Sony Hit With $1M Penalty For COPPA Violations 85
coondoggie writes "It really isn't a big enough penalty, and the company admitted no guilt, but Sony BMG Music Entertainment today agreed to pay $1 million as part of a settlement to resolve Federal Trade Commission charges that it knowingly violated the privacy rights of over 30,000 underage children.
Specifically the FTC said the company violated the agency's Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the FTC did say the penalty was its largest ever in a COPPA case.
To provide resources to parents and their children about children's privacy in general, and social networking sites in particular, the penalty order requires Sony Music to link to certain FTC consumer education materials for the next five years."
Re:Do they actually cut a cheque? (Score:5, Interesting)
>>>Or do they weasel their way into spending $1M on anti-"Piracy" propaganda instead?
You're probably right. I recall when Tobacco companies were "fined" and forced to produce anti-smoking commercials. The problem was that the spokespeople for these ads were geeks & nerds, so the message sent was precisely opposite to what the government intended ("stop smoking and you'll be a geek like this guy").
IMHO the CD Cartel settlement was better - companies were forced to set-aside X million dollars and refund money to any customer who asked for it. (I received $20 and so too did my mom, my brother, and two nieces.) That's a real punishment that also benefits the people who were wronged.
Do the maths (Score:5, Interesting)
Gee.
1000000/30000 = 33.34 rounded
So, that's under thirty four dollars per child.
Now how much do all these jokers want to get when a child violates the "privacy rights" of a song?
Not that anyone actually did anything wrong in this case mind you. No.
all the best,
drew
Re:Do they actually cut a cheque? (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm not talking right and wrong, I'm talking about legal and illegal. I agree that COPPA is a bad law, but Sony is demonstrating once again that they are no better than the Governor of Illinois or the former head of NASDAQ, both of whom were arrested this week. [yahoo.com]
I want to know when Sony's CEO is going to be indicted for placing that rootkit on my computer. If I did that to them I'd be behind bars.