Texas sues Sony BMG over alleged spyware

A civil lawsuit is filed against Sony for alleged spyware in its media player.

The story "Texas sues Sony BMG over alleged spyware" published November 21, 2005 at 10:11 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

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[Sboston]

OK,

here we go!
Should be an intresting ride for Sony.

[Gleeplewinky]

Let's see. $100K x 50K CDs...

That's a scant $5 million (estimate based on
1/50th of the 2.6 million affected CDs sold).
That's hardly a drop in the bucket for SNE.

Hell, the lawyer's fees for defending themselves
against the charges will exceed that... But,
perhaps that's the point.

Too bad each state doesn't have such a law. Too
bad the DOJ isn't getting into the game.

Lets have a realistic penalty

Forgot the cash, Sony has got so much of it they would never
notice. How about letting them off, with a promise never to install
copy protection on any CD ever again.

Let's face it, any PC/Mac user with an external CD player and a
audio capture program can make a copy.

Concentrate on offer a quality product, at a reasonbable price and
I'll buy it!

[imperialgatekeeper]

Realistic Penalty

Comparing that fine with how much this kind of identity theft and spyware cost our economy, 100K should be a good precedent to set. Anyways, who sets a claim lower than what you could possibly get?

[ray08]

The courts always decide the amount of money

The law limits the amount to $100k, but that's a maximum. The court will set the damages.

err, check your calculator - its in the applications folder!

... that would be 5 billion, wouldn't it?

[heystoopid]

Goody, the more the merrier

Financial papers filed in 2004, indicate that SONY BMG joint venture has failed to break even, ands has been losing money, since it was created. Allied, to a consumer boycott, and assorted legal action, together with recall costs, will not take much to push the venture into oblivion, as SONY HQ, awash in a sea of red ink, indicates a probable trading loss yet again in the current financial year, in most of its divisions, has no money to fund losers. Oh well, with it's lack of ethics, this corporation's demise is no great loss to all consumers!

[BrandonR]

Moron

Yeah and how about we let murderers off life sentences or death row if they promise not to do it again.

That's not how the legal system works dummy.

[ddesy]

Hmmmm....

That doesn't sound like quite the same thing. Installing software vs. killing people? Big company vs. individual?

It would be easier to watch a big company closely than a single person who was let go, too.

[orphu]

Hopefully...

Any assessed penalties will go to a good cause as opposed to someone who's jumped onto the lawsuit bandwagon claiming the software has done them irreperable harm.

[Bill Dautrive]

Hopefully it will be the first of many

There are 49 more states+ the federal goverment, and possibly foriegn countries and organizations that can attack Sony.

Lets hope that this is the first, and that Sony will be hit so hard that no other company will dare pull crap like this again. Call me a ****-eyed optimist if you want.

[zaznet]

Wrong Target!

They need to file claims against the creators of the software, and not Sony. Sony simply purchased a product from one company then included that product in their CD.

Why go after the small guy? You can put them out of business! Sony will just mark up a small loss for any given quarter "to settle legal matters" and be done with it. The creator will go down in flames, sending a bigger message to those who author such software that they MUST be careful of what they produce.

[ChazzMatt]

NO, Sony is the culprit

Sony commissioned this software and eagerly used it. Warners and others don't use it, Sony does. Sony is the right target. It didn't magically get on the CDs, Sony put it there.

Let the lawyers do their job...

If Sony was not the right target, then the Attorney General of Texas wouldn't have filed against Sony. Admittedly, Sony makes for a higher profile case... but, the previous poster to your comment is correct: Sony shipped those CD's and don't even try to tell me that they didn't know the technical specifications of the software they shipped on the CD's before they shipped it. Sony is no ignorant dummy: they knew exactly what they were doing. They just happened to get caught without all of the i's dotted and t's crossed when they did it.

There's a term in business called "downstream risk." Trust me: I can bet you the contract Sony has with this third-party provider of software is going to make sure that little provider goes bankrupt. Any lawyer from a company like Sony that does not request significant indemnity from any provider like this is a moron... and I'm sure this provider, because they are small, offered whatever indemnity Sony's lawyers asked for... which will probably bankrupt that little provider when Sony asks them to pay up.

Sony is going to have to pay... but Sony is going to be sharing a lot of the "love," too with whomever they bought this software from. There's no way Sony's lawyers would be moronic enough not to spread this risk to their provider.

[Bob Brinkman]

do you hold Jack Daniels liable for drunk drivers?

no thanks.

[ChazzMatt]

rootkit easily defeated with scotch tape

Gartner is reporting that a piece of scotch tape on the edge of the CD makes it play like a regular CD. Sony is so pathetic.

<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?doc_cd=136331" target="_newWindow">http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?doc_cd=136331</a>

[Bob Brinkman]

just like..

The cassette tapes that you weren't supposed to be able to record over. I am hard pressed to believe that this really works though.

[ddesy]

Only one problem...

You risk damaging a the drive by using the tape.

I can see it now... adhesive failure... tape comes off, ruins laser aperture...

The best solution remains to just not use the disc.