Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

California Class Action Suit Sony Over Rootkit DRM

Posted by samzenpus on from the what-else dept.

carre4 writes "Lawyers in California have filed a class-action lawsuit against Sony and a second one may be filed today in New York. The lawsuit was filed Nov. 1 in Superior Court for the County of Los Angeles by Vernon, CA attorney Alan Himmelfarb. It asks the court to prevent Sony from selling additional CDs protected by the anti-piracy software, and seeks monetary damages for California consumers who purchased them. The suit alleges that Sony's software violates at least three California statutes, including the "Consumer Legal Remedies Act," which governs unfair and/or deceptive trade acts; and the "Consumer Protection against Computer Spyware Act," which prohibits -- among other things -- software that takes control over the user's computer or misrepresents the user's ability or right to uninstall the program. The suit also alleges that Sony's actions violate the California Unfair Competition law, which allows public prosecutors and private citizens to file lawsuits to protect businesses and consumers from unfair business practices. EFF has released a list of rootkit affected CD's and Slashdot user xtracto also has a list."

5 of 508 comments (clear)

  1. I understand the first two... by RandoX · · Score: 5, Insightful

    But how did Sony's actions prevent people from suing? Was there a clause in the EULA that prohibited it? Since they're getting their asses sued off anyway, can't the judge throw this one right out?

    1. Re:I understand the first two... by pendor17 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Isn't that (making it hard to read) exactly the point? I think that many companies write their EULA so that you don't WANT to read it, and writing in CAPS (which many people construe as "shouting") is certainly a "turn-off". In much the same way, many manufacturers setup their rebate programs so that you forget to send in the rebates in by the deadline. After all, this is capitalism - a corporation like Sony isn't looking out for YOU...

  2. "Nothing for you to see here. Please move along." by KitesWorld · · Score: 5, Insightful

    bleh.

    Anyway, It's good to see this happening. It's important to make sure that the major labels realise that while DRM is legal, there are limits to what people will tolerate - and damaging peoples machines is not something that people are going to tolerate.

    Heck, with luck they might even water down Blu-Ray as a result. I can dream :)

  3. The mp3's have no DRM by psergiu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I used to buy a lot of music CDs. But after this wave of incompatible discs i just resorted to download mp3s as its sure that i can play them on whatever device i want.

    --
    1% APY, No fees, Online Bank https://captl1.co/2uIErYq Don't let your $$$ sit in a no-interest acct.
  4. DMCA defense? by hrm · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I hope this goes to court and triggers Sony into mounting an DMCA based defense ("this is our copy protection system, and you don't mess with that shit even if does screw your PC"), then maybe people would get a better understanding of what a rotten law the DMCA actually is.