10 Oct 2003
Get a Piece of My Mind

Clever, cute and funny. But will he sell them all?

He Thinks, Therefore He Sells. A California artist brainstorms and decides to sell options on his neurons. Right now the price is $10 per million neurons for a piece of his mind. By Ryan Singel. [Wired News]

00:00 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link

Suncomm has a Change of Heart

Awwww, they changed their minds! Morons ....

SunnComm won't sue grad student. In an abrupt reversal, the antipiracy company decides not to sue the Princeton University grad student who published a paper that describes how to bypass CD copy protection technology. [CNET News.com - Front Door]

00:00 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link

Hit the shift key, go to jail

Earlier this week, I mentioned a report by a Princeton researcher on the utter uselessness of the newest copy protection technology in use by the record companies. Basically, it depends on the 'autoplay' feature of most computer CD drives to work. If you've disabled autoplay (which I always do, by default) or if you hold the 'shift' key down while inserting your new, protected CD in a Windows machines, you can copy things just fine.

In my inbox this morning was a missive from Politech concerning this:

Suncomm Threatens Legal Action

SunnComm Technologies Inc. (OTC: STEH - News), a leader in digital content security and enhancement for optical media, announced today that it intends to take legal action against the writer of a critical report titled: "Analysis of the MediaMax CD3 Copy-Prevention System." According to Peter Jacobs, SunnComm's CEO, "The conclusions contained in the Princeton University grad student's report issued last Monday were derived from incorrect assumptions by its author. The author did not ask for, or receive, SunnComm's MediaMax 'white paper' documentation available on the technology prior to concluding that 'MediaMax and similar copy-prevention systems are irreparably flawed ...'"

SunnComm believes that by making erroneous assumptions in putting together his critical review of the MediaMax CD-3 technology, Halderman came to false conclusions concerning the robustness and efficacy of SunnComm's MediaMax technology. Based on several of these incorrect assumptions, Halderman and Princeton University have significantly damaged SunnComm's reputation and caused the market value of SunnComm to drop by more than $10 million.

In addition, SunnComm believes that Halderman has violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by disclosing unpublished MediaMax management files placed on a user's computer after user approval is granted. Once the file is found and deleted according to the instructions given in the Princeton grad student's report, the MediaMax copy management system can be bypassed resulting in the copyright protected music being converted or misappropriated for potentially unauthorized and/or illegal use. SunnComm intends to refer this possible felony to authorities having jurisdiction over these matters because: 1. The author admits that he disabled the driver in order to make an unprotected copy of the disc's contents, and 2. SunnComm believes that the author's report was "disseminated in a manner which facilitates infringement" in violation of the DMCA or other applicable law.

So, telling people to hit the 'shift' key to disable autoplay for audio CD's is now a felony!

Un-fucking--believeable! But hey - I'm the kinda guy who's not afraid to take a chance, so here's a sure fire method to copy any audio CD out there, even without a computer!

  • Get a tape recorder.
  • Insert blank cassette of the appropiate length.
  • Place recorder next to speakers.
  • Press 'record' on the recorder.
  • Press 'play' on CD player.

You now have an illegal copy of a record companies precious 'intellectual property' - if the tape recorder/mike was good enough, and you have access to some decent sound editing software you should be able to redigitize the file into an MP3 or OGG and play it where ever and whenever you want.

And telling you this is sure to get me 20 to life, maybe even the needle!
Look, Ma, I'm a felon!

00:00 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link