THE music industry is being sued by scientists in the US for allegedly
violating their right to free speech.
The researchers want to publish details showing that watermarking technology
doesn鈥檛 work. The technology was designed to stop illegal copying or downloading
of music from the Internet. The researchers claim the Recording Industry
Association of America (RIAA) has tried to warn them off, saying they鈥檒l be in
breach of copyright if the details are made public.
鈥淲hen scientists are intimidated from publishing their work, there is a clear
First Amendment problem,鈥� says Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic
Frontier Foundation, which is backing the researchers. However, the RIAA says it
is baffled by the move and has never sought to gag the scientists.
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Record companies set up the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) in 1998 to
find a way of protecting MP3 music files. Recorders and players would refuse to
handle unauthorised copies without a watermark. Stung by accusations that its
watermarks might be easy for hackers to remove, the SDMI posted watermarked
music samples on its website in September last year. It offered $10,000
to anyone who could crack the code.
A team of researchers from Princeton University, Rice University in Houston
and the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in California, led by Edward Felten,
quickly claimed the laurels and planned to reveal the details at a seminar in
April. But the RIAA warned them they could face imprisonment and a fine of
$0.5 million for breaching the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
The dispute appears to hinge on whether the researchers accepted a valid
copyright agreement to access the Web pages containing the source material for
the watermarking technology.