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Sony to Settle Spyware Suit with Downloads?
modemac writes to tell us the Seattle PI is reporting that a judge has 'tentatively' approved a settlement against Sony BMG that would give customers free music downloads as compensation for the recent flawed 'rootkit' software on many new CDs. From the article: 'According to terms of the settlement, Sony BMG will let consumers who bought the CDs receive replacement discs without the anti-piracy technology and will let them choose one of two incentive packages. The first package lets consumers who bought XCP CDs to obtain a cash payment of $7.50 and a promotion code allowing them to download one additional album from a list of more than 200 titles. The second package permits them to download three additional albums from the list. The court papers said Sony BMG would try to offer Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes as one of the download services available to the consumers.'"
If a guy gets a 11 billion fine for sending spam, Sony ought to get a bit more for dangering its customers' computers.
$7.50 + 1 album, or 3 albums Where X is an album: $7.50 + (1 * X) = 3 * X $7.50 = 2 * X X = $7.50 / 2 = $3.75 Value of a full-length album according to Sony: $3.75
So when they let you download two additional albums, the combined value is $7.50. When you get them from a friend, they are suddenly worth $75,000.00.
when someone just plays a CD the user bought, and the user gets just about nothing in compensation? More importantly, this is not a deterrent for other/same company to pull the same stunt again.
Well it's something but what about people who are on dial-up or have no Internet access at all? Not everyone out there who owns a computer has screaming-fast broadband. I didn't RTFA (I know, shocking) but I hope they plan on offering the content some other way for those people.
"Armed forces abroad are of little value unless there is prudent counsel at home" - Cicero
Why do we continually let wrong-doing companies settle lawsuits by giving away advertising? This same thing happened with Microsoft back when their "punishment" was to give several school districts copies of Windows and other MS Software. This action isn't reprimanding the company at fault, but giving them more customers instead.
I wish lawsuits could only be settled with cold-hard-cash or *serious*, displayable change in company policy to avoid future indiscretions.
I don't doubt this story is accurate, but AP has had some pretty sensational blunders recently, so important to provide correct attribution and know how it was sourced.
Speaking of that, I'd love to know who originated this sound of freedom story ... and shake their hand ... priceless!
Hulk SMASH Celiac Disease
This really is just another in a long line of crap being pushed on the consumers by the lawyers who are the ones making the "real" money.
I supposed most of you have forgotten that for all those machines infected with this parsite, it will cost the user about $150 per machine to have it removed or the machine reloaded and the equivalent of that in your valuable time if you are doing it yourself.
Where do these bozo's get off with this one is beyond me!!
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Users get to split the rest amongst themselves, giving them a whopping $7.50. Wow... that's almost the price of a large Chicken Lo Mein!
Go Justice System!
Rule 2: Replace bad product with good product.
The underlying rule would seem to be, keep them coming back for more.
"Academicians are more likely to share each other's toothbrush than each other's nomenclature."
Cohen
I haven't seen it written anywhere yet, but one question I've seen raised is who pays for this blunder? Let's say that I'm an artist who had that DRM on my CDs. My cut of the CD sales is already tiny, but now what they're saying is that I not only have to give back the money I earned from the original sales, but I'm also going to have to give away another CD's worth of money, too. A proper punishment for Sony would be to need to guarantee payments to the artists for every copy of every CD, even if it was called back because of DRM. Otherwise they're just passing the hurt on to the artists.
The world's only surviving livewriter.
A) this fiasco borders on fraud -- most people thought they were buying an ordinary audio CD that would work like any other, not something that would infect their computer permanently. Most people wouldn't even consider the possibility. These discs are a look-alike that have less features (e.g., you *can't* copy it onto your iPod) for the same price. They are a pseudo-Red Book Audio CD knock-off that Sony sold with the hope people wouldn't know or care about the difference.
B) had it been anyone else, they would have been prosecuted for all kinds of computer-invasion-related crimes. Their equipment would be confiscated and they'd probably have to meet bail requirements.
C) the RIAA and MPAA, at the urging of companies like Sony BMG, have been lobbying for harsher treatment of people committing illegal copying. Why should ordinary people be lenient at all when we are told that, should we download music files or copy music, we are guilty of stealing and should owe thousands of dollars of restitution, if not be thrown into jail? Furthermore, there is NO acknowledgement that some kinds of copying (e.g., of a disc I bought and paid for) fall under "fair use" and, therefore, are NOT illegal. I haven't downloaded any music I haven't paid for or that wasn't free with the permission of the people who made it.
D) This whole thing occurred because Sony BMG, while protecting their legitimate copyright interests in this music, didn't care about the implications of destroying consumer's ability to legally exercise their fair use rights, or Sony wouldn't have deployed this stuff in the first place. They were reckless. And it isn't specific to a flaw in this protection method -- other methods degrade the quality of the data, and use all sorts of other stupid tricks. If they don't care about the implications of turning otherwise legal users into criminals if they circumvent these protections, then why should I care that they didn't *mean* to cause this degree of a problem?
E) Comments by Sony management's early in the process were pathetic. Most people don't know what a rootkit is, so why should they care? Right. Most people don't know what DRM is, but they do care when it prevents them from using the product the way they did for every other audio disc they purchased.
Let Sony roast in the legal flames for a while, until they are good and crispy. Until they acknowledge the underlying reasons this fiasco occurred, and commit to not deploying any kind of DRM that stomps on fair use rights or consumer's equipment, I say: NO MERCY. Persecute them to the full extent and penalty the law permits, just like they advocate for others. I don't care about the money or the free tracks, I want to see their policy change, and I want to see establishment of a deterrant that causes other companies to consider the same. It is high time the public stopped the erosion of their side of the bargain that is copyright.
A link to the agreement was posted on /. a week or so ago. The best part of it: Sony will promise not to do it again - for the next to years. After that? Open season.
After that it wont matter. We'll be forced into using DRM locked hardware, operating systems and portable devices. Standard DRM will be fine. Even discussing non-DRMd music will probably be illegal.
I am a free slashdotter. I will not be modded, blogged, DRM'd, patented, podcasted or RFID'd. My life is my own.
If one of us dropped a rootkit on Sony's computers, we'd go to jail.
If Sony does it to us, they can mea culpa and smile? Did they buy out the Mentos plant so they could get away with ANYTHING?
Since the rootkit installs even when you decline the EULA, Sony needs to be prosecuted under the same laws we enforce upon script kiddies. All of them. There is no compensation that a 15 year old kid can give Sony (how about a download, Sonycorp?) that would stop them from pursuing civil and criminal lawsuits, and there should be nothing Sony can do to avoid the same discussions in open court. People at Sony made a really bad decision, and they should pay for transgressions in the same way a 15 year old kid would: with hard time.
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Who has actually followed through with their "outrage" and made the effort to file in small claims court, or try to push for an actual criminal charge for computer hacking? The rootkit qualifies as malicious hacking, so there's an angle to explore, but you'd have to convince your local prosecutor to actually make the charges. Who's going to spend the time explaining this to some flatfoot prosecutor? How long before he laughs you out of his office? What judge is even going to understand this if you file in small claims?
My prediction, way less than 1% of the potential claimants will do jack squat about this. I'd be real surprised if more than a dozen slashdotters followed through, and if two of them succeed. General public, they aren't even aware of it. Most people can't name their senator, one supreme court judge, don't know what DRM is, are quite happy to use windows malware because that's all that exists in their world, and pay folding money for it, think their computer hardware is "broken" when something doesn't work, so they certainly aren't aware of anything Sony did. They aren't being told about it, and even if they were they wouldn't care if it involves doing more than one thing that takes longer than thirty seconds and doesn't require them to take away any quality time from listening to other so called music or playing a vido game or watching a movie or pro sports. People by and large don't even care when they are used, abused and ripped off anymore.
In short, this settlement is beyond a joke. Until they start breaking up corporations immediately once it has been found they engaged in criminal acts, and making the stockholders eat it, lose everything, and throwing the managers and decision makers in jail, corporate malfeasance is how modern globalist business is done. It's "the system". So called "fines" are window dressings for the soap opera that passes for the justice system now. It's just a publicity stunt bone they throw out at the less than 1% of the public that is left who really care about things. Follow the clue trail, all fines imposed on any large corporation will be made up with their next crap they sell. YOU are paying Sony's fines, directly or indirectly, whether you bought a bogus CD or not. They'll cook their books or just raise prices on something else, it won't matter to them, they will just pass along the cost of doing business. They EXPECT to pay bribes-fines- once in awhile to various "legal" entities. They budget for it in advance.
Well, write up yourself a bill. Don't hide that this is your billing yourself for professional services, but make it clear that this is what you would charge others. Be reasonable. Add an addendum billing yourself for the time it takes you to prepare the case for small claims court. Then take it to small claims court, ask for reimbursement for time spent, and see what happens. At worst you'll be out a bit more time. It seems quite likely that you'll get at least part of it awarded as a default judgement. And if they DO defend, you'll have cost Sony more than they've saved.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.