Threatened Lawsuit Over Princeton CD Paper Dropped

[Whoa_Nelly]

Threatened Lawsuit Over Princeton CD Paper Dropped
Fri Oct 10, 6:16 PM ET

By Ben Berkowitz

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A software company, citing academic freedom, has backed away from a threat to sue a Princeton student who published details on how to thwart its CD copy-protection technology.


Peter Jacobs, the chief executive of SunnComm Technologies Inc. (OTC BB:STEH.OB - news), told Reuters on Friday the company disputed the conclusion by Princeton student Alex Halderman that its software was "irreparably flawed," but would not pursue the matter because it did not want to chill academic research.

Halderman, who is working on a doctorate in computer science, posted a paper on his Web site earlier this week detailing the ways SunnComm's MediaMax software could be defeated. These included simply holding down the "Shift" key on a keyboard, while loading the disc in to a CD drive.


SunnComm did not contest that finding, but earlier said the paper cost the company more than $10 million in market capitalization.

more...
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nm/20031010/wr_nm/media_sunncomm_dc&e=1

ROFLMFAO!! And to think only a couple of days ago, they were all over this student to sue him. Seems the info that he can expose them for CDs that place a driver on peoples' computers without their knowledge would just not bode well financially for SunnComm at all.
:evilgrin:

[Devils Advocate NZ]

1. They would have lost the lawsuit, that is why they have dropped it.

The method Halderman talked about is common knowledge among Windows programmers (or should be) as it is documented in the Windows SDK. In fact, based on that documentation, SunnComm should actually be suing Microsoft. However, considering that their "security" application uses a documented Windows feature, it would be impossible to win.

Suppressing AutoRun Programmatically
There are a variety of situations where AutoRun may need to be suppressed programmatically. Two examples are:

Your application has a setup program that requires the user to insert another disc that may contain an Autorun.inf file.
During the operation of your application, the user may need to insert another disc that may contain an Autorun.inf file.
In either case, you will normally not want to launch another application while the original is in progress.

Users can manually suppress AutoRun by holding down the SHIFT key when they insert the CD-ROM. However, it is usually preferable to handle this operation programmatically rather than depending on the user.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/shellcc/platform/shell/programmersguide/shell_basics/shell_basics_extending/autorun/autoplay_reg.asp

[Whoa_Nelly]

2. Exactly!

And well put, Devils Advocate! :toast:

[Gman]

3. That's $10 million in market capitalization they shouldn't have had

in the first place because of a shitty product that they intended to market as the greatest thing since recorded sound.