Princeton student sued over CD copying statement

It seems there is no end to the adsurdity of litigation.

A company called SunnComm Technologies Inc., makers of the copy protection software that is included on new music CDs, has stated they intend to sue a Princeton graduate for publishing on his web site a way that he says would disable the software.

Alex Halderman, the student, said that by holding down the shift key while loading the CD into the disk drive, the software could be disabled.

SunnComm says that it has lost over $10 million of its market value since Halderman published his report.

I find it remarkable that the company is blaming Halderman for their market value loss. They are suing him under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Obviously, if their software could be so easily disabled, then it shouldn't have been worth a penny, let alone over $10 million. It's amazing to me that these executives would rather sue this guy, than to admit they have a lousy product and make strides at improving it.

Actually, I've been told that you can simply take a marker and cross out the portion of the CD where the copy-protection software appears, and that will void it. But I can't tell you that, lest I get sued.

Myself, if I wanted to copy a song, I wouldn't bother playing it from the disk drive. I would get an external CD player and simply patch it into the computer. The CDs will play just fine that way. Of course, I wouldn't want to tell you that either, lest I get sued.

Hey, SunnComm — instead of picking on this Halderman guy, how about recognizing the obvious: He has done you a favor by exposing a flaw in your software. Why not improve it, rather than blaming your failures on others, while trying to stifle free speech with litigation and intimidation? You are part of what is wrong with America.

Anyway, if your market share is primarily dependent upon CD sales, it seems destined to drop anyway. The trend in music sales is downloading songs from the internet. That train is leaving the station, you might as well be on board, or you're going to get left behind.

It seems the music industry is finally learning this. The new legal Napster is coming out this month. For $10 a month or 99 cents a song, a user can have as much music as they want and do virtually anything they want with it.

So, good luck with your lawsuit, guys! I think you're going to need it. And good luck improving your product, which is probably part of the reason CD sales have fallen, by the way.

No one likes a bully.