Sony BMG Settles Over CD DRM 225
aurispector writes "Sony BMG Music Entertainment will pay $1.5 million and kick in thousands more in customer refunds to settle lawsuits brought by California and Texas over music CDs that installed a hidden anti-piracy program on consumers' computers. The settlements, announced Tuesday, cover lawsuits over CDs loaded with one of two types of copy-protection software — known as MediaMax or XCP.
Although it's great to see this as a victory for consumers, I can't help but wonder about the next wave of DRM schemes."
The Best Democracy Money Can Buy (Score:5, Insightful)
Nice. Real way to protect the consumer.
Next Step (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Next Step (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't be so critical (Score:2, Funny)
Now please excuse me, I need to count the 15 pennies that I'm now entitled to.
Fuck Sony.
Re:Next Step (Score:5, Insightful)
No kidding -- and you know what the worst part is? If it had been an individual doing this, he would have gotten the jail time! But since it's a big corporation responsible, they get the best "justice" money can buy.
Anybody know the names of the dumbass judges/prosecutors that approved this? I, for one, would like to help them realize just how asinine this settlement is by bitching them out!
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Although that's true, pointing it out doesn't help the situation. In fact, I think you ought to refrain from doing so because it cultivates an attitude of sheepish acceptance.
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What incentive do Attorneys General and/or (especially) professional Class Action litigators have not to be dumbasses (or parasites) on geeky matters that make such minuscule media ripples?
Mind you, I enthusiastically support the freedom to enjoy the fruits of one's labor and to engage in commerce with minimal State intrusion. That said, representing a Class in a court of law is not a right, it is a privilege that exists *bec
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Also, that's really the whole point of a corporation, the concept of "limited liability".
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Corporations have limited liability in financial matters, but is that still the case when a criminal offence is committed (as is the case here)?
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Silly rabbit, the police rarely arrest rich white guys.
Re:Next Step (Score:5, Insightful)
How about the OS vendor that runs untrusted code off a CD without as much as bothering to inform the user?
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Isn't this kind of thing the point of the security changes in Vista?
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Re:Next Step (Score:4, Insightful)
3rd party program prompts before executing unknown code/drivers, prevents hooks, etc [diamondcs.com.au]
If Microsoft adds this stuff by default they are being anti-competitive. If they don't then they are selling an insecure OS. Basically they are damned if they do, damned if they don't. Windows has plenty of leaks but there are plenty of ways to plug them. The days of relying on Windows to include everything for you should have ended in 2001.
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Re:The Best Democracy Money Can Buy (Score:5, Interesting)
"Customers have 180 days to file claims, which must include a description of how their computer was harmed and documentation of repair expenses."
Granted, $175 is still a decent amount of money. So if you're computer was reasonably fscked, it would probably be a good idea to go through the paperwork. Unfortunately, Sony is probably betting that most people will probably decide it's not worth the hassle. Then, there's the fact that about half of the paperwork customers file will end up going to some overworked, incompetent paper-pusher office slave who will either take way too long to approve the request, or reject it for some bullsh*t reason,...
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Re:The Best Democracy Money Can Buy (Score:5, Insightful)
Sony execs should be doing time over this.
Re:The Best Democracy Money Can Buy (Score:4, Interesting)
Settlement Claim Form (Score:2)
Here [sonybmgcdt...lement.com] you go.
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What they should do is offer to replace any affected CDs in your posession and give you a modest sum, say $50 total, for your trouble. The only proof you woudl need is posession of one of the bad CDs. There is no way to value the time and damage done by these things, so since the state AGs felt compelled to set such an absurdly low figure, they might as well set it even lower yet make it p
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1.5 million, with the rest probably being a buck or two here and there. Hardly a punishment to a huge company like Sony BMG.
A quote from TFA: In a news conference Tuesday in Austin, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot said the settlement sent a clear message.
"Texans deserve to be protected from harmful hidden software that threatens their privacy or the security of their computers," he said.
This wasn't a slap on the wrist. This was brushing the lint off of their lapels.
sarcasm
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And Thousands more (Score:5, Funny)
Sony is Doomed.
Cheap DRM Research (Score:4, Insightful)
Either way, not much to see here. Big company does nasty things with DRM, gets caught, walks away with dignity and wallet intact.
mandelbr0t
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Re:Not the DRM, the rootkit. (Score:5, Insightful)
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I've never heard that before. Is this documented anywhere?
Meanwhile in a secret Sony Research Lab... (Score:5, Funny)
Researcher John: Well, we got this thing where we can put in subliminal messages into the music that our customers buy. Stuff like "P2P and Piracy rapes your mom!" or "Buy more sucky and/or mediocre music!" or "Mike is a fag!"
Researcher Mike: Shut up John!
Sony Suit: Oh that's good stuff! Anything else?
Researcher John: Well, Mike has another idea.
Researched Mike: (holds up cute puppy) We can threaten to kill this cute puppy if they pirate stuff!
Sony Suit: EXCELLENT! (pets cute puppy) Woo's a cute puppy-wuppy! Woo's gonna die to pwotect our intewests!! Oooohh!! Sooo cute! Yesyouare!! Yesyouare!!
And by "thousands more" they mean... (Score:2, Funny)
SparkArt? (Score:3, Interesting)
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This is sad. (Score:5, Insightful)
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Trusted Computing (Score:3, Insightful)
With any disrupting technology, one can use it for "safer" computing or "treacherous" computing (remember P2P?!). It almost looks like entertainment industry is waiting to embrace this (one once it matures) and use it treacherously. BTW, my research area is trusted computing and I believe this technology is the first step towards safer computing. It is so very un-scientific to blindly disregard any technology at inception. All in all, you want it or not, corporations are going to push it into your home PC very soon...
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Fair Compensation (Score:5, Insightful)
Where's the justice in that?
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Hey, if they can make bullshit value claims, so can I. They would claim more if they were "hacked" or if the newest Moby album was pirated.... ok maybe not the moby album...
Why? (Score:3, Insightful)
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Its the way the legal system works. It makes little sense to take a corp to court when you are garanteed to get $750k. Its good enough, and even Sony is not stupid enough to pull this trick again. The state won, the people won, Sony lost, and even 10x more "profit" to the state would not really be more of a win.
Most cases like this are settled, and that is good enough. Its rare that a corporation treats this as "the cost of doing business" because the courts will l
1.5 Mil? Someone got paid (Score:5, Insightful)
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The average individual law suit was for $2000 or so. You're telling me most people (who own computers and presumably have broadband access) make less than $2000/quarter ($8000/year)?
People seem to think that corporations are evil, faceless, and have infinite amounts of money.
When a corporation is sued for a large sum of money, people lose jobs and it's almost
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Re:1.5 Mil? Someone got paid (Score:4, Insightful)
But it's really much worse, because any individual who did what Sony did could be convicted under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and sent to jail for up to a decade. Instead, Sony has to give up what, 10% of their profits over a 3 month period? Less than 3% of their yearly profit (give or take)? How is that justice?
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Perhaps the laws against individuals are too strict, rather than the laws against corporations being too light.
Oops, we already know [commondreams.org] that to be true.
Up to $180 per computer affected is reasona
That tickle on the wrist sure hurt (Score:2)
Sony BMG Music Entertainment will pay $1.5 million and kick in thousands more in customer refunds to settle lawsuits brought by California and Texas over music CDs that installed a hidden anti-piracy program on consumers' computers.
I'm sure the ashtray of the Sony CFO's Mercedes 600SEL will miss that pocket change.
Slashdot editors brainwashed or what? (Score:5, Interesting)
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What about criminal charges? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What about criminal charges? (Score:5, Insightful)
All you would need to do is become part or a cartel that engages in international price fixing, rip off millions of music lovers and thousands of artists, hire hundreds of lawyers and lobbyists and you too will get a decent legal defence.
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No, just take the board of directors who were in charge at the time, and throw them in jail. Whoops. Let's see if the new board decides to do this kind of thing again.
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You know, I "hate" a lot of companies. In particular, I "hate" Microsoft -- although I only truly hate companies guilty of more egregious crimes. Not because they are the "most evil" company in the world, but simply because they interfere with my career, harass me at work, and have done a lot of damage in my industry(IMHO).
Still... MS corporate execs perjured themselves in cou
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What an absolutely STUPID thing to point out.
If I shoot you in the head do I get off because I didn't design the gun?
Now go ahead. Call me a "fanboi" again.
Grow some balls and hold people responsible for their actions you fucking fanboi!
A private individual would be in jail for TENS of years for doing something like this. Seizing their assets and disbanding them isn't shit. I'm sure there are TONS of criminals who would rather have everyth
Re:What about criminal charges? (Score:4, Insightful)
If there is any uncertainty, a proper criminal investigation would eliminate it. There surely must be correspondence between Sony and the developer, including detailed product specifications.
There's a kernel of truth in what you say though. This kind of thing happens all the time in business, because normal people aren't inclined to examine their actions ethically. They go by what "sounds right", which is why the industry is so keen on the term "piracy".
If rootkit vendor had used the colloquial (but inaccurate) term "computer virus" to describe their product, Sony execs might well have been mortified. However, if the vendor described the actual operation of a rootkit in the context of reducing copyright infringement, carefully using neutral terminology, it is quite possible that the execs would see nothing illegal or immoral about it. Quite the contrary, since they were protecting their own legal and ethical rights, it might have seemed like a morally good thing to do.
Which is no excuse. You can't say "Gee, I guess I didn't think the consequences through very carefully," when you torch your neighbors house.
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And you're pretty much wrong on all accounts, but I'm tired of participating in this bullshit.
so what's even lower than a slap on the wrist? (Score:2)
so as a consumer, am I still allowed to sue Sony for "hacking my computer and breaking it."? Probably not, eh? How about I got and install rootkit on some Sony's computer?
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say what's on your mind - online confession and anon email @ my website http://www.sayitt.com/ [sayitt.com]
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Sure. It's actually a good investment.
"What, you mean that for just 1.5M dollars we can put a rootkit on 2 million computers? Right on!"
Not as bad as Microsoft... (Score:2)
Translation: (Score:2)
Completely unacceptable! (Score:5, Insightful)
Second, they should have to pay everybody the cost of professional cleanup. I would say that is at least $150 per customer hit, probably more.
I think they got out of thi extremely cheap. Not acceptable for clearly criminal behaviour.
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As an aside... they are offering $175 to each person who complains to them about the rootkit... or fills out their form...
Not that I'm happy with the outcome... but they are getting hit for that... assuming people fill out the paperwork...
Nephilium
With some notable exceptions, businessmen favor free enterprise in general but are opposed to it when it comes to themselves. - Milton Friedman
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Ok, that is reasonable. But that they can get out of this without any criminal liability is just not ritght. In what way are they different from a common hacker, except that they commited the crime far more often, for commercial gain and in a conspiracy?
5 OTHER states still have suits. (Score:2)
Oops 13 other states. (Score:4, Informative)
sony will likely pay nothing (Score:4, Interesting)
$1.5M is about $10M too little (Score:2)
Other suits (Score:2)
Once again class action suits only benifit lawyers (Score:2)
I suppose this result is marginally better than most because in a large number of the class action lawsuits the individuals only get coupons or something lame.
However, $1.5 million is nothing for a company as large as Sony. According to the article each state involved gets $750,000. However, the article also says that in California 450,000
Re:Tagged Peanuts (Score:4, Insightful)
I Bet It's A Big Deal Internally (Score:5, Insightful)
I can see the meeting now:
Muckety Muck: Last quarter your unit had profits of $1.5mil. But this quarter you have a loss of $.5mil. Care to explain?
Sony Music Exec: Well we put this DRM on our CDs and got sued and settled for $2mil.
Muckety Muck: I see. Did the DRM reduce piracy? Or increase sales?
Sony Music Exec: Well... we can't tell if it reduced piracy. And, ahem, sales kinda collapsed after people found out we were getting sued for it.
Muckety Muck: That might just qualify for the dumbest business decision this year! No bonus for you and I'm taking away your parking space.
so while for Sony it's not a big deal, you can bet that the people that made the decision to rootkit their CDs are scrambling to save their careers.
Re:I Bet It's A Big Deal Internally (Score:5, Insightful)
Muckety Muck: Last quarter your unit had profits of $1.5mil. But this quarter you have a loss of $.5mil. Care to explain?
Weasely Sony Music Exec: Pirates! Yes, Pirates! With swords and parrots! Our DRM just wasn't strong enough to hold them off. But if you give us another 2 million dollars, we have this surefire thing that is guaranteed to work!
Muckety Muck: You sound full of confidence, so you must be right. Here's another 2 million dollars.
\Weasely Sony Music Exec already working on how to use that money to gild his Gulfstream
I see very little scrambling that will be done by Execs. At most I see some fingerslapping for the poor guy who implemented it.
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Muckety Muck: Last quarter your unit had profits of $1.5mil. But this quarter you have a loss of $.5mil. Care to explain?
Weasely Sony Music Exec: My predecessor was trying to prevent piracy, but chose a flawed product to do it. It could have cost us tens of millions, but I managed to get it down to $2m. Also, if you give us another 10 million dollars, we have this surefire thing that is guaranteed to work!
Muckety Muck:
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Weasly Sony Music Exec:
Muckety Muck: Guffaw, the artists ! Hah hah
Weasly Sony Music Exec: up the ass ! Way Hey !
Muckety Muck: Consumers !
Both: Ah hah hah ha suckers ! Hah hahh hah !
Muckety Muck: More wine ?
Weasly Sony Music Exec: Golf ?
Muckety Muck: Yah, and then we'll go and fuck Mariah Carey yah
Weasly Sony Music Exec: She'll love it. Lets go.
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1) Don't confuse revenue with profits. Its entirely possible to lose money with $15 billion in revenue. Recall the Dot Com mantra "We lose $1 on every item we sell, but make it up with volume!" 2) Don't confues the conglomeration of companies and divisions that is Sony with the Record group. If the Music group is not profitable, the will be sold or dismantled to folks who think they can make money on the product 3) Fines like this come right out of profits and ca
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Look at it right here, where it says "$34M - Misc".
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Re:Just boycott these companies. (Score:5, Insightful)
Wow.
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Substandard Standard
Best != Standard
Therefore not having the best does not mean having to settle for substandard.
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This from a state well known for its multi-million dollar medical malpractice suits. I guess you have to feel sorry for poor Sony, your average physician apparently is worth more than them.
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