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.'"

Comments

Settlement bad for plaintifs

[SmoothTom]

Sony is facing no penalties and is not being made to 'repair' PC
(or other 'puter's) their ill-thought out DRM may have damaged.

When I buy a CD I want not only the recorded music at the highest quality
available to me, but I want the artwork and other extras that come with that CD.

(This doesn't mean that I don't D/L music from eMusic, Magnatunes, and
iTunes, it just means that when I purchase a CD I do so for a specific
set of reasons.)

I have been to the Sony site and the Sunncomm site several times each, and have
attempted to get any sort of reasonable response from both Sony (no
responses at all) and Sunncomm (one seemingly automated response saying
they will contact me.

I don't need any fancy settlements and I DON'T want an MP3 - the quality of
an MP3 is NOT the same as the quality of a standard CD track.

Personally I would be satisfied with a replacement CD with no added
software on it, and removal software that would leave my machines'
installed software exactly as it was prior to Sony/Sunncomm (with the
possible exception of modified dates and such, of course).

I don't want some 'Sony Surprise' in the months or years down the road that
will cause problems with any use I may wish to make of my computers.

Below is my last e-mail to Sunncomm, and their only response to me:

From: _______@____-______.com
Subject: Unable to get response from Sunncomm support
Date: December 9, 2005 3:46:14 PM PST
To: investor@sunncomm.com, support@sunncomm.com
Cc: _____@_____.org
________________
I run several Macintosh computers on my home LAN, and one of
them is also the center of my entertainment system.

Since I have a number of Sony/BMG CDs that may have dumped
Sunncomm files onto my system(s) I have been trying to get
information from your support folks to remove those files
from my system(s) and undo any and all changes Sunncomm may
have made to standard OS and application software on my
system(s).

Thus far I have received absolutely no response from
Sunncomm support.

If nothing else, please provide me with a list of files
potentially left or changed by Sunncomm so that I can take
my own measures to restore my system(s).

(Note: Your FAQ information for Macintosh computers is
severely lacking, and in some places incorrect.)

Thank you for your time and attention,
[signed]

Their response to me:

From: techsupport@sunncomm.com
Subject:
Date: December 9, 2005 4:12:01 PM PST
To: _______@____-______.com
________________
Thank you for contacting us. A SunnComm Tech Support
representative will respond to your email
shortly.

So far, there has been no further response from Sunncomm
since that 09DEC autoresponse saying they would get back to
me shortly.

(I seriously doubt that I have any of the Sony distributed
software on any of my machines, because I do
NOT allow unauthorized installs to take place, but I
would still like to have the information from them to
allow me to verify this is the case.)

Anyway, the "settlement" appears to be simply a way for Sony
to protect themselves from protracted legal hassles at
the cheapest cost to them. It is NOT in the best
interest of any of their customers who may have had
their system software damaged by the software
distributed by Sony.

-- Tomas