The recording industry claims it is illegal to discuss or provide technology that might bypass industry controls on recorded music.
By: Jeff Milgram
A Princeton University computer scientist has filed a lawsuit he hopes will clear the way for his research team to present a paper on encrypted music technology.
"I think we’re in the right here, and I hope the legal system will recognize that," Associate Professor Edward W. Felten said Monday.
On Wednesday, Professor Felten and his team filed suit in federal court in Trenton against the recording industry and the U.S. Justice Department.
Professor Felten’s research team included Princeton University scientists Bede Liu, Scott Craver and Min Wu. Also on the research team, and named as plaintiffs, are Rice University researchers Dan Wallach, Ben Swartzlander and Adam Stubblefield.
Another scientist and plaintiff is Drew Dean, who is employed in Silicon Valley, and USENIX Association, the nonprofit professional group of computer engineers scientists and technicians that is sponsoring the August symposium where Professor Felten hopes to present the paper.
The suit asks the court to issue a declaratory judgment, in effect a ruling on whether it would be legal for the paper to be presented at the Washington symposium, Professor Felten said.
The Justice Department is named as a defendant because of a question of criminal prosecution of the USENIX Association, Professor Felten said.
The other defendants are the Recording Industry Association of America, the Secure Digital Music Initiative Foundation and the Verance Corp., which designed a "watermark" that attempts to protect digital music from unauthorized copying.
The suit challenges the constitutionality of the anti-distribution section of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which the recording industry claims makes it illegal to discuss or provide technology that might be used to bypass industry controls on recorded music.
Professor Felten said the paper would show that technologies the recording industry hopes will stop unauthorized copying will not work.
Princeton University, which is not a party to the lawsuit, is backing Professor Felten.
"We’re extremely supportive of Professor Felten and his team’s efforts to publish his paper," said university spokesman Steven Schultz. The university is providing legal assistance, he said.
Professor Felten had tried to present the finding at a conference in April. But he said he backed down from delivering his speech after receiving a letter from the Digital Music Initiative Foundation threatening a lawsuit.
Professor Felten said his team has also been threatened with lawsuits by the Recording Industry Association of America and Verance Corp.
Professor Felten is being represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco and several New Jersey lawyers.
"The industry is blaming the messenger," Professor Felten said.
In a statement posted on its Web site, the Recording Industry Association of America said, "The Secure Digital Music Initiative Foundation does not nor did it ever intend to bring any legal action against Professor Felten or his co-authors."
The association added, "For the record, the Recording Industry Association of America, one of the founding members of SDMI, strongly believes in academic freedom and freedom of speech."
The SDMI sponsored a public challenge in September 2000, asking people to try to break its watermark technologies, designed to control access to digital music. When the scientists were able to defeat the watermarks, including one developed by Verance, and were planning on delivering their paper in April, Professor Felten received a letter threatening legal liability from Matthew J. Oppenheim, senior vice president for legal affairs for the Recording Industry Association of America.
"When scientists are intimidated from publishing their work, there is a clear First Amendment problem," said Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "We have long argued that unless properly limited, the anti-distribution provision of the DMCA would interfere with science. Now they plainly have."
Ellie Young, executive director of USENIX, said, "We cannot stand idly by as USENIX members are prevented from discussing and publishing the results of legitimate research."
Robin Gross, an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said, "The recording studios want to control how consumers can use the music they buy. Now they want to control scientists and publishers, to prevent consumers from finding out how to bypass the unpopular controls."