Sony BMG Settles Over CD DRM

aurispector writes "Sony BMG Music Entertainment will pay $1.5 million and kick in thousands more in customer refunds to settle lawsuits brought by California and Texas over music CDs that installed a hidden anti-piracy program on consumers' computers. The settlements, announced Tuesday, cover lawsuits over CDs loaded with one of two types of copy-protection software — known as MediaMax or XCP. Although it's great to see this as a victory for consumers, I can't help but wonder about the next wave of DRM schemes."

Comments

The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

[dada21]

Each State gets $750,000 -- customers will share "thousands more."

Nice. Real way to protect the consumer.

Re:The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

[cashman73]

Consumers won't get, "thousands more." From the article, "In addition, Sony BMG agreed to reimburse consumers whose computers were damaged while trying to uninstall the XCP software. Customers in both states can file a claim with Sony BMG to receive refunds of up to $175."

"Customers have 180 days to file claims, which must include a description of how their computer was harmed and documentation of repair expenses."

Granted, $175 is still a decent amount of money. So if you're computer was reasonably fscked, it would probably be a good idea to go through the paperwork. Unfortunately, Sony is probably betting that most people will probably decide it's not worth the hassle. Then, there's the fact that about half of the paperwork customers file will end up going to some overworked, incompetent paper-pusher office slave who will either take way too long to approve the request, or reject it for some bullsh*t reason,...

Re:The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

[jcr]

Granted, $175 is still a decent amount of money.

Nope. Sony got off very lightly here.

-jcr

Re:The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

[kimvette]

Especially considering that if $RandomSlashdotter hacked one of Sony's servers to install a rootkit and got caught, Sony would be seeking millions for that one single incident, plus jailtime.

Sony execs should be doing time over this.

And Thousands more

[ePhil_One]

So not only $1.5 Million in fines, but THOUSANDS more in refunds? So this could cost Sony a total of $1.503 Million dollars? I was going to invest in Sony stock until I noticed that lst little caveat, raising the punishment a potential two or 3 tenths of a percentage point.

Sony is Doomed.

Cheap DRM Research

[mandelbr0t]

Doesn't sound like Sony got particularly chastised here. If I were Sony, or any other company interested in inflicting DRM on my customers, I'd happily pay the fees that they're talking about here. Total cost is less than $10M, which is a drop in the bucket for a large, multi-national corporation. If they succeed in inflicting their DRM, they win by taking our rights away. If they lose, then they get some R & D done about how to do better next time. If this judgement were to mean anything to the consumer, there would have to be significant punitive damages as well (I'm thinking in the neighbourhood of $100M or more).

Either way, not much to see here. Big company does nasty things with DRM, gets caught, walks away with dignity and wallet intact.

mandelbr0t

Next Step

[Mateo_LeFou]

Is anyone going after the antivirus/antispyware companies whose offerings gave the rootkit a pass?

Re:Next Step

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

Hmmmmn, while we should indeed go after the anti-virus vendors, I think the next step should be to ask why some sony exec isn't recieving jail time for deliberate malware distribution to millions of PCs.

Re:Next Step

[lightspawn]

Is anyone going after the antivirus/antispyware companies whose offerings gave the rootkit a pass?

How about the OS vendor that runs untrusted code off a CD without as much as bothering to inform the user?

Re:Next Step

[mrchaotica]

No kidding -- and you know what the worst part is? If it had been an individual doing this, he would have gotten the jail time! But since it's a big corporation responsible, they get the best "justice" money can buy.

Anybody know the names of the dumbass judges/prosecutors that approved this? I, for one, would like to help them realize just how asinine this settlement is by bitching them out!

This is sad.

[urbanradar]

Everyone saw it coming, but it's still sad. If I broke into your house and got caught, I would never get away with simply having to replace the broken lock and saying I'm sorry. But when Sony violate their customers' rights as gravely as they did, they get away with paying what amounts to little more than a token fee.

Not the DRM, the rootkit.

[jcr]

iTunes, RealPlayer and several other apps prove that it's possible to implement DRM without buggering the host OS. Sony's not in trouble for using DRM, they're int trouble for installing a rootkit.

-jcr

Re:Not the DRM, the rootkit.

[Lux]

Right. Only they're not in trouble.

Fair Compensation

[Alyred]

So, let's see. When Sony thinks that someone has "pirated" music, they sue them for, what, $1,500 per song, yet illegally invade people's computers and privacy and get off with a hundred dollars or so per person?

Where's the justice in that?

1.5 Mil? Someone got paid

[BlueCoder]

60 million would be an insult. They spend more than that on ad campagnes. 1.5 million? That's like a paper cut. On the low side it should have been 200 million to settle. There is some serious corruption going on.

I Bet It's A Big Deal Internally

[sweatyboatman]

they certainly could continue putting rootkits on their CDs, but they're not in the business of giving money away. These companies are big, but the different divisions (and sub-divisions) all keep records of profits and losses. This is going to show up in a big way.

I can see the meeting now:

Muckety Muck: Last quarter your unit had profits of $1.5mil. But this quarter you have a loss of $.5mil. Care to explain?
Sony Music Exec: Well we put this DRM on our CDs and got sued and settled for $2mil.
Muckety Muck: I see. Did the DRM reduce piracy? Or increase sales?
Sony Music Exec: Well... we can't tell if it reduced piracy. And, ahem, sales kinda collapsed after people found out we were getting sued for it.
Muckety Muck: That might just qualify for the dumbest business decision this year! No bonus for you and I'm taking away your parking space.

so while for Sony it's not a big deal, you can bet that the people that made the decision to rootkit their CDs are scrambling to save their careers.

Re:I Bet It's A Big Deal Internally

[NeutronCowboy]

Personally, I see the exchange happening a little differently...

Muckety Muck: Last quarter your unit had profits of $1.5mil. But this quarter you have a loss of $.5mil. Care to explain?
Weasely Sony Music Exec: Pirates! Yes, Pirates! With swords and parrots! Our DRM just wasn't strong enough to hold them off. But if you give us another 2 million dollars, we have this surefire thing that is guaranteed to work!
Muckety Muck: You sound full of confidence, so you must be right. Here's another 2 million dollars.
\Weasely Sony Music Exec already working on how to use that money to gild his Gulfstream

I see very little scrambling that will be done by Execs. At most I see some fingerslapping for the poor guy who implemented it.

Slashdot editors brainwashed or what?

[raap]

This story report is horrible! First it's the Sony rootkit. Name it as such. Not some "DRM" bullshit. Second: "victory for consumers" ? This is wrong on so many levels, I don't believe it. We are customers, not consumers. And no, it's not a victory, not at all. Sony did commit thousands of computer crimes for purely financial interests and got a slap on the wrist. Kevin Mitnick would be in Jail for 3000 years for this. And if my information is correct, the settlement states explicitly, that Sony does not recognize any guilt. Sorry for this rant. But how can such a misleading article be on the front page?

What about criminal charges?

[zentigger]

If I hacked into thousands of computers and installed a root kit without permission, I'm pretty sure I would be facing enough jail-time to seriously stretch my sphincter. In Texas, I bet that would probably be enough to get the chair! Someone should be going to jail for this kinda crap, and Sony should have their corporate charter dismissed and the assets seized. (corporate death sentence)

Re:What about criminal charges?

[mpcooke3]

Now, now, don't try and make out that the law would somehow treat you "differently" to Sony.

All you would need to do is become part or a cartel that engages in international price fixing, rip off millions of music lovers and thousands of artists, hire hundreds of lawyers and lobbyists and you too will get a decent legal defence.

Meanwhile in a secret Sony Research Lab...

[vivin]

Sony Suit: Well guys, looks like our DRM scheme tanked. But $1.5 is nothing. Muahaha. That's lunch money for me. What new stuff do you have?
Researcher John: Well, we got this thing where we can put in subliminal messages into the music that our customers buy. Stuff like "P2P and Piracy rapes your mom!" or "Buy more sucky and/or mediocre music!" or "Mike is a fag!"
Researcher Mike: Shut up John!
Sony Suit: Oh that's good stuff! Anything else?
Researcher John: Well, Mike has another idea.
Researched Mike: (holds up cute puppy) We can threaten to kill this cute puppy if they pirate stuff!
Sony Suit: EXCELLENT! (pets cute puppy) Woo's a cute puppy-wuppy! Woo's gonna die to pwotect our intewests!! Oooohh!! Sooo cute! Yesyouare!! Yesyouare!!

Completely unacceptable!

[gweihir]

First they should be criminally liable. What they did is computer-sabotage for commercial gain. Only prison-time is acceptable.

Second, they should have to pay everybody the cost of professional cleanup. I would say that is at least $150 per customer hit, probably more.

I think they got out of thi extremely cheap. Not acceptable for clearly criminal behaviour.

Re:Just boycott these companies.

[NeutronCowboy]

Holy crap, batman - someone completely missed the point of a boycott. Note: you boycott a company if you decide that you are not going to buy their products regardless of their intrinsic merit. So yes, you boycott a company even if they release the best rear-projection TV ever, or if it comes with the kitchen sink and does your laundry, too. Finally - can I point out that you just placed watching TV on a nice TV set above having principles and following through with them?

Wow.