Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Sony Intentionally Crashes Customers' Computers

Posted by michael on from the new-day-has-come dept.

Uttles writes "According to Yahoo!, Celine Dion's latest CD will not play in computer drives. In fact: 'Should the consumer try to play Dion's CD on a PC or Macintosh, the computer likely will crash.' How is this legal?" Since Sony admits that their product is designed to cause damage to your computer system, almost anyone would likely have a good lawsuit against them. Attention Celine Dion and all musicians: crashing your fans' computers is not a good business practice. No matter what your agent says.

6 of 1,070 comments (clear)

  1. Why not just use new media? by NanoGator · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I think the RIAA should just use new media for music and stop using CD's. It'd be really simple for them to use a media format not unlike Nintendo's GameCube media. Heck, with modern compression schemes, they could use a higher frequency range and put all kinds of other doodads in it to make it better than the modern CD.

    The media wouldn't have a drive for PC's, and if they patent the technology then nobody could release a PC drive. The only recourse would be for for people to run a cable from the device to the PC to capture the music. No matter what kind of 'protection schemes' they create, they'll never get around the fact that the sound becomes analog at some point. At least this way, they make it less convenient to copy the music.

    This would go a lot farther than trying to preemptively punish me for being a criminal.

    --
    "Derp de derp."
  2. Shouldn't the CD's be cheaper, then? by NanoGator · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So, if Sony has enabled this 'protection' technology on the CD's, then they are (in theory) stopping 'pirates' from making unauthorized copies. Therefore, they are not losing as much money.

    Shouldn't they at least reward us for our inconvenience? I mean if Sony said "Tell you what, because we've implemented this new 'protection' scheme, we'll knock $5 off the price of the CD."

    If they're not doing that, how can the use the word protection? It's certainly not us they're protecting. They should use the word restriction at that point.

    Tell you what, if Sony (or any other Music Label) were to take this approach, I'd have a hell of a lot more sympathy for them. I'm not sure it'd end my boycott, but it'd be a start. They took my music rights away, therefore the music has much less value. So why should the prices be the same? That gives them the image of being super evil.

    --
    "Derp de derp."
  3. Re:Clone CD can copy it by Frank+T.+Lofaro+Jr. · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You realize that you may have just broken the law, right?

    Not that I think it should be illegal, but you could possibly get sued/imprisoned for trafficking (you helped people find it) in a circumvention device or process.

    The fact that the above comment may be illegal should definitely motivate you to fight CBDTPA and fight to have the DMCA repealed/declared unconstitutional.

    --
    Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
  4. Definition of Negligence--Sony guilty by blueskies · · Score: 5, Interesting
    It's been a while since my intro to law class, but the one thing I do remember is that putting a warning sign up can possible INCREASE the chance of being sued. The reason being that it is much easier to prove that the defendent knew that they had a dangerous situation and didn't do anything about it. This site shows the 4 elements needed for a negligence case. (I apologize for the crappy site, but i didn't have much time and wanted to back up my information with something. Check google to find more sources).


    1. The defendent must have a defined duty -- in this case to produce working products and not snake oil.
    2. Breach of duty: act or ommision must be shown -- Sony knew about the defective CD's and any reasonable person would think that they should play in ALL cd players. Sony also knows that most people would try to use them in computer CD players which is why they have a warning.
    3. The Breach of Duty must be shown to be considered a reasonable cause of damage -- Clear cut case here.
    4. Damages must be shown.


    Sony by warning the customer is actually admitting that they have a defect product, they know it's defective and can cause damages, and they refuse to fix it.
  5. Re:Clone CD can copy it by nolife · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That brings up an interesting point.
    How could a product that existed in time before this method of copy prevention become illegal? Sounds to me like Sony is using a method that could already by bypassed even before it was ever even used. This whole computer cd player prevention doesnt seem to be a "protection" method anyway. I view encryption or protection as a higher level technology designed to keep people out. Not a design that uses existing equipment anomalies in hopes that they will not be able to read it. What if they put the output level redicuously low on the cd and you could barely hear it unless you used a special Sony addon to your headphone jack? Would connecting your own extra amplifier be a violation or a circumvention device? They are using a method of prevention that violates a generally accepted standard, not an encryption scheme.

    --
    Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.
  6. Why break the Redbook standard? by gblues · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Okay, given that a properly encoded MP3 (e.g. lame --r3mix <infile.wav> <outfile.mp3>) has been proven to be indistinguishable from the source material in double-blind tests, I have a better means of protecting CD content:
    • Encode the source material into high-quality MP3.
    • Decode the resulting MP3s back into .WAV format.
    • Use the WAV files to create the master.
    • Press copies of the master and distribute to retail.
    This way there is negligible quality loss, and even perfect CD rips will still sound like ass when re-encoded into MP3. More importantly, the CD does not lose functionality!

    Nathan