The Sony Boycott Blog

Well, when it rains it pours: Sony BMG just agreed to a settlement that covers 39 of the other states that sued over its hijinks with XCP and MediaMax—this hot on the heels of Sony’s settlement of the California and Texas suits earlier this week. Some notes on the breakout of the payments is mentioned […]

Yahoo! News (AP): Sony BMG settles suit over CDs. The earlier news reports didn’t make clear that the suits in question were those brought by California and Texas; hat tip to BoingBoing for posting the pointer. The settlements cover both XCP and MediaMax claims.
(Previous coverage on this blog for the California suit and Texas suits.)
You […]

As one set of class action suits winds down in the US, another set opens up in Canada. Boing Boing pointed last night to class action suits filed against Sony in Ontario and British Columbia, following a class action that I missed that was filed in November in Quebec.
Scanning the briefs, it looks as though […]

As one set of class action suits winds down in the US, another set opens up in Canada. Boing Boing pointed last night to class action suits filed against Sony in Ontario and British Columbia, following a class action that I missed that was filed in November in Quebec.
Scanning the briefs, it looks as though […]

An interesting open thread at Freedom to Tinker is developing two competing points of view: that Sony BMG got off lightly in their settlement agreement, and that the settlement is a fair and reasonably complete redress of customer grievances.
My $0.02 is that, with the exception of some of the MediaMax provisions, the settlement does […]

News on a sleepy post-Christmas day, courtesy the Washington Post’s Security Fix blog: Sony BMG has apparently agreed to settle the New York based class action lawsuit. Terms of the settlement include a permanent cessation of the use of XCP and MediaMax on Sony BMG CDs, a pledge not to collect personal information from customers […]

PCWorld: Winners and Losers of 2005. On a fairly evenhanded list (both Apple and Google are listed as both winners and losers), Sony BMG manages the distinction of being cited as a loser. Twice.

LOSER: Sony BMG Entertainment
Adding copy protection to CDs is onerous enough, but Sony BMG Entertainment and its tech partner First 4 Internet […]

According to Betanews, the newest release of the Malicious Software Removal Tool from Microsoft, which is available through Windows Update, removes the XCP rootkit and the vulnerable ActiveX control from the XCP uninstaller. Microsoft still hasn’t stepped up to the plate to uninstall all of XCP, though; you still have to go to Sony BMG […]

Talk about a non-statement: Thomas Hesse, of “nobody knows what a rootkit is” fame and President of Sony BMG’s Global Digital Business unit, says that the company is reconsidering how it employs DRM “because of the bad publicity” around its two badly flawed systems. But he says that the company is still committed to blocking […]

Talk about a non-statement: Thomas Hesse, of “nobody knows what a rootkit is” fame and President of Sony BMG’s Global Digital Business unit, says that the company is reconsidering how it employs DRM “because of the bad publicity” around its two badly flawed systems. But he says that the company is still committed to blocking […]