p2p news / p2pnet: Italy’s ALCEI-EFI (Association for Freedom in Electronic Interactive Communications – Electronic Frontiers Italy) has complained to the head of Italy’s cyber-crime investigation unit, Colonel Umberto Rapetto of the Guardia di Finanza, about the Sony BMG rootkit DRM.

“The complaint alleges that XCP violates a number of Italy’s computer security laws by causing damage to users’ systems and by acting in the same way as malicious software, according to Andrea Monti, chair of the ALCEI-EFI,” says Smarthouse.

“What Sony did qualifies as a criminal offense under Italian law,” he said.

If police decide a crime has been committed, “prosecutors will be required to begin criminal proceedings against Sony,” the story has Monti saying.

A patch produced by Sony BMG to supposedly deal with the spyware, “can lead to a crashed system and data loss” and “Sony is still making users jump through hoops to get an uninstaller,” states Mark Russinovich, one of the people who brought the existence of the DRM to public attention.

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win
- Mohandas Gandhi

Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local political representatives. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance.

See:-
Smarthouse – Police Called In To Investigate Sony, November 9, 2005
crashed system – Sony BMG rootkit DRM saga, November 8, 2005

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