Princeton University Computer Science Technical Report TR 679-03 by John Halderman (discussion at Ed Felten's Freedom To Tinker) dissects a CD copy protection scheme by Sunncomm Technologies that is based on Windows' and MacOS X's autorun features: When you insert a protected CD into a computer, drivers are installed that give access to DRM-protected versions of the CD's content, and interfere with attempts to access the CD's audio tracks.
The scheme can be "broken" by disabling these drivers, or by turning off autorun. Also, the scheme is completely ineffective when Linux or MacOS 9 is run.
SunnComm has now threatened to sue the technical report's author for violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Later: Reactions, summarized by Donna Wentworth.
Still later: Sunncomm says it won't sue Halderman.
