EFF joins Sue Sony class actions
p2p news / p2pnet: Things just keep getting worse for Sony BMG following its foiled attempt to plant DRM spyware on customers’ computers.
Now the EFF has joined the class action party, "demanding that the company repair the damage done by the First4Internet XCP and SunnComm MediaMax software it included on over 24 million music CDs".
Sony BMG took several panicky steps to try to repair the damage, but its efforts were far too little and way, way too late.
"It is unconscionable for Sony BMG to refuse to respond to the privacy and other problems," says created by the over 20 million CDs containing the SunnComm software," says EFF staff lawyer Corynne McSherry.
The law firms of Green Welling and Lerach, Coughlin, Stoia, Geller, Rudman and Robbins have joined EFF in the case, it says, adding:
"Sony BMG is also facing at least six other class action lawsuits nationwide and an action by the Texas Attorney General."
Also read:-
EFF – EFF Files Class Action Lawsuit Against Sony BMG, November 21, 2005
November 21st, 2005 at 10:32 pm
MediaMax Technology Corp. (OTC BB: MMXT), announced today the appointment of Kevin M. Clement as president and chief executive officer effective today, November 21, 2005. He has 18 years experience in the information technology industry. Mr. Clement joins MediaMax from Sony BMG Music Entertainment where he held the position of Senior Director, New Technology. He joined BMG in 2000.
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=101954
November 21st, 2005 at 10:43 pm
Whatever Sony gets, they deserve. And more.
November 21st, 2005 at 11:08 pm
The State of Texas is also getting into the act…
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051121/ap_on_hi_te/sony_copy_protection;_ylt=Asg3Lzq5XpgxgNxs.Lpyo5Gs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3cjE0b2MwBHNlYwM3Mzg-
November 21st, 2005 at 11:24 pm
Sue there ass so hard it puts them back into the stoneage. Gangsters
November 21st, 2005 at 11:56 pm
I wonder if Mashbox and the New Grokster 3G pay p2p service will even get to launch after this Sony XCP debacle .
Sony CEO Andrew Lack is a major backer of Mashboxx and was instrumental of convincing Wayne Russo the former CEO of Grokster to set Mashboxx service up for him.
November 22nd, 2005 at 12:10 am
That these appointments can move so quickly only show that Sony is the head of the hydra in this case. They are doing damage control in house. What they aren’t doing is owning up to the problem nor their involvement within this mess.
Sony has done everything but what it should have done. It has hemed, hawed, and made movements like it was going to but has done the absolute minimum and only when prodded hard enough that such as action might have to be done.
It’s mouthpiece, the RIAA has tried to say it for them. It’s tried to say the Sony apologized. No it hasn’t. It has said it was sorry for the inconvience to users, not quite the same thing. The RIAA has said Sony issued a patch. Yes it did, one that only made a bad issue worse. Sony has tried to use the problem to gain additional info on its users. Hardly a mark of someone that was truely sorry but rather a mark of someone trying to gain from a mistake by making it worse and showing just what is important to it.
With Christmas coming up, Sony doesn’t want to do anything that removes product. The recall seems to be in word only not in actions. Reports coming from different surfers of the net say that those infected cds are still on the shelves. They can still be purchased. That store managers and owners are on the whole unaware that there is a problem with the cds. In otherwords, to keep Christmas on track Sony only issued the “recall” (that they don’t want to call a recall to trigger news reporting media of the problem) on the net and not at store level. That’s hardly enough nor is it in the spirit of being sorry. That’s in the spirt of profiting off the mess even more and ignoring the whole mess in hopes it will go away.
That ain’t gonna happen with class action lawsuits and the like.
November 22nd, 2005 at 6:52 am
Not that i would use crappy sonly DRM anyways, but this just shows what kind of plans they have. I hate to imagine what kind of protection system they have for blu-ray.
November 22nd, 2005 at 7:20 am
The lawsuits of the EFF and the Texas Attorney General are the best news ever. I only wish that could be more. Consumers must stand up for their rights and refuse to be bullied by record companies like Sony. I say let’s not just stop at Sony but sue any company, including EMI, which violates our rights as consumers. We should send a clear message to these record companies that we WILL NOT BUY any CD which employs DRM.
November 22nd, 2005 at 2:46 pm
Blu-ray discs are encrypted with AES-128 which by all current standards is unbreakable. The US Government uses it to encrypt their stuff. The problem here is that all the discs would have to be encrypted with the same key, or have the key on the disc for the player to access. Otherwise it cannot play the disc. Once you have that, it’s open season.
November 22nd, 2005 at 5:27 pm
The exclusive rights, under USA copuright law are said in the law to apply to “copyrighted” works. The six rights that the law gives are listed below.
The law says nothing about “copyrightable” works. These sre works that the owner may copyright but has not done so.
If a “common sense” interpretation is made of the lwa then, p2p, sharing, copying is not infringement unless the work has been copyright registered. 99.99+ percent of all works that can be copyrighted have never been copyrighted, that is registered at the Copyright Office.
Has anyone realized that 99.99+ percent of all works have no copyright rights because the works have not been COPYRIGHTED? Then that is without taking into account the vast amount of works that are in the public domain.
Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com
Copyright Act 17 exclusive rights of owners of copyrights (CAPITAL LETTERS ADDED):
(1) to reproduce the COPYRIGHTED work in copies or phonorecords;
(2) to prepare derivative works based upon the COPYRIGHTED work;
(3) to distribute copies or phonorecords of the COPYRIGHTED work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;
(4) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works, to perform the COPYRIGHTED work publicly;
(5) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic
works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or otheraudiovisual work, to display the COPYRIGHTED work publicly; and
(6) in the case of sound recordings, to perform the COPYRIGHTED work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.
November 22nd, 2005 at 7:10 pm
I hope that Sony has to pay for the actual cost to repair and restore the software on all infected computers. Remember, as the Secretary of Homeland Security stated, ” you may own the copyright but not the computers.”
November 22nd, 2005 at 7:51 pm
I purchased an infected CD (to be used against Sony) from FYE in the Panama, City, Florida mall. This was about 2 days after the supposed recall.
November 23rd, 2005 at 6:04 am
I can see it now. Some kid with enough brains, time, and motivation cracks the “uncrackable” just to copy his DVD, and in turn exposes all the government’s dirty little secrets. This should go over well:)