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Sony BMG Sued For Using Pirated Software

Posted by kdawson on from the turnabout-is-sweet dept.

An anonymous reader sends us to ZeroPaid, which seems to be the only site in English to have picked up a story out of France involving Sony and piracy. Except this time the shoe is on the other foot. The small software company PointDev learned that Sony BMG was using a pirated license for one of its system administration tools. PointDev got bailiffs to raid a Sony property and they found pirated software on four servers. The source article (link is to a Google translation of French original) quotes PointDev's spokesman claiming that the BSA believes 47% of software used in corporations to be illegal — whether he is referring to Sony in particular is not clear in the translation.

22 of 266 comments (clear)

  1. Makes You Wonder by Skeetskeetskeet · · Score: 5, Funny

    Did the servers have rootkits on them as well?

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    Yeah, my karma sucks....but so do the mods.
    1. Re:Makes You Wonder by niceone · · Score: 4, Funny

      Did the servers have rootkits on them as well?

      Yes, so now they can deny they installed anything and just blame, um, Sony.

      --
      ccalam - acoustic versions of new songs.
    2. Re:Makes You Wonder by opieum · · Score: 2, Funny

      Oh yea this will be the dialogue in the court. Judge: You have pirated software. You must pay the fine. SONY/BMG: But we have no money to pay with. Pirates have taken all the money from our once lucrative CD sales... Plantiff: I object...the defense has lucrative electronics sales Judge: Objection noted. Sony/BMG: Please we beg the courts mercy, I mean we really are broke we came with grubby cloths any everything just to make our case. Judge:....uh sure whatever....pay the fine. 1million Euros for every machine with unlicensed software on it.

  2. Let me be the first to say by vivaoporto · · Score: 3, Funny

    Ha ha!

    1. Re:Let me be the first to say by Ron+Harwood · · Score: 3, Funny

      It's better when you can hear it. ;)

      --
      BlackNova Traders
    2. Re:Let me be the first to say by mshomphe · · Score: 4, Funny

      It's called "irony". It comes in two flavors: delicious & bitter. This is delicious. Enjoy responsibly.

      --
      She sat at the window watching the evening invade the avenue.
  3. Lost in translation... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Mandated by PointDev, a bailiff carried out a seizure Epileptics beware: pirated software will give you seizures.
    1. Re:Lost in translation... by Your.Master · · Score: 3, Funny

      So do hackers: http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2008/03/epilepsy

  4. Only 'haha'? by Quantam · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'd classify this under evidence there is a God

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    You have tried to support your argument with faulty reasoning! Go directly to jail; do not pass Go, do not collect $200!
    1. Re:Only 'haha'? by ScrewMaster · · Score: 5, Funny

      I'd classify this under evidence there is a God

      But only if you believe that Sony BMG was intelligently designed.

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      The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
  5. Re:Why it does not happen more often? by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 3, Funny

    People don't want to bite the hand that feeds IT?
    Oh, I'm pretty sure they do.
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    No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
  6. Re:Inside Sony by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Ah, good. Maybe you can tell me if I have the latest rootkit installed.

  7. yes, slashdot comments are sometimes inconsistent by commodoresloat · · Score: 5, Funny

    I agree, slashdot often publishes comments that are inconsistent with each other (sometimes even completely contradictory!)

    It almost seems as if they were written by different people.

  8. Re:What will they charge per pirated copy? by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 2, Funny

    Internal corporate fileservers are not explicitly designed to do any such thing.

    Next time I'll open with a <sarcasm> tag. Yes, those arguments are similar to what Sony BMG used against citizens via their RIAA subsidiary. Buy a new computer? Must've been hiding evidence! Hard drive seizes and needs to be replaced? Must've been hiding evidence! Don't own a computer? Must've been hiding evidence! Have files in inadvertently shared folders? Obviously must have distributed them at least 100 times.

    I claim full right to be endlessly amused at the ironic comeuppance speeding their way, and to invent my own sarcastic reasons to enjoy it even more.

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    Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
  9. Re:Inside Sony by YaroMan86 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Only on /. can a troll be modded insightful if it insults an enemy to FOSS like Sony.

  10. Not to be judgemental, but... by AnotherUsername · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...just another pie in the sky left wing hippie running their mouth off between bongs? Something tells me that you are not voting for a Democrat in this year's election...
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    I don't like Linux. This doesn't make me a troll.
    1. Re:Not to be judgemental, but... by AioKits · · Score: 3, Funny

      ...just another pie in the sky left wing hippie running their mouth off between bongs? Something tells me that you are not voting for a Democrat in this year's election...
      Wait, we get pie AND bongs? ... Where do I sign up!?
      --
      "Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted." -Groucho Marx
  11. Re:What will they charge per pirated copy? by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 2, Funny

    Did you sell your account or something? Again, I repeat: I exert my right to enjoy this and make wild-ass exaggerations in the vein they've been making via their proxy, the RIAA. For their sake, I hope the plaintiff's lawyers aren't the pathological liars that Sony BMG's own have been shown to be.

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    Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
  12. Obviously... by sconeu · · Score: 3, Funny

    PointDev should have put an "anti-piracy" rootkit into their software.

    --
    General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
  13. Re:Inside Sony by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Mod Parent up, Insightful

  14. Re:Inside Sony by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Three months after I left this company, the BSA came in, did a "software audit", and indeed busted their nuts over 100 unlicensed copies of WinZip (along with other licensing violations).


    So what did you spend your reward money on?
  15. Re:yes, slashdot comments are sometimes inconsiste by Jesus_666 · · Score: 4, Funny

    No, you are wrong. All our comments always agree and we never contradict each other. What you wrote is simply not true.

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