Sony settles DRM lawsuit

[Rambilin]

Sorry I don't have a link, but this was sent to all the DAG's and AG staff in Nevada:

For Immediate Release
Date: Friday December 29, 2006

ATTORNEY GENERAL ANNOUNCES NEVADA TO FILE ASSURANCE IN SONY BMG SETTLEMENT

Las Vegas - Attorney General George Chanos announced today that SONY BMG Music Entertainment has agreed to pay the Nevada and 39 additional states $4.25 million to resolve the states’ investigation into problems that arose when SONY BMG placed anti-copying software on music CDs. The settlement, an Assurance of Discontinuance, which the Attorney General plans to file within the next couple of weeks in Clark County District Court, also sets forth SONY BMG’s agreement to broad injunctive relief, which will prevent SONY BMG from using anti-copying software on its music CDs in the future without first complying with the reforms required by the settlement.

Editor's Note - Thanks to swiftdraw for the link (http://ag.state.nv.us/). - fitbabits

[fitbabits]

Continues...



During 2005, SONY BMG distributed more than 12 million CDs with two kinds of anti-copying software. SONY BMG did not tell consumers that the CDs contained anti-copying software or Digital Rights Management (DRM) software. One version of the software was called XCP and this software was designed to hide or “cloak” a number of the program’s files and operations so that when consumers played XCP CDs in their Windows-based computers, consumers did not know that the anti-copying software was downloaded onto their computers. XCP made Windows-based computers vulnerable to security threats, including viruses and other problems.

Also, when consumers did discover XCP on their computers, they experienced problems when they tried on their own to remove the software. Some consumers who tried to remove XCP had their CD- ROM drives crash.

Another version of the anti-copying software used by SONY BMG, called MediaMax, caused a driver to download on a consumer’s computer even if the consumer declined to accept the software. One version of MediaMax, Media Max 5.0, also created a security vulnerability on consumers’ computers by allowing later users to modify the contents of the computer and to run dangerous programs that they would not otherwise have been able to run.

Under the terms of the settlement, SONY BMG will provide refunds up to $175 to all consumers who experienced harm to their computers when they sought to remove the DRM software. Refund claims must be submitted to SONY BMG through a claims process which SONY BMG will publicize on its website.

The injunctive relief provisions will specifically prohibit SONY BMG from using XCP or MediaMax DRM software in the future, and will sharply limit the ways in which SONY BMG may use anti-copying software in the future. If it does choose to use DRM software in the future, SONY BMG must inform consumers about it.

The other states participating in today’s settlement are: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, and the District of Columbia.

[Rambilin]

Heh first news post. What is funny is that was our current AG's last working day as our new AG (Cortez-Masto) is sworn in on Tuesday as well a new Gov and Secratary of State. Parking along Main street is going to be a pain that day.

[swiftdraw]

Link: http://ag.state.nv.us/

[Rambilin]

Thanks! That wasn't up when I left yesterday just had my email copy.

[Loganrapp]

Was California not part of this suit? Or Texas? I haven't really looked into this case all that much, so I'm just wondering why only one of the three big states was involved.

[lockwoodx]

And sony gets a tiny slap on the wrist. less than 5 million bucks for raping hundreds of millions of computers? If anybody wrote a virus program that effected this many people in such a negative manner he would go to federal prison for a long time. Several SONY BGM execs deserve the same fate.

[blackzc]

Prison?

lskdfjsladk

[Rambilin]

There are actually some serious implications in the judgement that are not available to the public yet. The way this will be enforced will hopefully set a very strong precendent against this bullshit. Nevada might be one of the only states with a strong consumer protection unit under the AG. As long as it doesn't hurt the natural monoply they created down in Vegas on the strip....