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!

[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!

[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.

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!

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?

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.