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PRINCETON PROFESSOR KEEPS CRACKIN’ ON

Sues RIAA, Verance As A Way To
Stay Out Of Court

Princeton University professor Edward Felten, several academic colleagues and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have filed suit in federal court to have Felton’s research into defeating electronic watermarks declared legal for publication.

The suit names the RIAA, watermark company Verance and four "John Does" (representing other technology firms whose codes professor Edward Felten claims to have cracked) as well as the U.S. attorney general as defendants. Felton described the action as a preemptive measure aimed at avoiding possible lawsuits when he presents his research to the scientific community this August. See how that works? The best way to avoid litigation is to start some yourself—and as we all know, litigation is the engine that drives this burgeoning economy of ours. Indeed, without the swift hand of justice dispensing, uh, justice each and every day, none of us would ever be able to get anything done. God bless the courts and the humble, upright men and women of the bar.

But anyway, Felton had originally intended to present his group’s work, which stems from their participation in last year’s code-cracking contest sponsored by the Secure Digital Music Initiative, at a different pointy-headed confab last year, but withdrew after receiving a creepy letter from the RIAA. Said letter indicated that releasing the research might subject Felton and his associates to legal action under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which contains so-called "anti-circumvention" provisions for security technology.

Responding to the suit, RIAA legal counsel Cary Sherman indicated that the RIAA never intended to sue. "We have unequivocally and repeatedly stated that we have no intention of bringing a lawuit against Professor Felten or his colleagues," Sherman said in a statement. Then, in a bit of lawyerly neener-neener, "It seems that the professor, or the Electronic Frontier Foundation, would have preferred that we sue in order to keep their publicity machine running."

Today, the EFF shot back with a statement of its own: "RIAA attorneys spent nearly a month on the phone threatening litigation against everyone associated with publishing the research paper and demanding changes to the paper. RIAA attorneys only started issuing press statements to the contrary after they succeeded in squelching the scientists. EFF and the plaintiffs seek not only publication of this research paper without fear of prosecution, but a clear legal determination that no one needs the permission of the record companies before publishing and presenting scientific work.

For their part, John Does one through four issued the following statement: "We would like to make our position perfectly clear on this issue, but since we are mere abstractions who don’t really exist, we don’t have one. But whatever Dave Manning says goes double for us."

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