Sony Facing Not-so-Secretive Legal Action

[mandy]

As details of Sony's secretive digital rights management (define) protections come to light, its actions are prompting not-so-secret opposition from privacy advocates.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is currently investigating Sony's anti-piracy tactics in order to determine whether the organization will file a class-action lawsuit in the coming weeks against the music giant

Sony uses an anti-piracy software component... Extended Copy Protection (XCP), which installs a rootkit  onto the user's computer to monitor their computer's activities.

Schultz said he thinks Sony's vague EULA is a loophole to avoid running afoul of any consumer protections, particularly the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which states it is illegal for anybody who "knowingly accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds authorized access."

full article: http://www.internetnews.com/security/art...hp/3562311

[jezebel]

Sony Is Just As Bad As Music Pirates

Sony's latest response to the threat of music piracy is to engage in behavior every bit as bad as the pirates it's trying to protect itself from.

Sony BMG Music Entertainment decided that the threat of piracy was so severe that it needed to protect itself by installing on customers' PCs hacker tools that exposed those systems to massive security vulnerabilities.

Sony included hacker technology called a "rootkit" in the copy-protection software distributed along with one of its music titles. A rootkit is technology used by computer criminals to permit them to break into target systems. The rootkit is such a hairball to remove that security researchers recommended users not try to remove it themselves, but rather contact Sony to get instructions....

The Sony software is, plain and simple, spyware, by any reasonable standard of the word. It installs itself without users' knowledge, it runs in stealth mode, it damages the user's system, and it resists removal

Meanwhile, law-enforcement authorities need to investigate whether Sony is in violation of civil and criminal laws against computer piracy.

http://www.informationweek.com/showArtic...=173600173

[mandy]

related development:

AV Firms Say New Trojan Uses Sony DRM Rootkit

Anti-virus firms are warning computer users about a new malicious program that attempts to hide on victims' computers by taking advantage of maligned DRM (digital rights management) technology from Sony BMG.

Symantec Corp., Sophos PLC and Bit Defender, part of Romanian company SOFTWIN, all issued alerts about Trojan horse programs that can become completely invisible on Windows systems with the Sony DRM technology installed.

The program, which goes by the name "Backdoor.IRC.Snyd.A" and "Backdoor.Ryknos," was discovered on Wednesday

full article: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1885334,00.asp

[mandy]

Another update 

Sony BMG is facing a class action suit from Californian consumers who claim the music giant's rootkit DRM technology damaged their computers and breaks three separate Californian laws.

The suit asks the court to stop Sony selling any more CDs containing the rootkit and seeks compensation for damage already done... The suit was filed 1 November in the Los Angeles Superior Court...

A second case has been started in New York on behalf of anyone who's bought one of the CDs.

full article: http://www.theregister.com/2005/11/10/so...r_rootkit/

[mandy]

The Redmond, Wash., software maker has determined that the "rootkit" piece of the XCP software on some Sony BMG Music Entertainment CDs can pose a security risk to Windows PCs,

To protect Windows users, Microsoft plans to update Windows AntiSpyware and the Malicious Software Removal Tool as well as the online scanner on Windows Live Safety Center to detect and remove the Sony BMG software...

full article: http://news.com.com/Microsoft+will+wipe+Sonys+rootkit/2100-1002_3-5949041.html?part=rss&tag=5949041&subj=news

Several other anti-spyware software makers also have announced plans to classify the Sony copyright protection as malicious.

[mandy]

Some of the Terms of Use from Sony's End User License Agreement (EULA) of Sony's CDs:

article: http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004145.php
the Sony EULA itself: http://www.sysinternals.com/blog/sony-eula.htm

My favorite is the bankruptcy provision 

[regic]

It turns out that the rootkit contains pieces of code that are identical to LAME, an open source mp3-encoder, and thereby breach the license.

This software is licensed under the so called Lesser Gnu Public License (LGPL). According to this license Sony must comply with a couple of demands. Amongst others, they have to indicate in a copyright notice that they make use of the software. The company must also deliver the source code to the open-source libraries or otherwise make these available. And finally, they must deliver or otherwise make available the in between form between source code and executable code, the so called objectfiles, with which others can make comparable software.

Sony complied with non of these demands, but delivered just an executable program...

full article: http://dewinter.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=215
original article in Dutch: http://webwereld.nl/articles/38285

[bargainbloodhound]

Gee, I thought Mandy and Regi's non stop bashing was limited to just Google...guess I was wrong.  Other than that comment, I have nothing to say at the moment  so I'll go back to watching.

:popcorneaters:

[mandy]

[quote author=bargainbloodhound link=topic=1180.msg4830#msg4830 date=1132105622]
Gee, I thought Mandy and Regi's non stop bashing was limited to just Google...guess I was wrong.  Other than that comment, I have nothing to say at the moment  so I'll go back to watching.

:popcorneaters:
[/quote]

Sony BMG Music Entertainment said Monday it will pull some of its most popular CDs from stores in response to backlash over copy-protection software on the discs.

Sony also said it will offer exchanges for consumers who purchased the discs, which contain hidden files that leave them vulnerable to computer viruses when played on a PC.

full article: http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries...-cds_x.htm

[Kristijntje]

[quote author=regic link=topic=1180.msg4807#msg4807 date=1132061360]

It turns out that the rootkit contains pieces of code that are identical to LAME, an open source mp3-encoder, and thereby breach the license.

This software is licensed under the so called Lesser Gnu Public License (LGPL). According to this license Sony must comply with a couple of demands...

Sony complied with non of these demands, but delivered just an executable program...

full article: http://dewinter.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=215
original article in Dutch: http://webwereld.nl/articles/38285
[/quote]

Another article on how this destructive spyware  might violate copyright laws: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/18/...ringement/