Canadian Sony Rootkit Settlement Stirs Controversy 96
An anonymous reader writes "Canadian law professor Michael Geist is reporting
that Sony BMG Canada has quietly kept a key legal document secret as part of
its class action settlement over last year's rootkit case. The
document, which is not on the Sony settlement
site but has now been posted
on Geist's site (pdf), contains a series of bogus arguments about why
Canadians are receiving far less than U.S. consumers."
Thanks for the root Sony (Score:5, Insightful)
Customers need to stand up and show media organizations that ther are limits to what we are willing to deal with.
Re:Thanks for the root Sony (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Thanks for the root Sony (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Thanks for the root Sony (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, to be fair, how much respect would you have for someone who pays you tribute ?
MOD PARENT UP (Score:1)
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They roll over and take it up the ass from anyone except the people who voted for them.
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What customers need is to educate themselves, or be educated about such things so they can make an educated decision.
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> willing to deal with.
They won't - most people don't care and won't educate themselves because it's not important to them. The average person buying music, either CD or download, is not a Slashdot-type. You can beat your chest and scream all day - we'll all feel bad for you, but other than that you're a fart in a whirlwind.
Al
Proud to be a fart (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Proud to be a fart (Score:5, Insightful)
It does if you live in the United States. If you don't think this is true, there's some men in Guantanamo Bay that would like their speedy trial.
~Rebecca
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Callaghan, RK-858110! You forgot the part where they dressed Emmanuel Goldstein up in a turban and renamed him "Osama".
Oops, I almost forgot, his name always was Osama.
I love George Bush.
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Hmm? Are you gay or something? If not, then why do you have to explicitly state that you love him? Isn't that implied that you love our great leader? Do you want to hide something by pretending you support the worthy cause?
Why do I feel more and more like in a game of Paranoia, just without the clones?
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If you haven't read the book, take a couple of hours. It's short, a quick read, and I promise it's worth it. The full text [buffalo.edu] is even online, if you have no money. But you never know when they're watching the telescreens, though, so you might want to just buy a copy in paperback and read it on a nice park bench. ;-)
Re:Proud to be a fart (Score:4, Insightful)
Mr. Coward, you mentioned that the people in Guantanamo Bay aren't US Citizens. Considering that the designation "enemy combatant" strips you of your US citizenship (if you have it); I regretfully must concede that this is correct. However, in the past and in all previous wars, or peacetime; enemy combatants have still recieved the right to a trial, albeit in a military tribunal. Thus far, we have seen no such indication with regards to the Guantanamo Bay prisoners. In addition, anyone who has visited there or been allowed to inspect the facility (such as Amnesty International [amnesty.org]) have reported that they believe the prisoners are unlawfully detained and being tortured.
Being that it is highly unlikely that the military would want to show Amnesty International a worse picture of what is going on down there; the conclusion remains then it is either being presented honestly, or conditions are actually worse than we know. Unfortunately, none of the options (including the unlikely "conditions are better than reported") constitutes a retention of all rights that the average man doesn't care to protect.
In your own words, there's "really no where to send them" until we finish the "War on Terror". I consider myself to be reasonably intelligent, and this discussion has occurred more than once in the last few years. Still, I am at a loss as to how you would determine the end of a war against an emotion. Perhaps you would be willing to shed some light on the situation?
If there remains no definition for the end of said war; We can extract from that that in your eyes it is acceptable for a foriegn government to:
1) enter any country it so desires, without permission or declaration of war against said country AND
2) extract and detain indefinitely anyone living in said country without trial or even so much as a criminal charge.
Please review False Dilemma [wikipedia.org]; then consider that a median ground option -- A fair trial by jury, without torture or multi-year delays -- is also available. If they are so guilty as to deserve the treatment in Guantanamo Bay, they would surely be found so by a trial. As it stands however, they're not even allowed council.
~Rebecca
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Yeah, look how fair we were to the German High Command after WW2...
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So if someone here posts a belief in...say...an intelligent creator of life on earth, they are to be ridiculed and assumed to lack an reasoning ability whatsoever. But if a group with a stated agenda posts a belief, we are to treat them with respect and honor that belief????? I am confused.
mmm... belief (Score:2)
As it turns out, lots of religious belief is of the same type. It's a conclusion based on evidence. "Faith" -- called "the evidence of things not seen" -- is understood to underly belief despite being non-confirmable
So both "beliefs" might be called "conclusions" but only the first is a scientific conclusion. Still confused?
You must surrender your rights (Score:2)
Well, if majority is like the "average person" that doesn't bother, guess what!??
Government, by the People.....
The People aren't interested in preserving your rights.
Either convince "the People" or find a different set of "People".....
[For myself, I'm not sure which to pick]
No, actually I mustn't (Score:3, Insightful)
There's probably a Diet Godwin law I can invoke when we're talking about CDs and the digression is all about Guantanamo. But anyway...
Fair use etc. is the current law; it's not a sweeping change I'd like to bring about in the copyright system. It is Sony et al. who would like to introduce a sweeping change, namely the notion that a little c with a circle around it constitutes a legally binding contract never to access "their" content except under the circumstances of their choosing.
As TFA points out, the
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I was already boycotting Sony before the DRM, just because I'm annoyed at them for coming up with stupid proprietary formats. All this stuff (not to mention the PS3 debacle) did was deepen my conviction...
Nowadays, my opinion of Sony is about equal to my opinion of Microsoft (or, dare I say, worse?), and that's pretty damn bad.
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I'm a student, and I had a summer job writing Microsoft-centric software. When this semester started, I had a choice to either continue working there part time, or to work on related software written by my university. I chose the latter, in large part because I'd be able to work in a UNIX-type system instead of being forced to use Windows.
In fact, the software I'm working on now had originally been written to be cross-platform between UNIX and various mainframe systems, but has (relatively) recently become
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Wouldn't it be better to help with the Linux and BSD ports of Watcom (now Open Watcom, http://openwatcom.org [openwatcom.org]?
At least when Watcom went out of business they open sourced their code and released it. And it is still a pretty good compiler that is being brought up to todays
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I'm aware that Watcom has been open-sourced, but I'm still a bit leery about relying on it because it might die out due to GCC being so much more popular. And how good is it compared to GCC anyway?
Besides, the less compiler-dependent this code is, the better.
At least I'm not converting it to use Visual Studio, which is what the original suggestion was...
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Scitech has a pretty good business supplying video drivers for older OSes. At that I don't know if you remember back in the DOS days when you often needed a VESA driver to play games Display Doctor was considered the best. See http://www.scitechsoft.com/products/product_downlo ad.html [scitechsoft.com] for some of their products.
Watcom at one time was considered the best compiler for gaming due to its speed and
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Ah, well that's nice to know! By the way, how well does OpenWatcom work on Linux, and does it work at all on Mac OS X?
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Also it does not link with GCC produced shared libs so libs have to be built with OW. Its still got away to go I guess and at this point you have to build it and most likely a daily tarball would be best.
One thing about OW is it is fast compared to GCC.
As for OSX, I doubt there is any support besides the PPC support. Also I see it now supports Alpha and MIPS.
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Whereas Microsoft has gotten too much of my money over the years even though the last MS product I bought intentionally was their Z80 card for the Apple II.
Still even MS hasn't gotten any of my money for close to 10 yrs.
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P2P time (Score:3, Informative)
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So far as I can tell, with the CD-copying levy etc and various other factors, there have been no cases of somebody being sued for downloading music in Canada.
It's not illegal here; or at worst it's a grey area. Attempts have been made, but the presiding judge (rightly, IMO) ruled that the evidence was insufficient for a warrant to get the names from ISPs.
Also, a government agency has strongly implied that the losses from P2P file sharing are covered by the money from blank media levy that the record
Simple answer (Score:5, Funny)
What a funny story (Score:5, Interesting)
I wish people would read these arguments before accepting them in their court hearings...
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Those aren't fruit flies.
They're black flies.
"Bogus" Reasons (Score:4, Interesting)
-The fact that the US called for investigation into the Sony DRM debacle and dragged Sony USA into court. Cananda did not, and to date has not.
-A large percentage of Canadian business with Sony goes through Sony USA instead of through Sony Canada.
Sony has essentially offered to not infect Canadian computers with their software. I am no fan of Sony, but if Canada doesn't want to go through the procedures of taking Sony through Canadian courts, they shouldn't get to reap the benefits of the results that such an action might produce.
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Is it any wonder so many people have lost all respect for the legal system?
Charge them Criminally (Score:1)
totally bogus! (Score:5, Funny)
Is it not completely obvious that this "anonymous reader" is either Bill S. Preston, Esquire, or Ted Theodore Logan?
Trusting Sony (Score:2, Insightful)
How about: The exchange of XCP CDs for identical CDs with other soul-sucking DRM you haven't caught onto yet. That's what I'd expect Sony to attempt first.
Trusting Sony to be good about this? Ha!
I'm a Canadian and I went shopping... (Score:5, Interesting)
I am going shopping for a flat-screen TV and a fancy sound system. Guess what - I'm not buying a Sony. I have only negative things to say about Sony to my friends and family.
Here is a big clue to the suits: If you're going to try to sneak (DRM or any) software onto *MY* computers, then you won't be selling me anything. Period.
Funny thing is, back in the '80s I lusted after Sony products and bought them almost exclusively. Funny thing, indeed.
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My 32" LCD TV was $900 ($1300 MSRP) and has recently sold as low as $800. It includes an ATSC/QAM HD tuner.
A lower end 32" Sony LCD TV without HD tuner would cost $1330 ($1600 MSRP); then, they have at least two additional 32" models available that cost even more.
Don't tell us, tell them (Score:3, Insightful)
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As a limited company they have a responsibility to be perfect, and they would be if the economic incentive
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Exibit C *NOT* Missing from Sony settlement site (Score:5, Insightful)
Mod Parent Up (Score:5, Insightful)
I look forward to the dupe.
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Re:Exibit C *NOT* Missing from Sony settlement sit (Score:3, Informative)
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I don't see why this is interesting... (Score:5, Informative)
For those that haven't RTFDocument, it basically says two things:
1) Sony BMG Canada will not accept any binding injuction based on legal proceedings from a different country with a different set of laws, but...
2) Practically speaking, the actions of Sony BMG Canada will be the same as those of Sony BMG US (for technical/logistical reasons). That is, Sony BMG Canada will unofficially follow the terms of the injunction.
What more do you expect? I'm no fan of lawyers, but certainly no company is going let a precedent be set that their operations in one country will be bound by the legal system of a different country. The document is just saying to Canadian consumers "Look, we can't legally submit to this injunction, but we'll be playing by its rules anyway."
The whole Sony rootkit affair reeks, but this just looks like standard legal procedure - CYA of a fairly inoffensive variety.
Isn't what Sony did a _crime_ in most countries? (Score:3, Insightful)
Does that mean if I spread malware/trojans using CDs I don't risk any jail time?
Or it's only because a big company is involved that's why nobody is going to jail, whereas silly amateurs vandalizing stuff get in big trouble?
My suggestion to all you "hackers" out there, if you want to hack millions of computers and get away with it- work for Sony.
The spyware people seem to be getting away with it too. But it seems that Sony is a safer bet - guilty of everything lots of publicity, but nothing much happens to the people responsible.
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Or because XCP just made it and didn't distribute it so they are innocent in the eyes of the law?
And Sony didn't make it but distributed it so they too are innocent in the eyes of the law?
Ah, the benefits of outsourcing.
"Who will rid me of these turbulent copyright infringers"...
Re:Isn't what Sony did a _crime_ in most countries (Score:2)
It might be [justice.gc.ca] in Canada. The trick is proving beyond a reasonable doubt that they did so "fraudulently and without colour of right".
Re:Isn't what Sony did a _crime_ in most countries (Score:2)
Most silly amateurs don't have a legal department that could populate a small town.
Fair is fair I guess (Score:3, Insightful)
I have owned sony products, that has ended. The XCP fiasco is just the latest in a series of blunders on their part. The sony name used to be synonymous with quality. Now they are truly a clueless company that has deserved the beating their stock has taken. Anything I can do to drive it down more as a consumer, I will do and No.1 is buying someone else's products (which now are better anyway).
Why Canucks got less (Score:1)
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An Issue of Karma (Score:1, Interesting)
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Sony sucks (Score:2, Insightful)
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Wabbit-hunting (Score:1)