Archive for the 'DRM' Category

Another shoe: Sony BMG and the 39-State Settlement

Friday, December 22nd, 2006

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 […]

The “long tail” of Sony BMG lawsuits: settlements

Wednesday, December 20th, 2006

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 […]

Pledge: only buy DRM Free CDs

Tuesday, January 10th, 2006

When BoingBoing talks, apparently people listen. The Boycott DRM pledge at PledgeBank, which asks signers to boycott all CDs containing digital rights management, blew through its signatory goals after BoingBoing linked it yesterday. According to their signup rate graph, they got 1700 or so signatures yesterday.
I think that this is the next logical step from […]

Legal roundup: Canadian lawsuit drops; SonySuit.com blogger sues Sony

Friday, January 6th, 2006

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 […]

Legal roundup: Canadian lawsuit drops; SonySuit.com blogger sues Sony

Friday, January 6th, 2006

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 […]

Did Sony BMG get off easily?

Friday, December 30th, 2005

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 […]

Settlements at hand

Thursday, December 29th, 2005

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 […]

Sony BMG gets another Texas-sized Christmas gift

Thursday, December 22nd, 2005

Yahoo! Finance: Texas Expands Lawsuit Against Sony BMG. This is the sound of another shoe dropping, from what at this point appears to be a herd of well shod lawyers. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has decided, along with suits filed in Oklahoma, the District of Columbia, and California (the latter by the EFF), that […]

Sony BMG: Extreme Losers

Tuesday, December 20th, 2005

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 […]

Get rid of XCP rootkit through Windows Update

Thursday, December 15th, 2005

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 […]