I've reinstalled my shift key

Frank Field finds the best comments on /.

macdaddy357: He doesn’t understand the implications of what he said at all. If I purchase a CD, it is my personal property. I have the absolute right to do with it as I see fit. Alex Halderman of Princeton University is only showing us how to take back our rights as property owners. Jacobs, and all the a-holes at Sunncomm are the ones trying to deny us our rights. They are the crooks here. They claim that they are protecting “intellectual property.” That term is a highly offensive misnomer. Copyright is a temporary loan from the public domain, not property. (emphasis added)

While, the encrypted cd may technically be covered under the DMCA, do we really want to protect such weak technological measures?

Audio CD DRM Defeated by Use of ''SHIFT'' Key
ACM reports that "SunnComm won't sue Alex Halderman ... at least, not this time..."

LawMeme: "Apparently the system can be defeated, among other ways, by holding down the "SHIFT" key when inserting a CD in your computer's CD drive."

Derek Slater: "I don't see how his paper is a "device", or how a shift key fits the language of 1201(a)(2) ... But the fact that we're even having this discussion is ridiculous. It's a total joke. Yet I'm not laughing."

See also Raff, Copyfight, 213, Freedom to Tinker and Displacement of Concepts.

Oct 15, 2003: You must visit Derek Slater for continuing coverage of SunnComm and Haldermann.