dome crackling like a Jacobs Laddder.
drm
SonySuit.com Covers Sony Rootkit Settlement Details
By 2.7.06
Just in case you purchased a Sony CD “protected” by the rootkit DRM and want to claim your $7.50 worth of mp3s, SonySuit.com has all the available details on registering to take part. We’re still particularly interested in the precedent being set here by Sony: they have gone on record stating that $7.50 is the price of two full albums of digital music. And a few mp3s to have your computer’s security compromised still seems like a pretty crappy deal. But it’s better than nothing and every person taking part in the class action suit is helping send a message to companies trying to implement similarly sleazy DRM schemes. So go check it out, if you’ve still got that Celine Dion receipt in your wallet.
Authors of StarForce Threaten Lawsuit Upon Criticism
By 1.31.06
Please excuse our breach of form this morning, but the Deals Round Up will have to wait, because we work up cranky and then the internet was full of stupid again. It seems that Cory Doctorow of Boing Boing discovered StarForce, the malignant copy-restriction curse suffered by many PC gamers, only to be threatened with a lawsuit after criticizing the product as “malware.”
Nettwerk Pays Legal Fees for RIAA-sued Teen
By 1.27.06
Man, the Canadians are just the superstars of taking on the RIAA. First, they sued the pants off of Sony BMG for the root-kit fiasco. And now, Nettwerk, a Canadian music label representing artists like Avril Lavigne, Barenaked Ladies, Dido, Sarah McLachlan and a lot of other hot Canadian girls are paying the legal fees of one of those typical kids who’s being sued by the RIAA for downloading a song off of Kazaa:
Now Canada Is Suing Sony Over Rootkits
By 1.6.06
Our Northern Brethren are getting in on the act of suing the pants off of Sony BMG for their “DRM” rootkits:
Capitol Records Cripples Coldplay CD with DRM
By 1.4.06
Coldplay’s latest CD, X&Y, has been hobbled by so much DRM that a lawyer would practically have to lick the monolith at the end of 2001 to be able to figure out how someone could legally play it. This time, though, it’s Capitol Records, as Sony BMG are still on Spyware Settlement Siesta.
Sony Settles Root Kit Class Action (Part the Second)
By 1.2.06
Business Week has more details on the Sony BMG root kit settlement, with more details on Sony’s future DRM plans. To answer our own perhaps perfunctory question: yes, Sony BMG jolly well do intend to continue installing DRM on your machines, thank you very much.
Sony Settles Rootkit Class Action (Part the First)
By 12.30.05
It appears the Sony rootkit fiasco may be approaching an end. Techdirt is reporting that the company has settled one of many class action lawsuits, offering three free albums’ worth of MP3 downloads or $7.50 plus a single albums’ worth of downloads. As a poster on Techdirt points out:
According to Sony, 2 albums’ worth of music has an actual value of $7.50. That’s $3.75 per album.
Serial Killers of Suing: How the RIAA Finds Its Victims
By 12.30.05
There’s a fascinating story over on p2pnet describing exactly the legal process the RIAA is using to blanket sue tens of thousands of people.
Sony Style Stores Still Selling Rootkit CDs
By 12.23.05
I asked the manager about this and they said they were, and I quote, “still allowed to sell them”.
Today in Media: CDs to Avoid, Songs to Stream, Lyrics to Question
By 12.7.05
• Confused by the whole ‘Sony Rootkit’ debacle and don’t know which CDs might install malicious software that leaves your PC vulnerable to compromise? Sony BMG has a list of the 50 CDs with the MediaMax DRM, making it easy for you to avoid purchase. You’ll just have to get your ‘YoungBloodZ’ fix elsewhere.
Sony’s CD ‘Rootkit’ DRM Continues to Pay Dividends (In Hate)
By 11.14.05
As a fledgling best site ever, The Consumerist has had to do a fair amount of soul searching with regard to Digital Rights Management. It’s clearly a consumer issue—companies restricting your rights to use a product is our bread and butter—but it’s also sort of boring. We’ve decided to err on the side of pedantry. If the big media companies are still penalizing legitimate consumers, we’ll keep pointing out whose products you should avoid.
Sony CDs Break PCs
By 11.1.05
Digital Rights Management (DRM) is, at best, an unnecessary inconvenience. Sometimes we pine for instant gratification and trade away common sense, like when we download music from an online service instead of purchasing a CD. But what if that CD has DRM built-in—DRM that installs the same sort of malicious software used by teenage Russian hackers everywhere (but especially Russia)?
