SunnComm's MediaMaxx copy protection scheme can now be easily defeated, thanks to SunnComm themselves. The copy protection scheme, which is used widely in audio CDs produced by Sony BMG, was developed by SunnComm through its MediaMaxx division in order to prevent listeners on Windows-based PCs from easily making copies of audio CD-based music as MP3 files. Now SunnComm have agreed to make the workaround information available on request.
What prompted SunnComm to make the workaround information available on request, stated Stoegbauer, has been an ongoing delay in Apple reaching an agreement with record labels - including Sony BMG - with regard to an official understanding or implicit license for iPod users to copy CD-based songs onto their mobile units. The final step in these negotiations, stated Stoegbauer, "is the record labels arriving at an understanding with Apple, so Apple supports it on their side. We are waiting for Apple and the labels to work out the arrangements and the agreements to support the technology... In the meantime, it wouldn't be very fair to take a user that's bought one of these CDs, and force them to not be able to use the music the way they used it without our technology." The average user, he stated, will accept his company's end-user license agreement when the company gives them options for making better use of their "fair use" of audio CD content.