Was SunnComm's Anti-Copy Technology Weak On Purpose?

from the industry-giving-up? dept

An opinion piece by Hiawatha Bray in the Boston Glob suggests that everyone missed the "big" story in last week's story about how easy it was to break SunnComm's new copy protection technology. Bray notes that SunnComm's angry response didn't seem to focus on the fact that the technology was easily surpassed - but that this was considered a "flaw". Instead, they said that the technology was acting exactly as it was intended, with an easy workaround. Bray believes that the entertainment industry may be realizing that strong copy protection angers customers, and they're better off just using weak copy protection, which will keep most people in line. Of course, if that's the case, why bother at all? If it's not slowing down the ability for most people to get songs online, then what difference does it make?
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    dorpus, 13 Oct 2003 @ 10:37pm

    Heteroscedastic Economies

    To plot the distribution of file sharers, techies form one cluster and the ignorant masses form another. As long as the ignorant masses aren't aware of how to foil copyright protection, and arrogant techies pounce on people who ask them how, record labels can make money off the masses.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2003 @ 12:01am

    "Will keep most people in line"

    What does this mean? That people will simply not buy the CD because of this crap?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Tricky Buddha, 14 Oct 2003 @ 10:52am

    copy protection

    Doesn't someone breaking (even weak) copy protection open them up for DMCA prosecution as opposed to just copyright violations? The reasoning could be that its easier to 'get' people in court with the DMCA than with copyright protections.

    Also, it might have a psychological effect to keep some people from copying if they feel they need to circumvent some sort of protection before copying as opposed to just inserting the CD and ripping away.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.