Hackers insist they beat audio technology

Sue Zeidler

LOS ANGELES: Researchers who have claimed they hacked into copyright

protection technology developed by a music industry forum stood by their claim

on Tuesday in statements posted on the Web.

Rumors have been circulating over the past two weeks that several successful

hacks had been made into the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) technology

for protecting audio files.

The SDMI, formed to develop an industry-wide standard for secure technology

to distribute music online, launched a $10,000 contest in September challenging

anybody to hack into the software.

Last week, the SDMI denied the claims - first reported by online magazine

Salon.com - that its technology had been defeated during the contest which ended

on October 7. The group said 447 submissions were received during the contest

and the "submitted attacks" were still under review.

On Tuesday, an SDMI spokeswoman said the review was still underway.

"We're still testing the results and it's too early to say if anyone

successfully hacked the technology," she said, adding there would be no

publicly available report on the contest before the next SDMI meeting is held on

November 8-10.

On a Web site (http://www.cs.princeton.edu/sip/sdmi),

a group of researchers from Princeton University, Rice University and Xerox Palo

Alto Research Centers said it had found ways to compromise the technology.

"During the challenge period, our team of researchers... successfully

defeated all four of the watermarking challenges, by rendering the watermarks

undetectable without significantly degrading the audio quality of the

samples," the group said on its Web site.

"Our success on these challenges was confirmed by SDMI's email

server," the group said.

The "big five" major record labels, including Seagram Co. Ltd.'s

Universal Music, Bertelsmann AG's BMG, Sony Corp.'s Sony Music, Time Warner

Inc.'s Warner Music Group and EMI Group Plc's EMI Music are all founding members

of SDMI, which has been burdened by delays and setbacks.

These labels have launched a crusade against digital piracy and are involved

in a high-profile lawsuit against the widely popular song-swap service Napster

Inc.

Several hacker groups called for a boycott of the hacking contest offer. Many

hackers objected to the effort because they felt it would limit consumers'

"fair use" rights to the music they buy, such as making copies to use

in a car stereo or laptop computer.

(C) Reuters Limited 2000.