Where does one begin?
Peter's sue ploy may have been knee-jerk but there is an old adage, "any publicity is good". Whatever else was accomplished, the Sunncomm name did become a much more recognizable one and given a few months, no one will recall exactly WHY they know the name, they just will.
My understanding is that Peter pulled this on request of his customer(s). For the record, the labels knew exactly what the strengths and weaknesses of this product were/are.
At present, and I emphasize present, the copy protection scheme can be interrupted by holding down the shift key, preventing the copy protection software from ever being loaded onto the Hard drive. This is a standard windows feature and not a "flaw", even though it does allow a cumbersome workaround the Sunncomm copy protection scheme.
Of course, one will have to recall to do this shift key thing EVERY single time you load a CD with copy protection. Should you forget but one time, it will install and then holding down the shift key will forever more be a mute point as the copy protection will already have been installed.
100% copy protection has never been the goal of the record labels and is yet another reason that Macrovision is having zero traction in the space. If you look at the DVD copy protection market, you will notice that Macrovision has a monopoly position and can and does dictate pricing.
Curiously no one has pointed out that(Macrovision)their DVD protection is easily circumvented by any one of a hundred free DVD ripper programs on the web. Why is it that the labels will pay for easily circumvented DVD protection but not for CD protection with the similar issues?
The truth is that Macrovision has a great deal to lose in both the DVD and CD markets by having a competitor and is doing everything they can to eliminate any potential competition before it gets a foot hold. Ironically if you were to ask any of the labels, they WANT more than one supplier so that they can keep them both honest with pricing pressure.
Sunncomm is currently a victim of a very large and organized short scheme. Macrovision has been lauding it's upcoming CDS300 product to numerous hedge fund allies and has convinced them that Sunncomm will go away and so is safe to naked short to extreme levels.
Naked shorting is where an entity that is an MM, typically a hedge fund, shorts shares that they have no certificate to cover with. This has become an epedimic with small pink sheet stocks and has often led to the price declining so much ynder the attack, that the company can no longer obtain financing at any reasonable level and so begins a dilution death spiral in order to stay afloat.
The beauty of the fraudalent behavior is that there is currently next to zero enforcement by the SEC, of regulations to prevent this activity AND if you succeed in driving the price to zero, you never have to cover your short, OR pay any taxes on your gains, since technically you never closed the trade... a gorgeous scheme to defraud shareholders and profit to the max.
>>at this point, your widget is in deep trouble<<
Uhmmm... Sunncomm has the only copy protection product in the world, has a contract with a major label, BMG and is working on landing the others. They have passed all independent tests to date with flying colors and they are adding features to the technology as we speak... dead?? I should think not.
Is Sunncomm a perfect company?? Hell no!! Does it have some skeletons in the closet?? Probably a few, but sometimes thats what you end up doing when you're a small company> It's not always pretty, but going forward they have a very real shot with an evolving product that is best in class.
Macrovision may just find that turnabout is fair play.
AI
