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Subject: FC: Princeton student is latest to say he could be sued under DMCA
From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well ! com>
Date: 2002-11-26 4:14:43
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[Yes, this fellow could be sued, I suppose, but the suit would almost
certainly be thrown out of court. (Rule 11 sanctions, anyone?) Also, I'm
confused: Princeton has guaranteed a legal defense, but the student
self-censored the paper anyway to avoid hypothetical DMCA liablity? Maybe
Alex can explain. See: http://news.com.com/2010-12-950229.html --Declan]
---
"Straining Digital Copyright Law, Junior Paper Exposes Protection Flaws in CDs"
Daily Princetonian Online (11/21/02); Tauberer, Joshua
Alex Halderman, a senior computer science major at Princeton University,
has acknowledged the possibility that he could be sued by the music
industry for allegedly violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
(DMCA) if he presents a junior paper at the ACM Conference on Computer &
amp;Communication Security in Washington in the spring. His paper focuses
on weaknesses in the copy-protection systems of certain CDs, which exploit
certain software security holes. However, Halderman does not include any
methodology for bypassing such safeguards, and notes that he would only if
the DMCA did not exist. The student says the university has promised to
provide him with legal defense if a DMCA lawsuit is filed against him.
Princeton has previously supplied indemnification for students and faculty
when they were carrying out certain duties for the university, but General
Counsel Peter McDonough notes that defending research for research's sake
is without precedent. He adds that such a move carries the risk of having
his office accused of censorship if it refuses to recommend legal defense
for researchers; nevertheless, there are strong arguments that the DMCA
represents a serious threat to legitimate academic research. Last year, the
music industry sent a letter of warning to Princeton professor Edward
Felten, claiming that they would sue him for breaking the DMCA if he
published certain research. The university responded by forming a committee
that assesses threats to academic freedom by judicial strong-arming,
according to committee chair Edward Groth.
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2002/11/21/news/6433.shtml
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