initial ruling in the case, which upheld the DMCA and barred even linking to Web sites that contain DeCSS or other circumvention devices, was highly controversial in parts of the Internet and open source software communities.
In a more recent case involving a cryptography challenge issued by the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI), a multi-industry consortium of companies trying to create a standard for secure digital music, Princeton University professor Edward Felten was threatened with a DMCA lawsuit by SDMI if he published a paper on his findings regarding how to break SDMI's proposed watermarking technology.
Though Felten did not present the paper, he is now suing both SDMI and the Recording Industry Association of America Inc. (a conglomeration of record companies and the force behind SDMI) to allow publication of his paper.
Copyright 2001 IDG News Service, International Data Group Inc. All rights reserved.
