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Sony, Amazon Detail Rootkit CD Buybacks
Posted by
Zonk
on Fri Nov 18, 2005 06:23 PM
from the finally-some-customer-service dept.
from the finally-some-customer-service dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Washingtonpost.com is reporting that Sony BMG today detailed a program that should allow customers who bought one of the 52 titles known to be tainted with the company's deeply flawed anti-piracy software to exchange them for CDs of the same title, sans rootkit of course. Oddly enough, Sony is offering those who want to return the CDs the chance to download MP3 versions of the discs, but only after Sony has received the returned discs. Amazon.com also is sending out e-mails to customers who bought the discs, offering to replace or refund them at no cost."
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Sony Rootkit Settlement Gets Judge's Approval 187 comments
Lewis Clarke wrote to mention a ZDNet story about Monday's final approval of the rootkit settlement in the case brought against Sony BMG Music. From the article: "The agreement covers anyone who bought, received or used CDs containing what was revealed to be flawed digital rights management (DRM) software after Aug. 1, 2003. Those customers can file a claim and receive certain benefits, such as a nonprotected replacement CD, free downloads of music from that CD and additional cash payments ... At least 15 different lawsuits were filed by class action lawyers against the record label, and the New York cases were eventually consolidated into one proceeding. The parties reached a preliminary settlement with Sony BMG in December, leaving it up to a judge in a U.S. District Court in New York to make it official. "
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Download mp3s of the albums - Watermarking Test? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sony and Satan (Score:5, Insightful)
"I don't want any ordinary DRM!"
So he called his boys at Sony Corp,
"I'll make this fast and I'll make it short."
"There's a Limey company, as evil as hell,
They've got a rootkit they're waiting to sell.
So grab some cash, make it quick,
There's a half million networks we just gotta fix."
Now Sony knew the Devil well,
Why these guys were already half way to Hell.
So off they went to England fair,
And bought themselves a rootkit there.
To protect themselves and their evil scheme,
They wrote a EULA that would make you scream.
"No problem," they said, "we can do as we please,
We're all scummy bastards, so what's some more sleaze?"
But not all were asleep when they played Van Zant,
And the racket grew so loud Sony just had to recant.
"We'll take back all those discs, we really were wrong,
Oh, and you Mac users, your turn's coming before long."
Parent
MP3 files (Score:5, Interesting)
That said, what bitrate, frequency and codec is used for the MP3s?
Regards,
--
*Art
Re:MP3 files (Score:5, Funny)
although you can bet they'll be DRMed too.
Parent
Lawsuits? (Score:4, Insightful)
I am INCREDIBLY offended by Sony's actions (Score:4, Interesting)
I have owned dozens of Sony CDs.
I have 6 Sony audio components.
I will NEVER buy another Sony product ever again, and I urge ALL of you to do the same.
Re:I am INCREDIBLY offended by Sony's actions (Score:5, Insightful)
Keep in mind that this is Sony/BMG, where Sony only owns 50%, and where BMG were the ones who brought DRM into the picture. Sony on the other hand is selling MP3 players and Vaio PCs with bundled ripping-hadware/software.
Anyhow, heads *should* roll over this in Sony. Instead I fear they will just sue First4Internet and pretend that ignorance is acceptable.
Regards,
--
*Art
Parent
Re:I am INCREDIBLY offended by Sony's actions (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:I am INCREDIBLY offended by Sony's actions (Score:5, Informative)
Easy enough to google for. One recent entry [usatoday.com].
Regards,
--
*Art
Parent
Re:I am INCREDIBLY offended by Sony's actions (Score:5, Interesting)
Is that so?
Sony pulled the same crap [newscientist.com] with Celine Dion's album A New Day Has Come in 2002 using their key2audio DRM--the scheme that could be defeated with a felt-tip marker.
As far as I'm concerned, there should have been the same degree of outrage then as there is now.
Parent
T3h 3v1L!!!!!!!111 (Score:5, Funny)
Turn of the tide? (Score:5, Interesting)
It'd be great if Amazon and other big vendors refused to carry discs with this sort of horrible DRM. That'd probably get the music company's attention a little better than a few geeks organizing a boycott.
Updates (Score:5, Insightful)
Why does Sony not simply provide an update for their rootkit? Improved security, expanded DRM, and distinguished keylogging, get it all now with Sony's rootkit 2.0. New and improved.
Always at your service
sincerely yours, Sony.
what about.. (Score:5, Insightful)
MP3 poisoning howto (Score:5, Informative)
Merely a slap on the wrist, but the future is bad (Score:5, Interesting)
If Sony actually would own up to their stupid mistake, the artists wouldn't be impacted so much. Look at Van Dant's CD on Amazon. 1.5 stars, 300 reviews, most mentioning the rootkit. Do you think that he'll fare so well in the future.
I have lost faith in Sony. Propietary formats and other things were a little odd, but I accepted them. But rootkits, a patent for games that only play on the console they were originally put in...seems like a ridiculous infringement on user rights.
Rather than losing money to pirates, people will turn to better solutions and Sony will be the loser.
Re:Merely a slap on the wrist, but the future is b (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Sony. Where do you want to go today? (Score:4, Insightful)
No no no! They got it all wrong. They should do what my friend's landlord did when he kept complaining that the dishwasher didn't work: They came, turned it on, and when it made noise, they said, "It works fine." And of course, it didn't: First, it smelled disgusting in there, like there was rotten food inside the machine. Second, just because it sprayed (dirty smelling) water doesn't mean it "works fine." Third, if you put a dish in there that was clean to begin with, it came out dirty. And I believe that such a dishwasher makes a perfect analogy for compact discs that contain defective software.
So what Sony should do is this: They should publicly offer customers who bought one of the flawed CDs to exchange them for identical ones! As if we're talking about workmanship in the production of the compact disc proper and not the contents. Hey, just act like you don't know a darn thing about technology when it comes to this type of thing! And when the customer complains that the replacement still contains the rootkit, just say, "It works fine."
Sony. Where do you want to go today? (Hell, they almost make Microsoft look good in comparison. Almost.)
I spent 5 hours trying to get rid of this Rootkit (Score:5, Insightful)
Demographics (Score:5, Insightful)
They probably want to determine what percentage of the people who were sufficiently outraged by XCP to go to the trouble of sending back the CD are interested in a MP3 version instead (and therefore the sort of people who would've probably tried circumventing said copy-protection in the first place) vs those who actually had genuine technical issues with it.
Good market research for them really.
Re:Sans (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:Sans (Score:5, Insightful)
If you obtain regular security updates from a major anti-virus service, you should receive an update through that process. You may also download the update yourself from http://cp.sonybmg.com/xcp/english/updates.html [sonybmg.com].
The update its talking about simply removes the rootkit, but does not remove the copy protection portion.
Therefore, I believe these disks will still be executable in format (besides, any with images/videos on will need the media player software as well...)
Just read the home page on the sony site, they still don't get it:
Going forward, we will continue to identify new ways to meet demands for flexibility in how you and other consumers listen to music.
We just want true cds without any bullshit, plain and simple.
Parent
Re:Sans (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re:No Cash? (Score:4, Insightful)
How many people bought them at WalMart, Best Buy, Circuit City, Warehouse, etc...? Are they able to get a refund?
Parent
Re:ISO's too? (Score:4, Funny)
Parent