SunnComm Sees The Light: Ditches Lawsuit Plans

from the no-surprise-there dept

It seems that the quick and loud response over SunnComm's announced plans to sue have worked. In less than 24 hours, SunnComm has gone from plans to sue the student who discovered that their copy protection could be defeated by using the "shift" key on your computer to saying that they don't want to create a "chilling effect" on research and won't sue. Of course, they do take a few potshots, saying that "the damage has been done" and a lawsuit wouldn't solve that. This is, of course, almost an exact replica of what happened to the student's adviser, Ed Felten, two years ago (on whose blog I found this story). The RIAA threated to sue, and then immediately turned around (when faced with public outcry) and said that they wouldn't. Still, it seems pretty clear that the "chilling effects" are still there, unless you can raise a similar public outcry. Basically, these companies will use the DMCA to threaten people, and hope that they get scared away. The few people who fight back (and can make a stink about it) are told "oh no, we were just kidding, run along now and tinker away...."