Comments on: Muzzy: Sony BMG DRM spyware

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Wed, 16 Nov 2005 14:50:43 +0000

This just keeps on getting better and better. Well i’d like to say something to the perps.

Thank you Sony. Thank you for putting the consumer acceptance of drm back by years, if not decades. You’ve managed to do in a few short weeks something that would have taken the EFF years to achieve.

Way to go ;o)

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 23:34:29 +0000

That is not good enough. Sony still trespassed on private property, defrauded users, opened up their computers to security problems, have not released a decent remedy to fix the problem they caused, and they have not paid customers for the problems they have caused. If I were a cracker who specialized in writing spyware and I released a trojan in the guise of a useful program, I would most likely be fined, arrested and thrown in jail. If I wrote a program that totally cleaned my malware out of victims’ computers (which Sony has not released), the act might get me some time off of my jail sentence, but it would by no means allow me to walk away unscathed.

What Sony needs to do in this case is be forced to pay to have their malware removed from each computer they have infected, pay customers for the time wasted because of their malware, and give them a non-infected CD to replaced the one that had the malware. Sony needs to do all of this at its own expense. Sony should also pay a hefty fine and all legal fees for its crime. The fine should be about 5% of its total revenue for this year. Imposing penalties like this is the only way to deter other companies from acting as if they can do anything they want with no regard for consequences.

Unfortunately, a reasonable penalty like the above will most likely not happen. Sony executives will bitch and moan about how many jobs would be affected and how ‘it would hurt the economy.” By the time the penalty is decided, it is very likely that the lawyers for both parties will be made rich and Sony victims will get some paltry discount on the next Sony CD. If Sony does as the E.F.F. requests, I might start buying Sony products again after a year is up.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 21:50:36 +0000

Sony has pulled XCP .

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 21:31:05 +0000

Sony is a company that bundles spyware with its product, and it should be treated as such by customers, antvirus, and antispyware vendors. Sony should be treated no different from any other malware producer. I for one will not only NOT BUY Sony products, but I will also pressure others not to buy Sony products as well. Sony should also be made to implement the remedies recommended by the E.F.F. http://p2pnet.net/story/6983 If these measures bankrupt Sony, than that is fine as far as I am concerned as long as Sony is required to liquidate its assets in order to make good the damages it has caused. Maybe if all of this happens to Sony, it will serve as a deterrent to other companies.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 21:29:40 +0000

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 19:21:50 +0000

This will show my age but way back there used to be a British Heinekin commercial that said something like “Heinekin reaches the parts other beers can’t reach” and I’ve noted that over and again p2pnet also reaches the parts that other *news* sites like zeropaid and slyck don’t even mention, let alone reach.

This follow-up story on the Sony DRM code is a good example of what I mean. Kudos to p2pnet. Keep it up!