Sony Settlement Start of DRM Protection Act?

An anonymous reader writes "Sony BMG and a group of class action lawyers have reached a provisional settlement in the U.S. Sony rootkit class actions. Sony will pay cash compensation and give away free downloads from a choice of music download services including Apple iTunes as part of the deal. The settlement includes a host of restrictions on future Sony DRM use, which Michael Geist argues provides the starting point for a future Digital Rights Management Protection Act."

Comments

Outrage!

[Concern]

These people literally have their boot on Sony's throat. This could be a watershed moment in the "IP" war for individual rights. And instead, what do we get?

• Sony does not have to undo their vandalism to anyone's computers or provide cash compensation for their victims to do so (although they may have to fix unintentionally created security vulnerabillities)
  
• Future similar DRM schemes are legitimized as long as they are disclosed on the jewel case and in the EULA, and an uninstaller is provided
  
• The role of the EULA in this fiasco is implicitly legitimized (the
  entire concept of a "EULA," for those few who don't know, is largely an obnoxious legal fiction - sans UCITA, anyway)
  
• Collection of personal information in media products is legitimzed ("only for purposes of providing enhanced functionality" - LOL!)
  

This is a love letter to Sony, and a "go ahead" signal to expand "open season on your computer" into the entire market. It is a shocking, audacious outrage, and I have no doubt Sony et al would love to see it made the basis for future statute.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is it. We have to immediately mobilize and derail this "settlement."

This is not settled until Sony repairs each vandalized computer... and then we can talk punitive damages...

Re:Outrage!

[Yahweh Doesn't Exist]

solution: never buy another Sony product for doing what they did, and never buy another MS product for enabling them to do it. most people aren't focusing any of the blame on MS, but imo they should since this is exactly the sort of thing people have warned MS's crap security and disrespect of the user would lead to.

but are you really prepared to make the effort necessary to prevent this happening again?

most people aren't bothered enough, and I didn't buy Sony/MS before this happened anyway, so can hardly claim I'm doing much either.

Re:Outrage!

[Concern]

I'm a hotdog vendor.

If I think you're stealing my hotdogs, and I break into your house and spy on you to find out, and while I'm there I take piss on your carpet, your solution is not to... not buy my hotdogs anymore?

Fuck no, I go to jail. I'm "moderately" suggesting Sony could skip harsher criminal penalties that would be leveled at non-mega-rich, non-multinational-corporation ordinary people who tried to do what they did, and at least get a proportionate financial penalty.

Re:Outrage!

[Yahweh Doesn't Exist]

>your solution is not to... not buy my hotdogs anymore

yes, because at the end of the day the only thing that will make Sony/MS/whoever change is if people stop buying their products. legal fines are just the cost of doing business, and U.S. courts have shown repeatedly that they aren't prepared to punish businesses properly. everyone who takes part in this particular class action will just end up with yet more Sony products.

Re:Outrage!

[Shanep]

yes, because at the end of the day the only thing that will make Sony/MS/whoever change is if people stop buying their products.

But the problem with this, is that people WON'T stop buying Sony products. Sure a few die hards like myself and maybe you might (I still refuse to buy French products 10 years after the nuclear testing in Mururoa Atoll). But look at the situation right now. Most Sony consumers right now are probably either unaware of the rootkit (even though it has had so much mainstream press) or don't understand what the story means for themselves or what it reveals about Sony. That is a sad situation right now while this actually is news. The latest cool Sony gadget will come out and people will buy them TODAY and tomorrow. A few people won't buy them and Sony won't give a crap. They would just be a barely measurable short lived notch on their profits.

Power to the people? I would love to beleive that is true, but it seems "the people" don't care about much more than their own comfort and only a few of them are made uncomfortable by situations like this.

My biggest dissapointment is "the people". They have the power, but don't exercise it. So I guess they don't really have the power.

Re:Outrage!

[bblboy54]

My dad told me of a story of back in the 60's and 70's when he used to work for Howard Johnsons. When you were hired you were specifically told that you would not be paid overtime as the law states. Yes, this was illegal, and yes, they got fined.... but the reality of the situation was that it was cheaper for them to pay their fine every month than to pay overtime to all of their employees.

The only way to show them that you dont agree is to quit.... The same rule applies here.

Re:Outrage!

[funkdancer]

YMMV, but I was tempted to buy a record the other day - it was not a Sony. Having passed that, looking closely at the jewel case, however, I couldn't see if it was actually a CD. So I assumed it was DRMed and dropped the thought.

The case is this: I won't buy any "CD" that is not a CD. Add to the fact that there's a lot less interesting albums, or maybe the interesting albums are all in hiding from the one hit wonders they'd rather have us buy, and I'm amazed sales haven't dropped more than they've done.

Whatever the reason, I buy less music and spend more on online games like World of Warcraft. At one stage I used to buy several CDs every week, meaning I probably have about 400 or 500 CDs in my total collection. In the past two years however I've bought less than a handful.

The publishers do everything in their power to piss off their once faithful customers, what do they really expect? It is much easier and safer for me to torrent a new album and burn it to a CD - not that, as said, I can find that much of value anymore. If I did, and I had some EASY SURE-PROOF way of knowing that it didn't contain any DRM, I'd much rather be buying it.

Re:Outrage!

[ultranova]

A few people won't buy them and Sony won't give a crap.

Sony is incapable of giving a crap, since it doesn't really exist; it's just legal fiction, a figment of several people's collective imagination. For the same reason, Sony did nothing wrong, since a fictitious entity is incapable of doing anything; someone working at Sony did.

What I'm getting at is that it's completely pointless to punish corporations. They don't exist so they can't be punished in any meaningfull sense. What you want is to imprison the persons responsible for these decisions. Throw the entire Sony leadership into prison and make them pay millions in fines personally, and perhaps the next bunch will think twice about what is and what isn't acceptable behavior.

Absurd

[dbucowboy]

Once again the big company gets a slap on the wrist and everyone effected gets the peace of mind of knowing that the cd they bought still has the DRM on it and will still act the same way the next time they put it in a computer. Thanks for the great customer service Sony.

New York?

[tacokill]

This is for the New York case only. What about the Texas case brought by the Attorney General of TX?

There are lots of cases against Sony. This is only one of them.

Re:New York?

[mikerozh]

Still, I'm not sure what you guys expect? They aren't going to be banned from including DRM, unless they agree to that, which they won't. It's also unlikely they'll be hit with any MASSIVE fine. Although $7.50 per CD is actually a good amount of money (not to mention if people go for iTunes downloads, and the like), if the theoretical number of people all take it (unlikely).

If I scrap your car with a nail and you sue me, you'd expect to get the amount of money that would be enough to repaint the car or at least the scraped parts of it. If my lawyer would propose you 1/2 price of the nail as a compensation, you'd sure refuse.

What is the difference?

In the Texas Case I want...

[dbucowboy]

A new computer to replace the infected one that I have now.

Any of these will work great!

http://alienware.com/alx_pages/main_alx.aspx

Punishing the Meek

[Paladin144]

From the Geist blog, is a list of 10 things that Sony has provisionally agreed to do, at least until 2008:

1. No further use of XCP or Media Max
2. Ensure that the DRM will not be installed on users' computers until the user accepts the end-user license agreement
3. Ensure that an uninstaller for the copy-protection software is made readily available to consumers
4. Fully disclose any updates to the copy-protection software
5. Ensure that the EULA accurately discloses the nature and function of the software in plain English
6. Obtain comments about the EULA from an independent oversight person
7. Obtain an expert opinion that the copy-protection software does not create security vulnerabilities
8. Only collect limited personal information necessary to provide enhanced CD functionality
9. Include full disclosures of the copy-protection software on the CD jewel case
10. Fix any software vulnerabilities that may arise from the copy-protection software

Number 3 probably interests me most. Anybody in the know will be able to download the uninstaller at any time and get that filth off their hard drive (or likely: not put it on there to be begin with). But what about those who are not tech-savvy at all?

It seems to me that the main result of copy protection so far has been to punish the honest and control the meek. Smarter, savvier people get around it and are privy to software and music unencumbered by the DRM that works quite well against those foolish enough to uniwittingly install it. So what's the point? Are the DRM-proponents trying to drive a wedge between power users and the techno-illterate? Do they plan to blame the foul side-effects of DRM on the pirates who are not encumbered by it? "We only put DRM on our products because pirates like Joe Blow download it. Blame him!"

I'd bet that 90% of the population doesn't know what the heck DRM is. We'd better be damn sure to educate the masses or the cartels will do it for us - by smearing the savvy.

Digital Rights Management Protection Act

[PCM2]

Haha! Michael Geist is a cut-up. When I first read the topic I thought, "Damn straight it does, Michael! You tell 'em." Then I RTFA'ed and I realized he's saying this opens the door for a law protecting us from corporations.

Holy Dudley Do-Right, Michael! What country do you live in -- Canada?

This certainly does open up the door for a Digital Rights Management Protection Act. Here's how: Sony goes crying crocodile tears straight to Congress. It petitions every congressional representative in its pocket to draft a new law that indemnifies corporations from any damages resulting from software that gets installed on a customer's computer when he/she makes use of a company's product. Those same representatives, wiping their mouths, will get up on TV and proclaim to the world how this new legislation will protect us all from the frivolous lawsuits that are driving up the costs of everything, depriving Americans of their God-given low low prices.

Because this lawsuit against Sony only serves to point out the failures of our legal system, don't you see? Sony was trying to innovate with new technology and got slapped down by evil, profiteering lawyers. The corporations must be protected!

Not nearly enough

[Dachannien]

For real protection against egregious DRM, fair use rights must be protected. DRM isn't really about piracy prevention, after all - it's merely a red herring. If content companies were only interested in piracy prevention, the Blu-Ray spec would be finalized by now.

The real reason for DRM is control over the consumer, ranging from hardware or software lock-in to captive audience advertising. Fair use lets us escape such abuses by allowing us to time- and space-shift content, allowing us to move legally-purchased content to other playback devices and to skip unwanted advertising. The DMCRA would be a good start - if anything, this proposed DRMPA should be added to that legislation.

Besides, the complaints regarding Sony's DRM are the same as the complaints surrounding a lot of spyware and viruses. Why should Sony's status as a multibillion dollar corporation cause it to be painted with a different brush (and have different laws applied to it) than, say, Claria?

More information available at SonySuit.com

[marklyon]

There is much more information available at SonySuit.com, including information on how you can pursue your own litigation against Sony BMG.

The Titanic Toddler Problem

[Crash Culligan]

There's one problem at the root of all of this. And Sony's rootkit hijinx and crappy advertising techniques, Microsoft's monopolistic practices, and the despicable actions of dozens of other megalithic companies are all symptoms of it. Look at the common factor among all cases (size), and you'll see:

Modern justice lacks scalability.

Think about it. We have these immature, almost psychopathic corporate constructs wandering the landscape. They're greedy like children, live in their own world like children, and have an unnatural knack for breaking things like children. They're gigantic, amoral, know only enough to get into trouble, and don't think much about consequences. And why should they? In this case, it's taking a whole gaggle of government lawyers bearing class action suits to spank them, and even then they're doing a poor job of it. Admittedly, it might help if the government didn't dote over them so, tsking at them for running roughshod over their toys (customers), but ever so happy with them when they perform vital household duties like collecting information and marketing government policies.

The death penalty exists for individuals who are convicted of crimes. (Note: guilt never enters into it; the only important aspect is the conviction.) For corporations, legal contrivances that they are, the best the government can do is dissolution. The last time they did that was the breakup of Ma Bell, and we know what happened there: the individual enterprises have each grown up in their own special, horrid ways.

And the mallet needed to properly smack them down and make them stay down we can't trust in the government's hands. So how do you spank a toddler that big?

Re:The Titanic Toddler Problem

[ajs]

Simple: rewrite (or amend) their corporate charter.

Whose? Sony Corporation of America? Sony Electronics Inc.? Sony Entertainment Inc.? SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT (50% ownership)? Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc.?

Sony Corporation, headquartered in Tokyo? I'd like to see the U.S. court that could re-write a Japanese company's charter!

Which head of the hydra would you like to cut off (and watch regrow) first?

Hopping mad... for a while

[rewt66]

Sony now has to release "clean" CDs with NO content protection...which means that they are effectly out of the DRM business for at least two years. That's going to make their music execs hopping mad.

Maybe by the end of the two years, they will have figured out that non-DRMed music sells better than DRMed music. Maybe this settlement forces them to run the experiment that shows them that they can make more money if they don't act like the other music companies.

Think they're bright enough to see the trend in their data?

Outraged? File for exclusion from the settlement!

[MacDork]

How many retards out there won't get the incremental-cost-to-sony "free" downloads or rebates? How many people will stop buying their stuff? None. Its a trial balloon - and Sony now knows what the market will bear.

I wouldn't call them retards. I'd say uninformed... anyway the key is on page 17 of the settlement.

D. Defendants' Limited Right To Withdraw From Settlement
Defendants have the right to withdraw from the settlement, if the number of timely and valid requests for exclusion from the Settlement Class exceeds 1,000.

1000 requests for exclusion is a pretty low bar guys. If only those qualified reading slashdot filed for exclusion, you could pull this off. Sony should be in a lot deeper shit that this settlement provides. Filing a request for exclusion from the settlement class should send a message to these people... I'm as mad as Hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore! If the settlement is approved by the court, everyone here should file for exclusion. Don't let them get away with a slap on the wrist this time. I personally would not be happy until someone responsible for this at Sony was facing criminal charges.

Match copyright infringement penalties

[mcubed]

Shouldn't Sony at least have to compensate purchasers with the amount those purchasers would have to pay if an infringement judgement was issued against them? The maximum penalty for copyright infringement is, I believe, $150,000 per song. If someone buys a rootkit CD with 10 songs on it, that person should be entitled to a maximum of $150,000 per song, for a total of $1,500,000.

I mean, isn't the crime Sony has committed at least as serious as infringement? Why should the penalty be any less?