mainstream light on sunncomm
in a front-page article in usa today, we find a brief presentation of the sunncomm story (1 2 3 4).
i think this counts as “more light on sunncomm” – this is “mainstream” and “non-technical” mass-market press. a couple bits are worth mentioning…
Jacobs knew nothing of Halderman’s research until shareholders started calling. He’d pulled SunnComm out of a crater during three years of tech-industry malaise, he says, and Halderman was out to ruin it. “He wanted to embarrass the record industry and put us out of business,” Jacobs says. “I had to launch a public defense.
jacobs still doesn’t quite get it… first, it’s very dangerous to go on the record declaring the intentions of other people. second, this wasn’t about putting sunncomm out of business (surely, there’s an easier way to do that…) i don’t want to commit the sin i just decried, but it seems to me that “the secret” would’ve “gotten out” no matter where this scheme originated or who decided to tease it apart. jacobs seems to have taken this very personally – and that probably resulted in a lot more damage to sunncomm.
BMG considers SunnComm’s system “an important first generation of the next generation of technology,” says spokesman Nathaniel Brown.
He offers proof from the sales of the Hamilton CD. Unprotected CDs typically see sales drop 35% to 45% in the second week, as pirated versions circulate. Sales of the Hamilton CD fell just 23%.
this is an interesting new spin on piracy that i hadn’t heard before…
intuitively, it doesn’t make sense. first, it only takes one person with autorun disabled to “spew the data forth unto the p2p networks” – and that certainly happened. second, this is all relative. maybe the hamilton cd just sucks and nobody’s buying it. i’m not privy to the raw data, of course, so i’m just guessing…
SunnComm has a new version of its technology ready. BMG plans to use it. The other major record labels are interested.
so much for my crystal ball… i wonder if this statement will ever be reflected in sunncomm’s bottom line.