p2pnet - rss feed: Sony fined $1M for lying
p2pnet.net News:- A class action lodged against Sony Pictures has resulted in the studio being fined $1 million, and maybe more, for rank dishonesty in the shape of its “intentional and systematic deception of consumers”.
Sony created fake movie critic David Manning to lure people to such truly awful flics as A Knight’s Tale and The Animal, of which Manning/Sony wrote, ‘The producing team of Big Daddy has delivered another winner!”
“Hoping to end the fiasco of the fake film critic, the studio has agreed to pony up $326,000 to settle charges brought by the Attorney General of Connecticut,” wrote Eonline in 2002. “Sony was accused of deceptive advertising projects for inventing Manning and his glowing reviews of Sony films and attributing them to the state’s Ridgefield Press.
“As part of the deal, Sony marketeers are forbidden from manufacturing nonexistent film reviewers to hype its releases.”
And Sony BMG has just been ordered to pay $10 million for fraud of a different kind. New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer had the company for payola
$500,000 in attorneys fees
Back to the most recent fiasco, just as bad (for Sony), it can “no longer use its own workers to masquerade as moviegoers for gushy “testimonial” spots - those ads depicting fans being interviewed outside a theater”.
“Attorney Norman Blumenthal, who represented the plaintiffs, said the final settlement amounts to $1.5 million,” says Reuters, going on, “However, a preliminary settlement order, dated Dec. 15, 2004, approved a court notice that announced a settlement fund of $750,000 plus $500,000 in attorneys fees, for a total of $1.25 million.”
Under terms of the agreement, says Reuters, moviegoers who bought tickets to Hollow Man, Vertical Limit, A Knight’s Tale and The Animal August 3, 2000, and October 31, 2001, “could file a claim that could return them as much as $5 for each ticket purchased,” says the story.
“Unclaimed portions of the settlement fund are to be earmarked for charity.”
Rip-out rip-off
But Sony doesn’t confine its lying to fake movie promos. In 2001, it also created a fake fan to hype its then new Sony Formula One PlayStation game.
It “pretended an Italian teenager penned the letter, which was accompanied by a ripped-out magazine article promoting the competition” for a direct mailing campaign.
An excerpt read: ‘Hello I am Gian-Franco, I am a fourteen-year-old. I live in Italia&I hope you win the Playstation&My Brother says you can’t do it. But he’s just jealous. I took this page from this magazine-now we can show him who is boss. You can do it.”
Payola by another name.
In another class action, this time against the whole lot, moviegoers accused the cartel owners of “wining and dining reviewers at all-expenses-paid press junkets and granting them exclusive access for celebrity interviews in exchange for thumbs-up reviews,” says another Eonline story.
Citizens for Truth in Movie Advertising and four individual plaintiffs wanted Universal, Fox, MGM, Sony, DreamWorks, Warner Bros, Disney, Paramount, Artisan and Lions Gate to “disclose the nature of junketeering and stop the movie houses from making ‘false, misleading and deceptive advertising’ in violation of California law,” says the story.
Reviewers are, “in bed with the studios,” it has plaintiffs’ attorney Anthony Sonnett saying.
Bribing critics to rave about movies isn’t much different from paying DJs to play music, so maybe it’s time for New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer to get on the case.
He recently nailed Sony BMG for:
* Outright bribes to radio programmers, including expensive vacation packages, electronics and other valuable items;
* Contest giveaways for stations’ listening audiences;
* Payments to radio stations to cover operational expenses;
* Retention of middlemen, known as independent promoters, as conduits for illegal payments to radio stations;
* Payments for “spin programs,” airplay under the guise of advertising.
Sony BMG is being forced to pay $10 million for distribution to New York State not-for-profit entities, “in a manner that will inure to the benefit of the residents of the State of New York by funding programs aimed at music education and appreciation”.
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
See:-
Eonline - Sony Buries David Manning, March 12, 2004
Reuters - Sony settles suit over fake critic, August 4, 2005
fake fan - Sony’s ‘fake movie critic’, p2pnet, January 30, 2004
Eonline - The Curse of David Manning, July 5, 2001
nailed Sony BMG - Spitzer on Sony BMG scandal, p2pnet, July 28, 2005
August 4th, 2005 at 2:39 pm
Like the tobbacco industry, I would like to see Sony be told to give this money to the develpoers of LimeWire. Of course, I wasn’t the one of many who chose to be ripped off. I download my entertainment, and most of the stuff I download is free yet legal. Has anyone here downloaded Episode 11 of “The Scene?” http://www.welcometothescene.com . I think Brian is in for some explaining.
August 4th, 2005 at 4:49 pm
“Citizens for Truth in Movie Advertising and four individual plaintiffs wanted Universal, Fox, MGM, Sony, DreamWorks, Warner Bros, Disney, Paramount, Artisan and Lions Gate to “disclose the nature of junketeering and stop the movie houses from making ‘false, misleading and deceptive advertising’ in violation of California law,” says the story.”
they wouldn’t be allowed to advertise at all.
August 4th, 2005 at 6:01 pm
“Sony BMG has just been ordered to pay $10 for fraud”
$10?
August 4th, 2005 at 6:26 pm
REMEMBER, all you pirates, do as we say, not as we do.
So much for morality lessons from the morally bankrupt.
August 5th, 2005 at 5:06 am
I’m just amazed that anyone out there is surprised by this kind of behavior from a large organisation.
Sony probably drew the short straw and “took the fall” this time to distract media attention, so that noone takes a careful look at what all the others are doing and realises they’re all acting in exactly the same way.