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Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft
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------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Thu, 08 Aug 2002 15:18:02 -0400 To: politech@politechbot.com From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> Subject: FC: Microsoft refuses to make DMCA claim against Xbox researcher Send reply to: declan@well.com
[No DMCA threat, no problems with presenting, no chilling effect, not bad. --Declan]
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To: presslist@eff.org From: Will Doherty <wild@eff.org> Subject: EFF: Paper Explains Flaw in Videogame Security System, Researcher Escapes Chilling Effect of Digital Copyright Law : :
Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Advisory
For Immediate Release: Thursday, August 8, 2002
Contact:
Lee Tien Senior Staff Attorney Electronic Frontier Foundation tien@eff.org +1 415 436-9333 x102 (office), +1 510 501-8755 (cell)
Paper Explains Flaw in Videogame Security System
Researcher Escapes Chilling Effect of Digital Copyright Law
San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is pleased to announce that former MIT doctoral student Andrew "Bunnie" Huang will present a paper explaining a security flaw in the Microsoft Xbox (TM) videogame system.
Huang will present his paper, "Keeping Secrets in Hardware: the Microsoft X-BOX Case Study," at 5:25 p.m. PDT on August 13, 2002, at the 2002 Workshop on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems (CHES 2002) in Redwood City, California (Aug. 13-15, 2002).
The Xbox security system is intended to allow people to play only videogames authorized by Microsoft. Huang's paper "shows how a person could defeat that system with a small hardware investment," said MIT Professor Hal Abelson, one of Huang's advisors. "More importantly, the paper relates the security vulnerability to a general design flaw shared by other high-profile security systems such as the government's Clipper Chip and the movie industry's Contents Scrambling System (CSS) for DVD players."
Huang contacted EFF in March after his advisors told him that his preliminary findings raised potentially significant legal questions. With the help of Boston College law professor Joe Liu, EFF worked with Huang, Abelson, and MIT administrators to analyze the legal issues and draft letters notifying Microsoft of Huang's research findings and intended publication, one of the steps encouraged by Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Microsoft told Huang and Abelson that while it might prefer that the paper not be published, it would be inappropriate to ask MIT to withhold the paper.
"Microsoft deserves praise for making no attempt to control publication," said Abelson. "Their response shows that they value academic freedom, and that they appreciate the critical role of unfettered research and publication in advancing technology."
Other companies have reacted otherwise, using the DMCA to threaten researchers. The Recording Industry Association of America last year warned Princeton Professor Edward Felten after his research team exposed weaknesses in digital music security technologies. Last month, Hewlett Packard (HP) threatened research collective SnoSoft over exposing a security vulnerability in HP's Tru64 Unix operating system. Soon after, HP clarified that it would not use the DMCA to stifle research or impede the flow of information that would improve computer security.
Huang said that while he is glad he can openly present his paper, "The DMCA clearly had a chilling effect on my work. I was afraid to submit my research for peer review until after the EFF's efforts to clear potential legal restraints."
"Researchers should be analyzing security, not worrying about getting sued," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Lee Tien.
For this release: http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/20020808_eff_bunnie_pr.html
For Huang's paper: ftp://publications.ai.mit.edu/ai-publications/2002/AIM-2002-008.pdf
For the CHES program: http://islab.oregonstate.edu/ches/program.html
EFF "Unintended Consequences: Three Years Under the DMCA" report: http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/20020503_dmca_consequences.pdf
RIAA sues Professor Edward Felten over SDMI: http://www.eff.org/Legal/Cases/Felten_v_RIAA/
An article about Hewlett-Packard's threatening SnoSoft: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,54297,00.html
About EFF:
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil liberties organization working to protect rights in the digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages and challenges industry and government to support free expression and privacy online. EFF is a member-supported organization and maintains one of the most-linked-to websites in the world at http://www.eff.org/
-end-
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