Researchers face legal threats over SDMI hack

From CNet: “A music industry group is seeking to block publication of research that describes
anti-piracy technology known as watermarking, saying a report stemming from an
industry-backed hacking challenge violates digital copyright law.

The academic team, led by Princeton University Professor Edward Felten, is preparing to explain
to an industry group this week how they cracked the code to four watermark schemes being
considered as a secure digital music standard.

But attorneys for the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI), a music industry-sponsored group
formed to protect digital songs from piracy, have sent letters to the team, hoping to deter them from
publishing the results of their research.”