SunnComm Says Pointing to Shift Key 'Possible Felony'

The Importance of writes "A couple of weeks ago BMG released an audio CD with a new type of DRM. Earlier this week, a computer science graduate student at Princeton wrote a report showing the DRM was ineffective - it could easily be defeated by use of the 'shift' key. The stock of the DRM company (SunnComm) has since fallen by 20%. Now, SunnComm plans to sue the student under the DMCA and claim that SunnComm's reputation has been falsely damaged. According to SunnComm's CEO, 'No matter what their credentials or rationale, it is wrong to use one's knowledge and the cover of academia to facilitate piracy and theft of digital property.'"

SunnComm == ZomboCom ?

[jamie]

I think these two websites were separated at birth:

http://www.sunncomm.com/index2.html [sunncomm.com]

http://www.zombo.com/ [zombo.com]

Suing the wrong person

[Anonymous Coward]

They need to sue Microsoft for allowing common users to see what services are running. No user has any business looking at what processes are running on their systems.

Ever get that

[Mr Guy]

April fools in October feeling? Slashdot poll: Initial reaction to SunnComm's suit: 1) You've got to be fucking kidding me? 2) You've got to be fucking kidding me? 3) You've got to be fucking kidding me? 4) You've got to be fucking kidding me? 5) Cowbody Neal has got to be fucking kidding me?!

Dude, where's my question mark!

[Black Parrot]

1. Market defective product
2. Watch the news
3. Sue the messenger
4. Profit!

This one seems to be a sure thing; no question marks required.

Re:SunnComm == ZomboCom ?

[MikeXpop]

I love zombocom. Perfect parody of oh so many sites that have excrutiatingly long flash intros. It's great when someone annoying asks for a link on where to buy something.

Annoying person: Hey, do you know where I can buy [insert obscure product]?

Me: I think they sell one of those over at Zombocom. [link] Just wait past the flash intro

Works every time.

Bad techs

[Anonymous Coward]

It seems that that company doesn't have much of a technical base to start off.

For example, visiting http://www.sunncomm.com/video/video.asp [sunncomm.com] using i686+Linux+Mozilla gives the error message "Sorry, this feature is not available to Macintosh users at this time"

If they can't do something as mediocre as a browser check with javascript (can't even COPY-PASTE it from any of the free resources online), is it really a surprise that their DRM software can be bypassed by hitting shift ?

Stolen Functionality

[wembley]

Everyone knows Apple was using the key to disable system extensions years before MS was.

After all, how else could you defeat the Oscar the Grouch in the Trash can?

I want to call them...

[metrazol]

...and tell them I have a shift key and autorun disabled.

'Ere is the number, J.H.

SunnComm
602-267-7500

[Don't believe me? Look at the press release, near the bottom.]

Re:Perfect test case...

[seanadams.com]

This is so nutty its unbelievable.

That's not coffee!!!

SunnComm sues Linux users...

[Bull999999]

SunComm sues Linux users because its software won't run on Linux based OSes.

SunnComm CEO: They ought to recomplie the kernel with the support for our software because we all know that you are a pirate if you use any OSes that doesn't use DRM.

On the other news, SCO sues SunnComm because SunnComm has letters S C O in it and also for violating SCO's patent on stupid lawsuits.

Re:Ever get that

[Tackhead]

> [Ever get that] April fools in October feeling? Slashdot poll: Initial reaction to SunnComm's suit: 1) You've got to be fucking kidding me? 2) You've got to be fucking kidding me? 3) You've got to be fucking kidding me? 4) You've got to be fucking kidding me? 5) Cowbody Neal has got to be fucking kidding me?!

1) What the fuck?
2) What the fucking fuck?
3) What the fucking fuck fuck?
4) Cowboy Neal doesn't even know what the fucking fuck fuck

(I have no point, I just like banging my head against the desk, screaming "What the fucking fuck fuck?" at the top of my lungs)

What About Linux?

[jameskojiro]

They need to sue linux because you can mount a volume and stip the thing clean. But hey didn't SCO say linux was their code.... I know! They should sue SCO because their code is in Linux! Boy that would be a fun little legal match!

Re:Ever get that

[Anonymous Coward]

1) What the fuck?

2) What the fucking fuck?

3) What the fucking fuck fuck?

4) Cowboy Neal doesn't even know what the fucking fuck fuck

5) ????

6) Profit

Re:Perfect test case...

[GoofyBoy]

I use Linux. I eagerly await my court summons.

Re:Perfect test case...

[Anonymous Coward]

Please contact [e-mail]

New book out that I've been missing?

[SeanTobin]

Is there a new 'Corporate fuckups for dummies' book out that I haven't seen yet? RIAA, SCO, and now SunnComm seem to have all read the same book.

Re:Perfect test case...

[frodmann]

My linux install doesn't have an autorun feature. Do I need to install extra software to enable their copy protection.

Re:Perfect test case...

[Anonymous Coward]

Expect to be sued tomorrow.

compliance with the dmca

[11223]

i don't know about you, but i am in total compliance with the dmca in this case

Re:he-he

[Anonymous Coward]

naa. he used THE CAPS LOCK KEY to type one letter. our legal team advised him of this for security against lawsuits and stuff.

what has the world come to?

Re:Cannot use stock market as evidence

[BeBoxer]

What they forget to mention in the press release, is that a 20% drop seems to represent a whopping 3 cents. From 15 cents to 12 cents. I'm sorry, if you're stock is that close to being worthless, I think an academic paper is the least of your problems.

Re:he-he

[Nucleon500]

what has the world come to?

i sincerely hope you used the alt-077 keystroke to type your question mark. i've decided to not use upper case or shifted keys at all to avoid legal hassles. forgive the bad quoting, i had to use code instead of html because tags are now illegal to type.

Option #6

[Genjurosan]

6) Use the information provided in the article and call:

SunnComm Technologies Inc., Phoenix
Kimberly Faulkner, 602-267-7500

and express... "You've got to be fucking kidding me?"

Re:SunnComm == ZomboCom ?

[tyroney]

I was power-browsing, and went to open a few new windows... unfortunately I was in IE at the moment. And on my zombo.com window. So I wound up with multiple windows going at the same time... talk about some trippy echo effects. I'm going home now.

Shrinkwrap anyone? :)

[saikou]

"By opening this CD case you agree to be bound by the license and pay us one million dollars for each stupid lawsuit we can file against you for using our product"
Now that'd be a comprehensive EULA.
Though I probably should not give them any ideas... :)

Re:Perfect test case...

[ConceptJunkie]

No, that award would go either to "peronsalized" or "randomly hidden" menus, or even worse the Angry Fruit Salad that is the Windows XP default user interface (code name: Playskool)

No, wait, the real winner is hiding file extensions by default. _That's_ the most useless innovation.

New user: Gee, there's three icons called "setup". I don't know what these cryptic little icons mean.

Microsoft: But file extensions are confusing, and at Microsoft we stole^h^h^h^h^h learned a trick from Apple: Anything that confuses the user should simply be hidden.

New User: Then explain why you completely and arbitrarily rearrange Windows configuration every two years. And what about wireless setup on XP... it's cryptic _and_ useless. Why can't _that_ be easy?!

Microsoft: Shut up, that's why!

SunnComm: Lightyears beyond encryption... YA RIGHT

[panic911]

It was too tempting, I just had to take a screenshot of this...

http://www.digitalpropulsion.org/junk/sunncomm.gif [digitalpropulsion.org]

Re:Perfect test case...

[Amorpheus_MMS]

>I absolutely hate Autorun and find it one of the
>most useless "innovations" of the last decade.

Because when you put in a CD, you usually don't want to do anything with it? :)

(XP even has content specific autorun actions, which is neat.)

Re:SunnComm == ZomboCom ?

[oobar]

Heh... that's hilarious. It almost sounds like they got MojoJojo to do the voice over. Now that would rock.

And sunncomm's site? Holy jesus, that's ugly. It looks like one of those garish monstrosities from when the web was first blessed with the "<blink>" tag. How could anyone take that flashy garbage seriously?

And I really want to know if there's like a class or something that everyone takes in design school, titled "How to use stock pictures of overenthusiastic women with fisheye distortion to sell your product." It seems to be a staple of crappy ad copy, the "hot chick" in a distorted picture that overemphasises the tired, fake facial expression.

Re:Did Jacobs just say something really stupid?

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

Copyright is a temporary loan from the public domain, not property.

That is such an excellent summary of copyright. I'm going to register it.

Amnesty

[DrDNA]

I have auto-run turned off.

You're in luck. The RIAA has just announced its amnesty program, whereby you send them a signed affidavit stating that you put auto-run back on and promise to never again disable it. They in turn promise to not sue you in the near (but not intermediate or distant) future.

Re:"We'll fix it later" != security

[TPFH]

In this case 'future enhancements' means that they are going to break into people's houses while their out and install the software on their computers for them.

Anyone trying to uninstall the software afterwards will be in volation of the DMCA.
Anyone reporting someone breaking into their home will be in violation of the USA PATRIOT Act.

Re:FUCK YOU very much.

[zerocool^]

I will not deny that this technique will be used to make copies of music but I refuse to consider that "piracy" or immoral.

It's not even that! He bought the damn thing, he wanted to make a backup of it. He is legally entitled to do so. It just so happens that he wanted his backup in .mp3 and not .suck, or whatever proprietary, non portable, encrypted bullshit they put on the CD.

~Will

SLASHDOT OUTLAWS SHIFT KEY

[Anonymous Coward]

Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!
Reason: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.

Re:Funny... I would have defeated it without tryin

[kellererik]

yes, and for that reason i'm not using the shift key to answer to you

my 2 cents

Re:divergent paths in a yellow wood

[elvum]

Darn - just when I'd finished metamorphosing into a speaker bracelet, too.

Re:Start shooting.

[Gordonjcp]

Guess what? I live in a civilised country. Not like the US, where you can be locked up for discussing ROT13.

Two minutes work with Google and a couple of standard Unix tools will reveal my home address and mobile telephone number. Bring your "Secret Service" kiddies on.