Sony Music Sued Over Anti-Piracy Software

[sxesven]

Jonah Flicker and Amy Phillips report:
In the slow and perhaps inevitable movement towards microchip implantation of the entire human race, Sony BMG Music just took the lead. According to the Washington Post, a class action lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court November 1 alleges that the label's anti-piracy software, installed in several recently released CDs, is harmful to computers.

The suit claims that when a copy-protected CD is loaded onto a hard drive, it installs a hidden program known as a "rootkit," which not only keeps track of the computer's activity, but depletes the drive's resources in the process. So Sony is basically eating up your hard drive space while keeping track of all the porn you watch, just because you actually spent money on a My Morning Jacket CD.

Thanks, guys. This is even better than getting the RIAA to sue us.

The rootkit also makes the computer more susceptible to viruses. Sony falsely states that its copy-protection software can be easily removed, when in reality, getting rid of a rootkit can be damaging.

Here's the crux of the suit, straight from the legal papers: "As a result of Sony's failure to disclose the true nature of the digital rights management (船RM') system it uses on its CDs, thousands of computer users have unknowingly infected their computers, and the computers of others, with this surreptitious rootkit. This rootkit has been responsible for conflicts within computer systems, crashes of systems, and other damage."

The suit, which accuses Sony of "fraud, false advertising, trespass, and violation of state and federal statues prohibiting malware, and unauthorized computer tampering," claims that the suspect software has been included on certain Sony BMG Music CDs since this spring. Albums to watch out for include Amerie's Touch, My Morning Jacket's Z Kasabian's Kasabian, Neil Diamond's 12 Songs, Cassidy's I'm a Hustla, Kings of Leon's Aha Shake Heartbreak, and, appropriately, the Bad Plus' Suspicious Activity and the Coral's Invisible Invasion, among others.

In short: if you're about to load that new My Morning Jacket disc onto your hard drive, STOP. Sell the album back to the record store and buy something on Dischord.

source: Pitchforkmedia.com

About time something gets done about this! Take that, Sony!

[HanabiChick]

It's good someone's doing this, on another forum people have been complaining about this, some have had problems with their computers because they played a sony CD in it, and were not aware that it could cause damage. Now they know, and they're furious and are compiling a list of sony CDs with this copy-protection software so that other people won't get caught out. I wouldn't be surprised if those CDs don't sell well once people become more aware of this There's even a page on the sony site where they say downloading something from them will clear it up, but all it does is detect the software, it's hard to get rid of.

This is awesome!

[ohsixthirty]

omfg, are you serious? its like sony has spyware implanted on their cds?! what is sony's reason for even having that on the cd??? hrm...thats insane. they deserve to be sued for doing something like that. o_0

[ruixiong89]

I totally agree with you touchedstar! Ok, time to burn away all my SONY CDs (which thankfully are not valuable to me AT ALL)! It's no wonder my computer crashed ... yar, GREAT JOB! Sue them!! Haha, ok, I'm starting to sound like a maniac but yar, they absolutely TOTALLY deserved tat kick in the butt!

[s.k.y]

Originally Posted by touchedstar

omfg, are you serious? its like sony has spyware implanted on their cds?! what is sony's reason for even having that on the cd??? hrm...thats insane. they deserve to be sued for doing something like that. o_0

man, invasion of privacy man

[Cyria]

If someone finds a list online where more of the Sony CDs that have this problem are named, please post a link!

[HanabiChick]

There's a list being put together at another forum, I think this is what they have so far:


Nothing Is Sound. Switchfoot
Unwritten [ENHANCED] Natasha Bedingfield
Ride Shelly Fairchild
12 Songs Neil Diamond
Touch Amerie
Bloom Remix Album [ENHANCED] Sarah McLachlan
Kasabian Kasabian
The Essential Pete Seeger [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] Pete Seeger
Jeru [ENHANCED] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] Gerry Mulligan
Times Like These Buddy Jewell,
Bob Brookmeyer & Friends[ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] Bob Brookmeyer
Healthy In Paranoid Times [ENHANCED] Our Lady Peace
Cautivo [DUALDISC] Chayanne
The Invisible Invasion Coral, The Coral
Defined Amici Forever
Suspicious Activity [ENHANCED] The Bad Plus
Manhattan Symphonie [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] Dexter Gordon
Phantoms Acceptance
On Ne Change Pas Celine Dion
Get Right with the Man Van Zant
To Love Again [ENHANCED] Chris Botti
Life [DUALDISC] Ricky Martin
The Essential Dion [ENHANCED] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] Dion
Faso Latido A Static Lullaby
Change It All Goapele
Susie Suh Susie Suh
My Very Special Guests [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] George Jones
Broken Valley Life of Agony
Silver's Blue [ENHANCED] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] Horace Silver
Z [ENHANCED] My Morning Jacket
The 60s The Dead 60s
Life In Slow Motion David Gray
Elizabethtown [SOUNDTRACK] Various Artists
Golden Elkland
Aha Shake Heartbreak Kings of Leon
Unfabulous And More: Emma Roberts [ENHANCED] Emma Roberts
Vivian Vivian Green
Dreamin' My Dreams [ENHANCED] Patty Loveless
Mary Mary [ENHANCED] Mary Mary
Never Gone Backstreet Boys
Aha Shake Heartbreak Kings of Leon
Friendship [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] Ray Charles
Juego De Amor [Copy Protected CD] ~ Antony Santos
On Your Shore Charlotte Martin
Brown Sugar Various Artists
Blue Skies Diana DeGarmo
I'm a Hustla [EXPLICIT LYRICS] Cassidy
In Your Honor Foo Fighters
Hero Kirk Franklin
Cyndi Lauper - Body Acoustic
Foo Fighters- In Your Honor
All That I Am Santana


I'll check tomorrow to see if there's more added to it.

[ohsixthirty]

^yay, i don't have a single one of those!

[Cyria]

I'm lucky, I don't have any of those.

[Raleigh]

Man... Sony is really sinking low in invading the privacy of their customers.

[HanabiChick]

And giving people another reason to download a track rather than buy a CD that will harm their computer...

[Calico]

*is thankful she doesn't have any of those CDs*

That's just...disgusting. So far it only looks like it's on American CDs, thank goodness. I'd hate to see the mess if it was on CDs from all over.

[ohsixthirty]

Originally Posted by HanabiChick

And giving people another reason to download a track rather than buy a CD that will harm their computer...

ha, very good point.

[HanabiChick]

New info:

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsAr...TECTION-DC.XML


Sony BMG pulls CD software

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Music publisher Sony BMG said on Friday it would stop making CDs that use a controversial technology to protect its music against illegal copying.
"As a precautionary measure, Sony BMG is temporarily suspending the manufacture of CDs containing XCP technology," it said in a statement.
The decision follows the discovery on Thursday of the first virus that uses Sony BMG's CD copy-protection software to hide on PCs and wreak havoc.
A hacker had mass-mailed e-mail with an attachment, which when clicked on installs malware. The malware hides by using Sony BMG software that is also hidden -- the software would have already been installed on a computer when consumers played Sony's copy-protected music CDs.
The malware, a trojan program which appears desirable but actually contains something harmful, tears down a computer's firewall and gives hackers access to a PC.
Sony BMG provided a patch to protect computers against the virus, which is available on its Web site.
"We also intend to re-examine all aspects of our content protection initiative to be sure that it continues to meet our goals of security and ease of consumer use," Sony BMG added.
The firm provided software to remove the "cloaking element," which enables the virus to hide inside the computer, but the patch does not disable the copy protection itself.
The music publishing venture of Japanese electronics conglomerate Sony and Germany's Bertelsmann AG is distributing the copy-protection software on a range of recent music compact disks (CDs) from artists such as Celine Dion and Sarah McLachlan, according to user groups on the Web.
Sony BMG did not say which CDs or how many CDs were equipped with its software. "The XCP software is included on a limited number of Sony BMG content-protected titles," it said.
The Sony copy-protection software does not install itself on Macintosh computers or ordinary CD and DVD players.
When the CD is played on a Windows personal computer, the software first installs itself and then limits the usage rights of a consumer. It only allows playback with Sony software.
The software last week sparked a class action lawsuit in California against Sony, which claimed that Sony had not informed consumers that it installs software directly into the "root" of their computer systems with rootkit software, which cloaks all associated files and is dangerous to remove.
British anti-virus company Sophos on Thursday offered a tool to disable the copy protection software. ZoneAlarm, a product of Check Point, also protects against the software.
Sony BMG said it stands by content protection technology "as an important tool to protect our intellectual property rights and those of our artists."

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I'm not surprised that they're not revealing what CDs have this; cause as much damage as possible... At least people are compiling a list of the CDs and posting them so people can avoid getting the CDs or using them in their computers.

[sxesven]

Thanks for the update, HanabiChick, and for the list of titles. Thankfully I don't have any of the titles listed either, but there's a lot of very popular things in there, so the number of infected PCs must be pretty huge.

[HanabiChick]

This was also posted at the other forum, you can look at the CD and see if it has that copy-protection on it:


Just look for 'XCP' on it and it has this software.

[drewbilation]

Uhoh, I have Natasha Beddingfield's CD. I ripped the files with the little installer thing, but my computer seems to be running fine. I'm worried now. =/

[lotusoka]

Originally Posted by dokidokisuru

Uhoh, I have Natasha Beddingfield's CD. I ripped the files with the little installer thing, but my computer seems to be running fine. I'm worried now. =/

My computer wouldn't let me rip my copy to my computer.. :|

I had to download the songs to get them onto my iPod.

[Dreamland]

I'm glad I don't buy anything from them I want to know what possessed them to do this dumb ****