A Legal Analysis of the Sony BMG Rootkit Debacle

YIAAL writes "Two lawyers from the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology look at the Sony BMG Rootkit debacle: 'The Article first addresses the market-based rationales that likely influenced Sony BMG's deployment of these DRM systems and reveals that even the most charitable interpretation of Sony BMG's internal strategizing demonstrates a failure to adequately value security and privacy. After taking stock of the then-existing technological environment that both encouraged and enabled the distribution of these protection measures, the Article examines law, the third vector of influence on Sony BMG's decision to release flawed protection measures into the wild, and argues that existing doctrine in the fields of contract, intellectual property, and consumer protection law fails to adequately counter the technological and market forces that allowed a self-interested actor to inflict these harms on the public.' Yes, under 'even the most charitable interpretation' it was a lousy idea. The article also suggests some changes to the DMCA to protect consumers from this sort of intrusive, and security-undermining, technique in the future."

Comments

Nothing like...

[ellenbee]

Good old greed..

Its a moral issue.

[Anonymous Coward]

This shouldn't be about laws, its a moral issue.

Laws don't and should not be the only guiding factor in the actions of people or corporations. It is not the case that anything specifically prevented by law is allowed. A person or corporation should also be a good citizen, and there are things you just should not do, such as inflict root kits on other people's computers.

The question then is; how did somebody at Sony arrive at the conclusion that they should try to protect their IP right in this manner?

Waas this a comittee decision where moral judgement went out the window in a corporate meeting? Or are people at Sony severely lacking personal moral judgement?

I would like to know.

Re:Its a moral issue.

[arivanov]

The problem is that morals are specifically off the society book nowdays. Standalone (without religios tint) morals and how society functions are not something kids study in school or at home. At best they get a version which was skewed and slanted through the prism of their family religion. At worst they do not get anything. The situation is same all over US, UK and most of Europe. The rest of the world closely follows.

Sigh... As usually Heinlein "Starship Troopers" is probably right. We need "History and Moral Philosophy" lessons in school. Though there is noone to teach them in the current generation.

Re:Its a moral issue.

[lareader]

Just a minor thing on Starship Troopers:
Not all the people who volunteered for public service ended up as soldiers - they simply ended up doing what their society thought it needed and they had the ability to do.

Heinlein actually wrote a bit about the "world" of Starship Troopers in Expanding Universe (in a retrospective on his literary career).
At the time when the events in the book take place, quite a lot of people were needed as soldiers - but due to the way we people are wired (with tight-nit social groups as soldiers), soldiers were usually the last to stop serving in public and thus the last to actually get to vote.
Yes, you didn't get the franchise until *after* you've stopped serving in that world.

I do agree that the premise is shaky - but the idea of not giving everyone franchise just because they were 18 years old and alive was one of the ideas Heinlein was toying with in that book.
Of course, he argued that clearly the founders of US of A never intended everyone to get the franchise either - his criterion were simply a bit more merit-based.

In Expanding Universe he did mention that the idea of having stable people with a stake in maintaining a working society as a rather good idea, and goes on arguing for removing the franchise from men and giving it to women who have born children, as they have a personal reason for being interested in having a society that works... and makes a rather convincing argument of it.

I can heartily recommend Expanding Universe if you are interested in what Heinlein said he was thinking when writing.
As with all things written down, of course, you must consider the source - but I got a lot of amusement out of his writings, and like his meritocratic views personally.
The book "Requiem" is also a good read, if a trifle sad at times - but it did contain his speeches at a few scifi conventions which I hadn't read - highly interesting for a person not born until the last years of the Red Scare.

(Sorry for pushing Heinlein, but I really liked those books and they represent a very enlightening perspective on what Heinlein professed to believe.)

I'll try one more time

[zappepcs]

Can we please get an Icon that has a foot and a handgun?

Re:Left hand, meet right hand

[otomo_1001]

And now meet what I like to call handcuffs.

An easy solution to this problem, and it would only take a few instances, would be to seize all assets of the company in question and begin prosecution. If corporations are damn near treated like real humans, then let them see the other side of the coin. Make every failure in process hurt them where it matters, I guarantee we won't have this happen again. Or we end up with less corporations willing to "risk" product release in the US.

As it stands companies can seemingly get away with whatever they want to protect their business model.

Remember Sony/BMG and Sony Corp aren't the same

[Boycott BMG]

The rootkit was put on those CDs by Sony/BMG, which is a separate entity that is 50/50 owned by Sony and Bertelsmann (BMG stands for Bertelsmann Music Group). Furthermore, the people at the top, who make all of the important decisions are all from the BMG side. So, if either company is more to blame, it is Bertelsmann. Does this mean you should boycott Bertelsmann? It does seem a bit silly to boycott Random House (major book publisher and Bertelsmann subsidiary) over what happened to some music CDs, and yet that is what some are doing w.r.t. Sony Vaio, Sony cameras, etc. My suggestion would be to boycott the product that Sony/BMG puts out-their music CDs.