p2pnet - rss feed: Canadian Sony BMG settlement
2pnet.net News:- The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has approved a settlement in Ontario’s class action against Sony BMG for the Canadian end of the notorious Sony BMG rootkit spyware DRM scandal.
With complaints from CIPPIC (Canadian Internet Policy & Public Interest Clinic) in the foreground, “The agreement now includes additional notification requirements on Sony and a comment from the judge that there were no findings with respect to the now-infamous Exhibit C,” notes Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa.
Geist was the first to draw attention to Exhibit C, “an astonishing and hitherto well hidden affidavit from Sony’s Canadian Vice President, Legal and Business Affairs, Christine J. Prudham,” as copyright expert Howard Knopf wrote.
“That affidavit purports to explain why Canadians should be content to settle for no injunctive relief, whereas Americans will get injunctive relief against SONY’s outrageous conduct.
“The affidavit contains some ludicrous arguments and statements that are clearly intended to pander to Canadian lawmakers who SONY hopes will deliver DMCA North to Canada in short order, and at the same time to get approval from a Canadian court of a settlement that is much worse even than the highly criticized US settlement.”
Now, under the deal, Canadians with polluted CDs are entitled to an $8.40 refund and/or free downloads if they present Sony with receipts or return the disk.
And, “the approved settlement includes a new clause requiring Sony to notify class counsel (who will then notify CIPPIC) if Sony decides to introduce any similarly-bugged CDs in the Canadian market prior to Dec.31, 2007,” says CIPPIC, adding:
“The judge noted that, this is one of those rare cases where the principal result of the litigation is more broadly based, the discontinuance of this practice by the defendant and beneficial impact of this on the general public and consumers.”
Sony BMG seems unclear on its privacy responsibilities, CIPPC said earlier, filing official complaints against Sony BMG with seven regulatory agencies across Canada.
Concerns centred on Sony BMG’s efforts to carve certain key information - IP addresses - out of its undertaking not to collect ‘personal data,’ said CIPPC.
“Sony BMG regularly sues consumers in the United States on the basis of this information, and in the past has tried to do so in Canada,” states executive director Philippa Lawson.
US litigation settled in early 2006 and included important consumer protection provisions, she says, going on that Sony BMG, refused to include the same consumer protection provisions in the Canadian settlement.
“It’s bad enough that Canadians get less money, but the exclusion of the consumer protections is completely unacceptable,” she declared. “Canadian consumers deserve the same consideration as American consumers.”
Also See:
Michael Geist - Sony Hit With Privacy and Consumer Protection Complaints, April 28, 2006
Howard Knopf - SONY BMG Canada Settlement, September 14, 2006
CIPPIC - Court approves modified SonyBMG Rootkit settlement, September 21, 2006
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September 23rd, 2006 at 10:58 am
When a kids shares or copies a song, an act no one objects to (except the RIAA boys) the kid’s parents are threatened with a $150,000 per song lawsuit, but when a large corporation like Sony violates the law, decency, privacy and compromses the security of computers by installing spyware, an act everyone objects to, Sony only has to pay less tha $10 per infiltrated and compromised computer.
Weird, whow the rules favor the big boys, always.