The Rice Thresher, Vol. 88, No. 30, Ed. 1 Friday, May 25, 2001 Page: 7 of 32
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THE RICE THRESHER NEWS FRIDAY, MAY 25,2001
Researchers crack digital code
Computer science students, professor meet recording industry challenge
NEWS IN BRIEF
by Mark Berenson
THRESHER EDITORIAI. STAFF
A group of Rice researchers —
including two students — risked
ending up in court against the re-
cording industry recently.
The computer science research-
ers were part of a group that made
national news last month when they
withdrew a paper on breaking digi-
tal watermarks, a device the record-
ing industry has considered using
to protect copyrighted music, un-
der pressure from the recording
industry.
I^ast fall, Assistant Computer Sci-
ence Professor Dan Wallach, Will
Rice College sophomore Adam
Stubblefield and computer science
graduate student Benjamin
Swartzlander took part in a public
challenge sponsored by the Secure
Digital Music Initiative.
The SDMI is an umbrella organi-
zation representing groups holding
the copyrights to music, companies
who manufacture music playing de-
vices and various technology firms.
One of its'main goals is to prevent
unauthorized copying of digital mu-
sic.
'Is it worth $500 to be
enjoined from
discussing what you
did? ...In our
interpretation, the thingt
for us to do was screw
the money and publish
[our findings].'
— Dan Wallach
Computer science
assistant professor
The public challenge was to re-
move digital watermarks from mu-
sic. A digital watermark is coding
that tells the playing device what
can be done to the song — whether
it can be copied, ripped into MP3
form or played.
Digital watermarks are currently
used to limit the region of the world
in which a consumer can play a DVD.
However, if the digital watermark
were removed, people could do what-
ever they wished with the song.
Wallach said even the idea of a
digital watermark is somewhat para-
doxical.
"The important property that a
watermark needs to have is that it
must be inoffensive to your ear —
otherwise you'll hate it," Wallach
said. "But it must also be very diffi-
cult to remove without destroying
how the song sounds."
Wallach, Stubblefield and
Swartzlander were part of a group of
researchers that decided to take part
in the challenge. Wallach described
the group as an "all-star team" that
included members from Princeton
University and Xerox Palo Alto Re-
search Center.
The group succeeded in remov-
ing the digital watermark.
Wallach said SDMI planned to
offer $10,000 to be shared among all
of the people who broke the water-
mark in exchange for a non-disclo-
sure agreement, which would forbid
the researchers from publishing
their findings.
1 lowever, Wallach said the group
decided not to accept the money.
"Is it worth $500 to be enjoined
from discussing what you did?"
Wallach said. "No, that is not a good
tradeoff. In our interpretation, the
thing for us to do was screw the
money and publish [our findings)."
The group wrote a paper and sub-
mitted it for presentation at the In-
ternational Information Hiding
%
KATIE STREIT/THRESHER
Will Rice College sophomore Adam
Stubblefield
Workshop, which took place April
25-27 in Pittsburgh, and was ac-
cepted.
However, two weeks before the
conference, the group received a
letter.from the Recording Industry
Association of America suggesting
it not present the paper.
The RIAA is the organization that
sued Napster last year, claiming its
software led to the unauthorized use
of copyrighted music. A court agreed
with the recording industry, and
Napster has spent the last few
months attempting to limit the dis-
tribution of copyrighted material on
its servers.
"We urge you to withdraw the
paper submitted for the upcoming
Information Hiding Workshop, as-
sure that it is removed front the
Workshop distribution materials and
destroyed, and avoid a public dis-
cussion of confidential information,"
the letter, which was written by
Matthew ()ppenheim, RIAA's senior
vice president of business and legal
affairs, said.
In the letter, Oppenheim said that
what the researchers would disclose
could directly lead to the illegal dis-
tribution of copyrighted material,
and that publishing the paper was
not allowed by the click-through
agreement the researchers agreed
to in order to get to the data.
Furthermore, Oppenheim wrote
the researchers would be in viola-
tion of the Digital Millennium Copy-
right Act.
The DMCA is a federal law de-
claring it illegal to study certain tech-
nologies, even for academic pursuits,
without the permission of the holder
of the technology.
For this study, permission was
obtained through the public chal-
lenge and the click-through agree-
ment between Wallach's group and
SDMI.
Wallach said the RIAA was using
the DMCA and the click-through
agreement to stop them from pub-
lishing the paper.
"They were trying to use the
DMCA and the 'click-here-I-agree
agreement' as a bludgeon to make
us shut up," Wallach said.
The group decided on April 26,
the day the paper was to be pre-
sented, to withdraw it from presen-
tation at the conference.
Provost Eugene Levy said Rice
supported the paper's withdrawal
from the conference.
"We were skeptical about the wis-
dom of going forward and present-
ing that paper while there were so
many unexamined open questions,"
Levy said.
"There wasn't time to come to a
reasonable conclusion about
whether or not there were very se-
rious legal impediments and
whether or not there had been a
violation of the click-through agree-
ments to get the data that involved
issues that the courts would decide
in ways that we would be unhappy
with," Levy said.
Wallach said the two weeks lead-
ing up to the conference were hectic
for him.
"I can't really discuss all of the
details, but suffice to say, I spent an
KATIE STREIT/THRESHER
Assistant Computer Science
Professor Dan Wallach
awful lot of time in [Rice General
Counsel] Richard Zansitis' office,"
Wallach said.
However, before the researchers
decided to withdraw the paper, some-
one leaked a draft of it, which was
then posted on a Web site (http://
cryptome. org/sdmi-attack. htm).
Wallach emphasized that none
the co-authors released the paper,
and he was disappointed that the
paper was made public.
"It is not the final version of the
paper, there are typos in it," Wallach
said. "So I'm not real happy with
that."
'We were skeptical
about the wisdom of
going forward and
presenting that paper
while there were so
many unexamined open
questions. There wasn't
time to come to a
reasonable conclusion
about whether or not
there were very serious
legal impediments.'
— Eugene Levy
Provost
However, Wallach said the com-
bination of the censoring and the
paper's release led to it being rela-
tively well-read.
"As everybody knows, academic
papers are boring, but anything that
is worth censoring must be worth
reading," Wallach said.
The RIAA told the Associated
Presson May lttit had never planned
to file a lawsuit against the research-
ers. However, Levy said Rice is still
concerned about the possibility of
legal action.
Wallach said the researchers still
hope to release the paper.
"We are very actively pursuing
our options." Wallach said. "We still
believe very strongly in our right to
publish the paper, and the paper is
not dead. Exactly in what venue and
in what form we choose to publish
the paper is not something that I am
prepared to discuss."
Levy said the university believes
the paper should be published, but
he added that certain legal issues
still need to be overcome.
President Malcolm Gillis said the
university has taken action in sup-
port ofWallach, but would not elabo-
rate because of possible legal impli-
cations.
"We believe we are in the right,
but in this day and age you must be
very careful with what you say." Gillis
said.
Neither Stubblefield nor
Swartzlander could be reached for
comment.
Education professor
Joe Dan Austin dies
Joe Dan Austin, Jones College
associate and education professor,
died of brain cancer May 10. Me-
morial services for Austin, a mem-
ber of the education department for
23 years, were held Monday, May
14 at St. Luke's United Methodist
Church.
Austin was 57.
Austin was diagnosed with can-
cer eight years ago and had a re-
lapse earlier this year. He had been
on leave due to his illness and was
admitted to hospice shortly before
he died.
He was an active associate for 22
years, often eating lunch with stu-
dents four times a week, Jones Mas-
ter Maribel Barrera said.
"Even with all these issues he
had to deal with, we saw him all the
time at Jones," Barrera said.
Because he died two days before
graduation, no definite plans have
been made at Jones to set up a me-
morial, but Barrera said students
are considering creating a student
award in Austin's name.
"He was not just loved by the
students but also by the associates,"
she said. "We felt really happy we
were able to know Joe as long as we
had. It was good to see an associate
wanting to be here at Jones even
with his illness. He never looked
down about it."
Austin is survived by his wife
Kathleen and two sons, including
Wiess College senior Jon Austin.
Contributions can be made in
Austin's name to St. Luke's.
— Meghan Miller
Sid Richardson names
college coordinator
Physics Department Under-
graduate Coordinator Kelly Penrod
has taken over the position of Sid
Richardson College Coordinator.
"I've always wanted to be a coordi-
nator,"Penrod said. "When I first came
to Rice in '97, I told the people that I
worked with that if there was ever a
coordinator position that ever because
available, I would apply for it."
Penrod said she is looking for-
ward to increased interactions with
students, after working mainly with
faculty since she came to the Rice
physics department.
"The job that I am in now is an
academic position," Penrod said.
"My support is to staff and to faculty,
but I really feel like I want to be there
for the students and not necessarily
for the faculty. That's why I'm em-
ployed here and I think that some
people miss that."
She said she tried to make help-
ing students a focus in the physics
department, but sees even more
opportunities for friendships with
students in her new position.
Penrod said she will spend her
summer getting used to her new job
and learning the names of everyone
at Sid, a challenge she said she is
ready for.
Penrod took over as coordina-
tor on May 14; the position had
been temporarily filled by long-
time Will Rice College Coordina-
tor Babs Willis after the March 25
death of coordinator Sharon
McDonough.
— Rachel Rustin
Construction worker
recovering from fall
Victor Nava, the construction
worker who suffered a severe head
injury at the Jesse H. Jones Gradu-
ate School of Management construc-
tion site last month, has regained
consciousness and begun his reha-
bilitation at the Institute for Reha-
bilitation and Research in the Texas
Medical Center.
Nava. an enoloyee of Keystone
Structural Concrete, is talking and
walking around. Project Manager
Eleni Soto said.
"His rehabilitation progress is
slow but steady and the prognosis
for his recovery remains positive,"
Soto said.
One concern with Nava had been
vision. Soto said Nava's sight is fine
in one eye, but although the other
eye's optic nerve is intact, it still
lacks normal vision.
"His vision in that eye is improv-
ing," Soto said. "The eye is respond-
ing to light, but his vision is very
blurry."
Soto said the Occupational Safety
and Health Administration investi-
gator who visited the construction
site on April 18 has not yet filed a
report, as the incident was deemed
low priority.
Nava was injured April 5 while
working on a concrete column on
the second floor of the structure
near the northeast corner of the site.
Nava was wearing a harness
equipped with two carabiner-like
safety devices. Correct usage of the
harness requires that both
carabiners, oblong metal rings with
a spring-loaded hinge commonly
used for rock climbing and
rappelling, be locked onto a con-
crete form.
The investigation by the Univer-
sity Police found that Nava was at-
tached by only one carabiner, which
was not securely locked onto the
concrete form.
When Nava leaned back, the
carabiner disengaged and he fell
more than 30 feet, landing headfirst
on concrete.
He suffered a basal skull frac-
ture, which caused trauma and swell-
ing to the brain, a broken wrist, a
broken forearm, a collapsed lung
and crushed sinuses.
— Mark Berenson
Weissenberger named
cultural center director
German and Slavic Studies De-
partment Chair Klaus Weissen-
berger will take over the Goethe
Center for Central European Stud-
ies July 1.
The goal of the GCCES is to
create and maintain interest in Ger-
man culture, Weissenberger, who
is also master of Hanszen College,
said. He added that the center has
sponsored many guest speakers,
musical performances and film
showings.
"We are trying to call on authors
and intellectuals," Weissenberger
said. "We do not understand our-
selves as a merely German institute
but we want to represent all of Ger-
man culture around the world."
The GCCES was created in Janu-
ary 2000 after shortages in its bud-
get caused the German government
to close many of its Goethe Insti-
tutes, including the one in Houston,
in October 1999.
Weissenberger said the GCCES
performs the same functions as the
previous Goethe Institute, but does
not provide German courses for the
Houston community. These courses
are now handled by Rice's Continu-
ing Studies, he said.
Weissenberger said he thinks last
year was a successful first year for
the GCCES, and he plans to con-
tinue along the same path as direc-
tor of the center.
"We agree with the progress
made through the center,"
Weissenberger said. "I'd like to con-
tinue on along the same line. It's not
a matter of changing things, but try-
ing to make use of all the opportuni-
ties offered."
Associate Professor of History
and German Studies Peter "Carl"
Caldwell had been interim director
since the center was established in
January 2000.
Weissenberger said he was cho-
sen for the job because he has spent
20 years working for the German
Consolate's office in Houston and
has helped to integrate the former
Goethe Center and the GCCES. Ad-
ditionally. he said he has hosted
many GCCES events in the past year.
Weissenberger has taught at Rice
for 30 years.
— Olivia Allison
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Liu, Leslie & Reichle, Robert. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 88, No. 30, Ed. 1 Friday, May 25, 2001, newspaper, May 25, 2001; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443114/m1/7/?rotate=270: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.