
said Jacobs of his decision. "It's 10 million bucks, but maybe I can make it
back, and maybe [Halderman] can learn a little bit more about our technology
so as not to call it brain dead."