Where are the Prosecutors?

a_greer2005 wonders: "In the past 5 years, we have seen plenty of virus writers in the United States brought to justice both criminally and when possible financially. In the past couple of weeks it has been discovered that Sony has shipped a rootkit, which is worse than the common spyware or virus, so I ask you, where are the law suits? Is anyone planning criminal/civil action at all? Does Sony frighten the entire legal industry? If nothing is done about this, will we have ANY right to tell a company 'NO' in the future when it comes to DRM worms -- Is this but a sample of things to come?" Update: 11/12 10:20 PM EDT by C :Whoops! Missed the fact that we've already reported on the fact that California has already started a class action suit against Sony (thanks to the posters that caught this). New York may soon follow. However that is only 2 states out of 50. Is there a possibility of more to follow?

Comments

They've got protection...

[ForumTroll]

It's easy to take legal action and be successful against a single person, especially one who often is very young and simply cannot afford to hire good legal counsel. On the other hand, it's not so simple to take legal action and be successful against a huge corporation with ties high up in the government and loads of money to protect themselves. Legal action is being pursued in several states and by several different parties, but due to the fact that this is a major corporation with very important friends in high places they will receive nothing more than a slap on the wrist.

Not a rootkit

[jgoemat]

A rootkit is a set of tools used by a hacker to hide his presence on a system and maintain 'root' privileges (Administrator on Windows). While Sony's DRM app does hide its presence, I don't believe there has been any indication of systems comprimised and hacked into by Sony and I don't think that was their intention. I don't know what it is, but I wouldn't call it a 'rootkit'.

Re:Not a rootkit

[Thing 1]

Doesn't matter whether Sony uses their hidden software to compromise a system. They installed the hidden software which allowed someone to compromise. That hidden software is commonly known as a "rootkit".

A "virus" or "trojan" or "worm" is the software that performs the compromise. A "rootkit" allows the V/T/W writer to produce their creation with less effort.

Sony is directly responsible for reducing system security on PCs that have been infected with their rootkits. That is actionable, but likely nobody will go to jail.

Re:The thing is...

[the eric conspiracy]

Well, considering the rootkit can easily be carried into the office by people wanting to listen to their protected music at work this software does at least rise to the point of annoyance for corporations too. Not to mention that it phones home, and other malwares have appeared that use the cloaking nature of this software to hid themselves.

It is just a dirty deal.

Re:The thing is...

[GuyverDH]

So what it seems like you are saying (or at least implying) is this.

If it only FUCKS over the little guy, then fuck it - it's okay.

However, if it fucks over a big fish - then shit - we have to prosecute.

There's something distinctly wrong with that, and I really hope that that was not your intent.

Re:SONY rootkit violates LPGL

[miu]

it's pretty hard to allege because you WILLINGLY run the CD

Just like you willingly ran an executable containing a virus? I don't buy it. Basically that argument comes down to a rootkit being okay for Sony because they are the good guys and not okay for anyone else because they are criminals/terrorists/anarchists.