"The USENIX Association today confirmed the inclusion
of a controversial research paper to its Security Symposium to be
held in Washington, DC next month. The paper reveals inherent
security risks with the recording industry's digital music
access-control technologies. Dr. Edward Felten, the Princeton
University scientist who was a key member of the research team,
will also participate in a panel discussion about the paper's
recent legal wrangles.
The paper first came under fire from the recording industry in
April 2001, when Felten and other scientists from Princeton and
Rice Universities were prevented from presenting the paper at the
4th International Information Hiding Workshop. By June 2001, the
research team, USENIX, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
jointly asked a federal court for First Amendment protections for
the researchers and the paper. Although, RIAA, SDMI, and Verance
have since filed motions to dismiss and claim there was never a
real threat of litigation, the EFF continues to seek protection for
all private defendants and their ability to produce and publish
future work based on their research.
The paper, "Reading Between the Lines: Lessons from the SDMI
Challenge," is now scheduled to be presented on the evening of
August 15, 2001. Dr. Felten, EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn, and
Peter Jaszi of the American University will be analyzing the
paper's progress through the legal system in a panel discussion
immediately following the paper presentation.
