boycott-riaa.com - Article: Sony Sues Rootkit Maker

Sony Sues Rootkit Maker

Posted by Mike (Shmoo) on July 13, 2007 at 12:59 AM (printer friendly)

Source

Associated Press

July 12, 2007

Sony BMG Music Entertainment is suing a company that developed antipiracy software for CDs, claiming the technology was defective and cost the record company millions of dollars to settle consumer complaints and government investigations.

Sony BMG filed a summons in a New York state court against The Amergence Group Inc., formerly SunnComm International, which developed the MediaMax CD copy-protection technology.

Sony BMG is seeking to recover some $12 million in damages from the Phoenix-based technology company, according to court papers filed July 3.

The music company accuses Amergence of negligence, unfair business practices and breaching the terms of its license agreement by delivering software that "did not perform as warranted."

In a statement, The Amergence Group vowed to fight what it described as unwarranted allegations by Sony BMG.

The company also suggested that lawsuits against Sony BMG over CD copy-protection primarily stemmed from Sony's use of another technology.

New York-based Sony BMG, a joint venture of Sony Corp. and Bertelsmann AG, declined to elaborate on the suit. Sony BMG is home to names such as Bruce Springsteen, Carrie Underwood and Modest Mouse.

It began including MediaMax on some of its compact discs in August 2003 and shipped about 4 million CDs equipped with the technology in 2005.

The program restricted the number of copies of a CD that a user could make. Some users reported problems when the CDs were played on their computers.

The record company also drew complaints over another type of copy-protection software that restricted CD duplication.

The fallout over the copy-protected CDs sparked lawsuits and investigations.

Last fall, the company agreed to pay a total of $5.75 million to settle the litigation and resolve investigations by officials in several states.

User Comments (These do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of this site)


pessimist	Date: July 13, 2007 @ 9:34 AM The plaintiffs (Sony) should have been (and likely were) smart enough to know that what they got from MediaMax was tantamount to a nefarious rootkit before they incorporated it within their CD production. Intuitively, had not all the hoopla happened as such a negative reaction, Sony would have been content to conduct business as usual without compunction of conscience (and there would have not been any inclination to to file any lawsuit at all)! But, when their bottom line became impacted, oh my!

pessimist	Date: July 13, 2007 @ 9:39 AM I mean, of course that type of software is intrusive, whether it performs as designed or not! Sony knew that. Give me a break, Sony. Your lack of ethics still showed. It was only because there were gliches that hurt you that you started caring.

gdZiemann	Date: July 13, 2007 @ 12:34 PM "The plaintiffs (Sony) should have been (and likely were) smart enough to know that what they got from MediaMax was tantamount to a nefarious rootkit before they incorporated it within their CD production." The guys at Sony Electronics might have figured it out, but the dweebs at Sony Music probably still haven't figured out exactly what happened. The guys at SunnComm (now Amergence), well, that's a whole 'nother story. The funny part is that everyone who downloaded music from the infected CDs got good files. Only the people that bought them got punished.

independentm...	Date: July 13, 2007 @ 9:49 PM Here's a funny thought. If Sony (injustly) wins the suit against the rootkit maker, perhaps it will be a disincentive to other software companies from creating DRM for the music/movie industry. However, BOTH of the devils should of course be punished for the evil deed inflicted. (lol, maybe if Sony wins, Amergence will have to pay them in coupons redeemable for other SunnComm software. After all, it's all that the infected Sony customers got from the class action suits.)

independentm...	Date: July 13, 2007 @ 9:50 PM Coupons/replacement CD's.

ShadowMom	Date: July 16, 2007 @ 12:24 PM It's finger-pointing time in Lala Land... Someone pass the popcorn. :party:

PhantomGhost	Date: July 18, 2007 @ 5:46 AM This is priceless. I'll take some of that popcorn.

InsaneWayne	Date: July 19, 2007 @ 7:28 PM Pot: you're black Kettle: you're black Pot: you're blacker! Kettle: no, you're blacker!

cdm1134	Date: July 21, 2007 @ 2:21 AM I BROUGHT MY OWN POPCORN FOR THIS!!! I thought the uproar was about the software installing regardless of how the user responded to the EULA (not to mention the HUGE security hole this opened up). So how can Sony say that SunnComm is responsible when it was THEIR (Sony) product that was causing all the damage? Sony knew without a doubt what was going on and the software maker was merely filling a bill created by Sony, anyway. Yet another cheap tactic by Sony to protect their purses.