Texas Sues Sony Over Rootkit

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Under its new anti-spyware law, the State of Texas has sued Sony BMG Music Entertainment, on the grounds that its much-maligned XCP anti-piracy software included on numerous recent releases has left customers' computers open to attacks.

The software, which limits the times a user can copy tracks from a disc onto their computer, has been attacked relentlessly since Sony included it on more than 50 new releases. Unwary customers were not told of the software's presence on their machines. Worse still for Sony, the "fix" that was released to remove the software only caused more security problems. After much pressure, Sony recalled the CDs late last week.

However, Attorney General Greg Abbott pointed out that many discs with the XCP software remained on store shelves, including releases by Neil Diamond and Celine Dion. The suit seeks damages up to $100,000 per offense as permitted by the law. Abbott went on to say that there were thousands of these violations.

News source: Yahoo! News

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(3 replies) #1 xTrinity on 21 Nov 2005 - 20:32

Sony's blunder has surely set back full DRM implementation on CDs few years. Possibly the downhill roll of DRM altogether. Cheers!

#1.1 rev23dev on 21 Nov 2005 - 20:35

yup! (dance)

#1.2 hotdog963al on 21 Nov 2005 - 20:43

Never really bothered me anyway....
Yo ho ho.

#1.3 sphbecker on 22 Nov 2005 - 14:50

I wonder to what extent this will hurt them in the Blue-Ray world. DRM seems to be a hot topic in that arena as well.

#2 _Dom_ on 21 Nov 2005 - 20:35

we all knew this would happen it was just when and who as opposed to if

#3 uniacid on 21 Nov 2005 - 20:35

OWNED.

(2 replies) #4 hotdog963al on 21 Nov 2005 - 20:36

VYVYAN: [stands, with the axe stuck through his head] That's OK, Neil. It was bound to happen sooner or later. [Collapses]

#4.1 kravex on 21 Nov 2005 - 20:57

LOL

Scumbag Vyvyan: What!?

#4.2 wildk on 21 Nov 2005 - 22:27

Mike - Neil, I know things are bad but there's no need to panic ! No, I'll just treat this problem like my mattress - and sleep on it.

(3 replies) #5 Garry on 21 Nov 2005 - 20:38

$100,000 per offence is excessive and it's those sorts of damages that allow stupid lawsuits to happen.

People should only be able to sue for actual loss of earnings and/or out of pocket expenses.

#5.1 joshpo on 21 Nov 2005 - 20:44

Yeah know what's really excessive, is $750,000 for infringing one copyrighted song.

#5.2 Shadrack on 21 Nov 2005 - 21:33

QUOTE

exactly!

Sony needs to be made an example of.

#5.3 PCyr on 21 Nov 2005 - 23:36

Oh the irony!

(5 replies) #6 Doggelito on 21 Nov 2005 - 20:46

sue the **** out of them bush

the one good deed u can do for the people of earth.

#6.1 joshpo on 21 Nov 2005 - 20:47

Bush is no longer the governor of Texas, unfortunately he moved on from that position.

#6.2 lexor on 21 Nov 2005 - 21:00

no president's Bush's brother, Bush now runs texas

#6.3 McG on 21 Nov 2005 - 21:11

Except...not. Jeb Bush is the gov. of Florida.

#6.4 Atmos42 on 21 Nov 2005 - 21:31

Here is Texas, we subscribe to the Dilbert form of Politics, we give the incompetent leaders promotions to get them out of hair.

And, Rick Perry isn't Bush's brother. Thankfully, the Texas governor has almost no power whatsoever.

#6.5 sphbecker on 22 Nov 2005 - 14:53

It is the Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott who bought this case. And for all those Bush comments, this guy bares a striking resemblance

http://www.oag.state.tx.us/

#7 kravex on 21 Nov 2005 - 20:47

Oh, revenge is sweet

(1 reply) #8 dolimite35 on 21 Nov 2005 - 21:01

the money wont go straight to the people (or even go to them at all)

The Texas spyware law allows the state to recover damages of up to $100,000 in damages for each violation.

also this makes me wonder... How much will a CD cost after this if Texas wins

Last edited by 78314 on 21 Nov 2005 - 21:55

#8.1 xTrinity on 21 Nov 2005 - 22:49

Not much more, or piracy will become even more prominent.

(2 replies) #9 JoDaddy on 21 Nov 2005 - 21:07

I've stopped buying actual CD's unless they are from the artist direct (like at a show, or some indie band). I only buy through MSN Music or iTunes.

#9.1 mko on 22 Nov 2005 - 04:02

want a cookie?

#9.2 Daffy_Duck on 23 Nov 2005 - 12:23

I'll take it if he doesn't.

#10 Toastyone on 21 Nov 2005 - 21:08

Hell yeah! I hope Texas sucks Sony for at least a Billion for being so damn stupid and crazy enough to stick this crap on CDs!!!

I have always not liked Sony but this has made me hate them

#11 IndoShindo on 21 Nov 2005 - 21:17

To people who think these $100,000 per offense are excessive, take a look at what RIAA sues dead grandparents for their grandkids pirating 1 song when they visited them in 1999 ... I hope they sue the pants off sony!

#12 8-n-1 on 21 Nov 2005 - 21:21

I never thought I'd say this, but.... GO TEXAS!!

(4 replies) #13 mysticalone on 21 Nov 2005 - 21:25

Down with RIAA, Down with DRM, DOWN WITH SONY FOR HALF DECENT PRODUCTS!

#13.1 todd on 22 Nov 2005 - 01:15

I work at Best Buy and I deferred about 4 people away from Sony cameras today. Not only because of all of this that's going on with DRM, but because their cameras suck.

#13.2 mko on 22 Nov 2005 - 04:04

What does DRM have to do with cameras?

Last time I checked JPEG compression didn't support DRM.

#13.3 MrCobra on 22 Nov 2005 - 05:29

It's not about the cameras. It's about making a statement to a company that we as consumers will not take thier crap. Stand against them for too long and they either crumble or restructure thier business practices.

Boycot all Sony products and see how long it takes them to be at least have way fair to consumers.

#13.4 Daffy_Duck on 23 Nov 2005 - 12:36

MrCobra is right. Sony has shown their true view of it's customers. They don't give a crap about them. They just want the money. They have lost the trust of many consumers including myself.

(1 reply) #14 MadDog on 21 Nov 2005 - 21:35

Don't Mess With Texas.

#14.1 King Rilian on 21 Nov 2005 - 21:55

Ah, stink. You beat me to it.

(1 reply) #15 KingDrew on 21 Nov 2005 - 21:36

So should I start bragging about myself living in Texas?

Dirty south got it right.

#15.1 toadeater on 21 Nov 2005 - 22:45

I wonder if they'd be so quick to sue if this had been Dick Cheney's DRM instead of Sony's! You know, one that automatically takes your taxes and deposits them in Halliburton's bank account. Might even send everyone who complained about it to Guantanamo.

#16 spvath on 21 Nov 2005 - 22:21

damn right TX...everyone boycott Sony!!

#17 lunamonkey on 21 Nov 2005 - 22:27

software remained on store shelves, including releases by Neil Diamond and Celine Dion.

At least there won't be any more PCs at risk then.

(2 replies) #18 Imusion on 21 Nov 2005 - 22:27

I always knew it, DRM is bad for you.

#18.1 [NFC]Wave on 21 Nov 2005 - 22:37

You make it sound like an STD, haha.

#18.2 seethru on 22 Nov 2005 - 22:34

DRM, the newest STD...

#19 xpablo on 21 Nov 2005 - 22:42

Yep, good I can only hope other states joins in this, unfortunately Sony will pass the Judgement onto consumers, so you'll probably see price hikes on their products, but I doubt it will go up by much, Sony should have told Consumers that they had included this "Software" into their CD's on the front packaging and then people could decide wether they want this Spyware installed on their computer.

No we can only hope that other Media corporations and record labels learn from this.

If I pay for a DVD or Music CD and play it on my computer I Do NOT expect or accept too have any software installed on my computer at all, unless I authorize to do so.

I hope Texas gets major $$$$ from $ony, like Billions of dollars !!!

If your a Sony shareholder, I'd be selling my Sony shares really fast.

#20 redFX on 21 Nov 2005 - 22:49

This is nice and all, but I'm just waiting till someone from the open source community sues the pants off of Sony for stealing GPL source code.

That in itself is much worse then a bloody anti-spyware law

(2 replies) #21 D.S.M on 21 Nov 2005 - 22:50

#21.1 Lare2 on 21 Nov 2005 - 23:02

So damm true .... lol

#21.2 SquareSoftO on 22 Nov 2005 - 13:22

"Tuck Fexas" and "My Anus is a Flexin' Given Birth To Another Texan" are a couple of bumber stickers you see in CO and NM. People here feel that they *should* be a whole 'nother country.

(1 reply) #22 obake on 21 Nov 2005 - 23:30

Holy crap, I'm actually proud to be a Texan now.

#22.1 Zirus1701 on 22 Nov 2005 - 01:15

Tell me about it. !!!

#23 Croquant on 22 Nov 2005 - 00:01

Sp, does this mean texas will be executing Sony execs if Sony doesn't pay?

#24 aleks on 22 Nov 2005 - 01:01

Yeah.... only if those texas rangers would roundhouse kick sony in the head!

(1 reply) #25 Blaine on 22 Nov 2005 - 01:54

I hope this puts them under

#25.1 mr_demilord on 22 Nov 2005 - 08:54

I hope so too!

#26 quixotic on 22 Nov 2005 - 02:13

An odd thing happened to me involving the Sony Rootkit. I was cleaning a client's computer
and copied some data over to a share on my hard drive used just for the purpose of saving client data. Well, I recently got a spyware infection on my server and installed Microsoft Anti-Spyware. I ran it and it detected the Sony Rootkit, it was actually in one of the files that was saved from my Client's computer. I think it may be more widespread than some people think.

Sony delenda est!

(1 reply) #27 DJ Specs on 22 Nov 2005 - 03:21

Every state with a law SONY broke should be suing. Get off the lazy horse you weak states! Sue the RIAA while your at it since they announced they support rootkits. Damn Hippocrates!

#27.1 Havin_it on 23 Nov 2005 - 13:35

>Damn Hippocrates!

What have you got against the father of modern medicine? Give it a rest, the poor man's been dead 2500 years!

/sorry

#28 imtoomuch on 22 Nov 2005 - 04:31

Awesome. This is the first and only time I will EVER say this, but go Texas! Treat Sony like they treated their customers hit them where it hurts.

(1 reply) #29 gunnerhkjp on 22 Nov 2005 - 05:45

Talk about dropping the ball. Sony really messed up on this one.
That got me to thinking... doesn't starforce install stuff on your computer too?

#29.1 Raistin on 22 Nov 2005 - 07:04

Yah, they do, but at least they tell about it in the EULA (if you can be bothered to read it. I couldnt), and they provide a PROPER uninstaller from their website.

So, yes it sucks, but its easy to get rid of it. And it isnt trying to hide itself

#30 wicker_man on 22 Nov 2005 - 09:03

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! This is such great news! My day is brighter now...

(1 reply) #31 sunzt on 22 Nov 2005 - 17:48

You guys do realize that Sony BMG music entertainment is not "Sony". Sony BMG is just a company/branch of Sony. It's not like Sony BMG runs the other groups such as their video game and consumer electronics group. They're different companies really, sorta like General Electric and it's 9 or 13 different divisions. Just because one branch of the company screwed up tremendously doesn't mean that the other unreleated branches are just as bad. Unfortuantely though, consumers put so much meaning into a brand name.

#31.1 Daffy_Duck on 23 Nov 2005 - 12:45

There are two sides to the coin. Sony chose to use the recognized Sony name for it's music business. If the Sony music business screws up, it's the same Sony name that suffers.

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