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Microsoft sues over source code theft (News.com)
According to this
News.com article, Microsoft has taken a new approach to dealing with
the ongoing cracks of its DRM system: claim that the developer stole
Microsoft's code and launch a lawsuit. "'Our own intellectual
property was stolen from us and used to create this tool,' said Bonnie
MacNaughton, a senior attorney in Microsoft's legal and corporate affairs
division. 'They obviously had a leg up on any of the other hackers that
might be creating circumvention tools from scratch." How this theft
is said to have happened is not made particularly clear.
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Microsoft sues over source code theft (News.com) Posted Sep 27, 2006 17:11 UTC (Wed) by dmarti (subscriber, #11625) [Link] Text ad from the article:Remove DRM from Music
Another fun (for those who don't have maintaining proprietary boxes in our job responsibilities) observation is that the MSFT DRM has as a "feature" that it can be updated quickly from the home office. Let's see, "drm cracks per year" times "probability that a patch breaks something else" equals how much DRM-caused downtime per year?
The dangers of DRM... Posted Sep 28, 2006 0:58 UTC (Thu) by dps (subscriber, #5725) [Link] It is unclear what the evidence, or lack thereof, is in this case. The DRM update feature *should* strike fear into the people---do you really trust MSFT DRM updates not to inlcude spyware or other malware, whether acidimentally or deliberately? Remember that M$ et al have distributed virii on with their paid-for software probably acidentally.
Are you really sure that crackers can not forge DRM updates which are malign? Anyone that manages to do this presumably automatically owns millions of boxen with minimal risks. The AV vendors would not want to risk legal threats related to the anti-circumvention bits of the DMCA.
LWN readers are probably more worried about the above than the people whose defection would really hurt M$. If a few governments, or very large corporates, decided that using any M$ software just was too risky and probited it entirely then things would probably happen.
The dangers of DRM... Posted Sep 28, 2006 4:46 UTC (Thu) by bryanr (guest, #25324) [Link] Interesting. Please enumerate the MSFT products + versionsthat unintentionally included malicious, non-Microsoft code..
Bonus points for specifics on how it was injected.
The dangers of DRM... Posted Sep 28, 2006 5:36 UTC (Thu) by eru (subscriber, #2753) [Link] Wasn't there very recently a big ruckus about Microsofts "genuine advantage" program collecting data about the user and sending it to MS without telling him/her? The piece of software got installed as part of routine Windows updates. Granted, that was not malicious non-MS code, but the user and MS may occasionally have different ideas about what counts as malicious (If I recall correctly, people still using dial-up modems reported PC:s initiating net connections for transferring the data, which has usually causes real cost$ for them).
The dangers of DRM... Posted Sep 28, 2006 15:03 UTC (Thu) by jhardin (guest, #3297) [Link] I seem to remember a story about a CD master being created on in infected workstation a while back (5 or more years?) and all the CDs were infected.
The dangers of DRM... Posted Sep 28, 2006 15:33 UTC (Thu) by gnb (subscriber, #5132) [Link] Seehttp://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/wazzu.shtml but yes, that was a long time ago.
Microsoft sues over source code theft (News.com) Posted Sep 27, 2006 17:34 UTC (Wed) by clugstj (subscriber, #4020) [Link] It seems obvious to me that they filed the court papers for the express purpose of giving clout to the takedown letters they are sending to sites hosting the tool. My prediction: they will never prove the "stolen" part of this.
Microsoft sues over source code theft (News.com) Posted Sep 27, 2006 18:52 UTC (Wed) by mikov (subscriber, #33179) [Link] It doesn't matter if they can prove it. In a lawsuit it will cost each side hundreds of thousands of dollars to even get to the point where any proving actually has to occur. In the end, even if Microsoft can't prove anything, they only lose their own expenses (which they can more than afford).
In an astouding number of cases the US justice system literally translates to "money=justice". In practice, if you cannot afford the outrageous expenses (think at least several hundreds of dollars per hour!!), it turns out that you are guilty until proven innocent. It can be shocking to realize that it really is like that - not an exaggeration.
No sane individual or small company can gight against that and survive (unless EFF picks up the tab?). So, it is an excellent business strategy for Microsoft.
Microsoft sues over source code theft (News.com) Posted Sep 27, 2006 19:11 UTC (Wed) by bronson (subscriber, #4806) [Link] Didn't work for CSS, won't work now. Microsoft can play whack-a-mole all it wants but, no matter how many billable hours it spends, it won't be able to stop people from removing DRM from their files.
Microsoft sues over source code theft (News.com) Posted Sep 27, 2006 19:22 UTC (Wed) by rknop (guest, #66) [Link] But they can make lots of individuals' lives miserable in the mean time, which remains a miscarriage of justice even if DRM isn't something that can ever work in the long term.
Microsoft sues over source code theft (News.com) Posted Sep 27, 2006 19:59 UTC (Wed) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link] Bah, screw Microsoft.
Just point out to people that this is the sort of crap they do and you simply cannot trust them. They'll put their marketting and their business partners ahead of you every single time.
I think that people have this impression that DRM is like this nessicary evil that comsumers will fall for in order pay large amounts of money to watch re-runs of old TV shows and movies on their computer and their cell phones. They maybe figure that it's a sham to make media companies happy and that like with Itunes with it's ability to burn music CDROMs that it's always going to be easy to work around.
So this guy comes out, makes a nice program to make people's computer portion of their lives a bit easier to stand while using Microsoft... And gets sued for it.
So MS is actually serious about inflicting DRM on it's customers.
Going to the lawsuit may not cost Microsoft much, but if they loose a few tens of thousand customers to Free software it will.
Microsoft sues over source code theft (News.com) Posted Sep 27, 2006 20:42 UTC (Wed) by rogerd (guest, #4170) [Link] Unfortunately it will take tens or hundreds of MILLIONS of customers to get their attention. Other than that, I'm one on the ten thousand with you. Comcast is next on my hit list.
Microsoft sues over source code theft (News.com) Posted Sep 27, 2006 20:46 UTC (Wed) by mikov (subscriber, #33179) [Link] Why Comcast ?
Microsoft sues over source code theft (News.com) Posted Sep 27, 2006 22:14 UTC (Wed) by rogerd (guest, #4170) [Link] I really don't want to crowd this topic. Sorry.
Comcast seems like another monopoly in my area that is jacking with us to provide more DRM content, HDTV. I will have to succomb to their marketing methods and STB to receive anything beyond local channels, most of which I do not watch. Dish competes, but you have to have a dish and STB. I'm asking the networks to stay off the encrypted signals with at least part of their programming.
Microsoft sues over source code theft (News.com) Posted Sep 28, 2006 1:57 UTC (Thu) by zotz (guest, #26117) [Link] I, on the other hand, am looking for my cable company to go all digital and perhaps encrypted if it means I can keep my cable internet and drop my cable tv bill. Right now, I have to buy and pay for the tv side, which I don't want, in order to get the internet side.
all the best,
drew
IPTV Posted Sep 28, 2006 4:51 UTC (Thu) by bryanr (guest, #25324) [Link] High fidelity IPTV is here today -- it's just called USENET
is the source code in question available in shared source form? Posted Sep 27, 2006 20:15 UTC (Wed) by atai (subscriber, #10977) [Link] Then Microsoft's plot is deeper than it seems...
Microsoft sues over source code theft (News.com) Posted Sep 29, 2006 17:06 UTC (Fri) by segphault (guest, #27468) [Link] Next thing you know, SCO will be suing Microsoft for infringing on a business methods patent.
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