[IETF-IDRM] Fwd: [IDRM] Fwd: SDMI demands Princeton prof "destroy" paper
about vulnerability
Thomas Hardjono
thardjono@mediaone.net
Sat, 19 May 2001 23:55:27 -0400
>Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2001 09:44:29 -0700
>From: Thomas Hardjono <thardjono@mediaone.net>
>Subject: [IDRM] Fwd: SDMI demands Princeton prof "destroy" paper about
> vulnerability
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> >From: John Young <jya@pipeline.com>
>Subject: RIAA Warns SDMI Hackers
>To: cypherpunks@lne.com
>Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2001 22:36:45 -0400
>
>RIAA and The SDMI Foundation on April 9 warned Ed Felten
>and his researchers not to publish their paper about the
>weaknesses of the SDMI content protection system at the
>4th International Information Hiding Workshop to be held
>April 25-29, 2001. Their paper is public:
>
> http://cryptome.org/sdmi-attack.htm (41K text with 11 images)
>
>Zipped text and images:
>
> http://cryptome.org/sdmi-attack.zip (328K)
>
>***********
>
>http://cryptome.org/sdmi-attack.htm
>
> April 9, 2001
>
> Professor Edward Felton
> Department of Computer Science
> Princeton University
> Princeton, NY 08544
>
> Dear Professor Felten,
>
> We understand that in conjunction with the 4th International
> Information Hiding Workshop to be held April 25-29, 2001, you and your
> colleagues who participated in last year's Secure Digital Music
> Initiative ("SDMI") Public Challenge are planning to publicly release
> information concerning the technologies that were included in that
> challenge and certain methods you and your colleagues developed as
> part of your participation in the challenge. On behalf of the SDMI
> Foundation, I urge you to reconsider your intentions and to refrain
> from any public disclosure of confidential information derived from
> the Challenge and instead engage SDMI in a constructive dialogue on
> how the academic aspects of your research can be shared without
> jeopardizing the commercial interests of the owners of the various
> technologies.
>
> As you are aware, at least one of the technologies that was the
> subject of the Public Challenge, the Verance Watermark, is already in
> commercial use and the disclosure of any information that might assist
> others to remove this watermark would seriously jeopardize the
> technology and the content it protects.1 Other technologies that were
> part of the Challenge are either likewise in commercial use or could
> be could be utilized in this capacity in the near future. Therefore,
> any disclosure of information that would allow the defeat of those
> technologies would violate both the spirit and the terms of the
> Click-Through Agreement (the "Agreement"). In addition, any disclosure
> of information gained from participating in the Public Challenge would
> be outside the scope of activities permitted by the Agreement and
> could subject you and your research team to actions under the Digital
> Millennium Copyright Act ("DCMA").
>
> ____________________
>
> 1 The Verance Watermark is currently used for DVD-Audio and SDMI
> Phase I products and certain portions of that technology are trade
> secrets.
>
> We appreciate your position, as articulated in the Frequently Asked
> Questions document, that the purpose of releasing your research is not
> designed to "help anyone impose or steal anything." Further more, you
> participation in the Challenge and your contemplated disclosure
> appears to be motivated by a desire to engage in scientific research
> that will ensure that SDMI does not deploy a flawed system.
> Unfortunately, the disclosure that you are contemplating could result
> in significantly broader consequences and could directly lead to the
> illegal distribution of copyrighted material. Such disclosure is not
> authorized in the Agreement, would constitute a violation of the
> Agreement and would subject your research team to enforcement actions
> under the DMCA and possibly other federal laws.
>
> As you are aware, the Agreement covering the Public challenge narrowly
> authorizes participants to attack the limited number of music samples
> and files that were provided by SDMI. The specific purpose of
> providing these encoded files and for setting up the Challenge was to
> assist SDMI in determining which of the proposed technologies are best
> suited to protect content in Phase II products. The limited waiver of
> rights (including possible DMCA claims) that was contained in the
> Agreement specifically prohibits participants from attacking content
> protected by SDMI technologies outside the Public Challenge. If your
> research is released to the public this is exactly what could occur.
> In short, you would be facilitating and encouraging the attack of
> copyrighted content outside the limited boundaries of the Public
> Challenge and thus places you and your researchers in direct violation
> of the Agreement.
>
> In addition, because public disclosure of your research would be
> outside the limited authorization of the Agreement, you could be
> subject to enforcement actions under federal law, including the DMCA.
> The Agreement specifically reserves any rights that proponents of the
> technology being attacked may have "under any applicable law,
> including, without limitation, the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright
> Act, for any acts not expressly authorized by their Agreement." The
> Agreement simply does not "expressly authorize" participants to
> disclose information and research developed through participating in
> the Public challenge and such disclosure could be the subject of a
> DMCA action.
>
> We recognize and appreciate your position, made clear throughout this
> process, that it is not your intention to engage in any illegal
> behavior or to otherwise jeopardize the legitimate commercial
> interests of others. We are concerned that your actions are outside
> the peer review process established by the Public Challenge and setup
> by engineers and other experts to ensure the academic integrity of
> this project. With these facts in mind, we invite you to work with the
> SDMI Foundation to find a way for you to share the academic components
> of your research while remaining true to your intention to not violate
> the law or the Agreement. In the meantime, we urge you to withdraw the
> paper submitted for the upcoming Information Hiding Workshop, assure
> that it is removed from the Workshop distribution materials and
> destroyed, and avoid a public discussion of confidential information.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> [Signature]
>
> Matthew Oppenheim, Secretary
> The SDMI Foundation
>
> cc: Mr. Ira S. Moskowitz, Program Chair, Information Hiding Workshop,
> Naval Research Laboratory
> Cpt. Douglas S. Rau, USN, Commanding Officer, Naval Research
> Laboratory
> Mr. Howard Ende, General Counsel of Princeton
> Mr. Edward Dobkin, Computer Science Department Head of Princeton
> _________________________________________________________________
>
>***********