Simple Flaw in CD-Copy Protection System?

[Nottingham]

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/redir.php?jid=2243753f5...

Simple Flaw in CD-Copy Protection System?
Tue October 7, 2003 03:00 PM ET
By Ben Berkowitz
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Princeton graduate student said on Monday that he has figured out a way to defeat new software intended to keep music CDs from being copied on a computer -- simply by pressing the Shift-key.

In a paper posted on his Web site late Monday, John Halderman said the MediaMax CD3 software developed by SunnComm Technologies Inc. STEH.OB could be defeated on computers running the Windows operating system by holding down the Shift key, disabling a Windows feature that automatically launches the encryption software on the disc.

Halderman said the protection could also be disabled by stopping the driver the CD installs when it is first inserted into a computer's drive.

Computers running Linux and older versions of the Mac operating system are unable to run the software and are able to copy the disc freely, he said.

more.... Interesting article

[Junkdrawer]

1. Does that mean the grad student goes to jail under DMCA??

What a crazy law.

[Must_B_Free]

2. No - he wasn,t the source of the leak - he only reported it.

:

[even]

3. HA!HA!

These idiots can't do it right. Remember the last one when a black marker on the edge defeated it.

[UnAmericanJoe]

4. It's a futile effort

And it always will be.
The drive to prevent this sort of thing will always be countered by those who want to show it can be done.
These companies are doing nothing but wasting time and money with each new attempt. As they use more forceful tactics they only inspire people to work harder to thwart them.

Of course this latest effort was pretty pathetic...

[rexcat]

5. The link to John Halderman's web page

http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~jhalderm/home/resume.html

An interesting read!

[w4rma]

6. Waste of time and money, IMHO, to try to develop a copy protection system

for computer storage devices.

They should just put something annoying up and then forget about trying to do more.

[0rganism]

7. The very idea of copy-protecting readable memory is a bit funny

Of course its much funnier to see the pathetic attempts of Microsloth to enforce such a ridiculous notion.