SunnComm - Bomb or DRM Success Story? 164
pacopico writes "The Register has one of best tech feature stories done in a long time on SunnComm - the infamous Shift key problem DRM makers. The story charts the awesome path SunnComm took from being an Elvis impersonator company eventually to creating CD protection technology almost out of thin air. Great read!"
Amazing story (Score:5, Insightful)
kudos to the register (Score:3, Insightful)
what's scary though is that it's things like this that scare ppl from any sort of
As a shareholder, I'd be mad too to find out you can defeat the copy protection by holding down the shift key. That's ABSURD!
Shift Key, Magic Marker, Bic Pens... (Score:5, Insightful)
Holy conspiracy theories (Score:5, Insightful)
A professional trader *might* be able to find someone willing to go "long" (take the other side of the bet) but it's pretty unlikely. Joe Public has no chance.
Re:kudos to the register (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyone that invests in such a company deserves to lose the shirt off their back.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Focus people! FOCUS!!! (Score:3, Insightful)
*CEO walking down street*
"Hmm... I think I'll have a hot dog. Aren't they also called tube steaks? Steak! Maybe I'll run a steak restaurant. I'll need meat. But I need a butcher to cut it. Butcher shop..."
This guy just doesn't have any focus. If he just stuck to one plan and worked at it, he'd actually have a legitimate business rather than a mirage.
How on earth does a business that lives off shams stay afloat for so long?!?
Re:You gave us how much to make this? (Score:1, Insightful)
SunnComm have responded (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know what American libel laws are like, but here in Britain, what was said about the Register's journalistic practices would, if unprovable, cause SunnComm some trouble...
'Its funny. No one in the legitimate news community would touch the OurStreet dirt package with a 10-foot pole. Theyve been trying to find such a dupe for a year. Our Oregon friend from OurStreet must be jumping up and down with glee that finally he found his "patsy."'
' Mr. Vance proceeded to mischaracterize the source purposely in the article even after being told otherwise. In other words, Mr. Vance purposely made a decision to carry the water for OurStreet.Com even after knowing of the possibility that his source had lied to him about his standing.'
'he didnt bother to fact-check his single main source'
Needless to say, from a regular reader of the Register's perspective, these allegations seem extreme. However, I must say, the SunnComm director is very reassuring: "SunnComm is NOT a get rich quick scheme" - a Nigerian friend of mine told me the same thing the other week.
Re:I'd say it failed... (Score:1, Insightful)
I'm listening to a mp3 rip of Velvet Revolver
Well, the DRM may have failed, but the marketing machine certainly won.
Velvet Revolver is about as far from good music as you can get.
Re:You gave us how much to make this? (Score:5, Insightful)
Xentax
Re:Shift Key, Magic Marker, Bic Pens... (Score:2, Insightful)
Also, though DVD may be cracked, as well as FairPlay, there are absolutely no cracks for WMA, OpenMG, or other formats -- Sony and Microsoft have done their job well.
Re:Amazing story (Score:3, Insightful)
Why the hell did I ever learn how to do something useful and helpful to others?
Re:Not About DRM... (Score:2, Insightful)
WHINE ALERT!!!!
And what would you have done in his place? Folded the company?
What many of the posters on this thread fail to realize is that this guy, and thousands of CEOs like him, have a FIDUCIARY responsibility to their shareholders to return value. That is how capital markets work. If they fail to do their jobs, they will be terminated. If they are negligent in carrying out their duties, they will be sued.
These people are tasked with doing everything within the bounds of the law to return value to the shareholder.
Your 401K wouldn't be worth a dime if it weren't for them.
Unfortunately, not all of them operate above the law. That's what makes them such easy targets for anti-capitalists.
[applauds] (Score:2, Insightful)
Mod parent up.
Couldn't have said it better myself. If your responsibility is to make money, by hook or by crook, you're living a perverted form of capitalism. Capitalism is supposed to reward people for innovating and producing--not to reward people who pretend to produce and do it well. If your real goal is innovation, you will make your money.
Re:Not About DRM... (Score:4, Insightful)
I think a lot of our economy is built this way, and I think that it's largely what they've been teaching in business schools -- outsource everything but your core marketing staff. It makes you a more "pure" businessman.
Success story (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Shift Key, Magic Marker, Bic Pens... (Score:2, Insightful)
Regards,
Steve
P.S. Doesn't real claim intercompatibility with WMA? Not sure if they licensed it or reverse engineered it like they did with Apple.
Re:Not About DRM... (Score:2, Insightful)
(although he meant that in a macroeconomic sense and this is the case of one company, I think it's still apt.)
Re:Shift Key, Magic Marker, Bic Pens... (Score:4, Insightful)
Thing is, in this digital age, it only takes one person to crack the DRM scheme once, and the unprotected content can be copied perfectly around the world.