p2pnet - rss feed: Spitzer goes after Sony BMG
p2p news / p2pnet: New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer is on Sony BMG’s case. Again.
He’s already nailed the label on bribery and payola charges and now he’s zeroing in on it over the First4Internet rootkit DRM spyware scandal.
The spyware was hidden on Sony BMG music CDs, secretly installing itself on customers’ PCs the first time they played them. Consequently, the US Homeland Security department is accusing Sony BMG of “undermining computer security,” the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) and a host of others have filed class actions, Texas attorney general Greg Abbott says Sony BMG violated his state’s anti-spyware laws and now, here comes Spitzer whose office, “dispatched investigators who, disguised as customers, were able to purchase affected CDs in New York music retail outlets - and to do so more than a week after Sony BMG recalled the disks,” says BusinessWeek Online.
“The investigators bought CDs at stores including Wal-Mart, BestBuy, Sam Goody, Circuit City, FYE, and Virgin Megastore, according to a Nov. 23 statement from Spitzer’s office.”
It’s, “unacceptable that more than three weeks after this serious vulnerability was revealed, these same CDs are still on shelves, during the busiest shopping days of the year,” Spitzer says in a statement. “I strongly urge all retailers to heed the warnings issued about these products, pull them from distribution immediately, and ship them back to Sony.”
In typical music industry spin-speak, Sony BMG spokesman John McKay says the company “appreciates” Spitzer’s, “reinforcement” of its “efforts”.
BusinessWeek Online points out that Spitzer has already sued Intermix Media for installing advertising software on PCs, “without having given those consumers ample notice. Intermix agreed to settle the suit and was required to pay $7.5 million. The company also had to accept a ban on the distribution of adware programs in the future.”
Meanwhile, “the rootkit blunder continues to inspire consumer outrage and affect sales of artists who produced the affected CDs,” says the story, adding:
“The ranking of Van Zant’s Get Right with the Man CD plummeted on Amazon.com’s bestseller list in the wake of Sony BMG snafu …”
Sony is an owner-member of the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), both of which are suing millions of their customers, accusing them of being dishonest.
Also read:-
BusinessWeek Online - Spitzer Gets on Sony BMG’s Case, November 29, 2005
November 29th, 2005 at 5:35 pm
is it just me or have reactions to this mess been incredibly slow?
They are selling malware disgused as a legitimate product basically, i say sue their ass off. I will never buy sony products fullstop.
November 29th, 2005 at 7:38 pm
“is it just me or have reactions to this mess been incredibly slow? ”
yup, but at least this time the MSM and the justice system have taken notice rather than being snowjobbed by the industry spin, it’s a step in the right direction for sure.
TT
November 29th, 2005 at 9:58 pm
I have a question about Spitzer. I know he keeps going after these guys but all he seems to get is fines. do they pay the fines to the state of New York? if so perhpaps he’s doing it for the same reason they are. generate revenue. If not then it’s not very effective because they don’t stop. it’s still business as usual. What is needed is a criminal conviction
November 30th, 2005 at 4:50 am
I read that some of the money went to finance charity.
I speculate that Spitzer is going for the headlines. It is a way to gain household recognition on the name and hence setup for a future in politics at a higher level. One thing about Spitzer is he plays as dirty as those he hits with these law suits. Most corporations aren’t going to bat an eye at the fine, they will bat an eye when he cuts into the funds going to share holders. He understands the level they survive at and threatens them at that level. That gets attention that would otherwise become the equivalent concern of batting at a fly. I read a short biography on him in one of the articles that came through that he is from a rich family and grew up in the money. From that he learned the corporation setup and mentality from the head down. He uses that to great effect. Putting pressure just where it is needed to make the most of it.
Criminal conviction would be a good result but a corporation will feed the public a figurehead to take the fall and keep on trucking. While I would dearly love to see the same responcibility that is forced on employees of other corporations in the part of personal liability, I don’t see this happening and it being effective if that is the total sum outcome. Put their root money and their base purpose for existing as a corporation at stake and heads will roll within.
There is one other thing about personal liability. If it ever becomes that the corporations won’t stand behind their employees as long as they are not willfully guilty of committing a crime through planning, or through purposeful neglect, then there won’t be many that will put the responcibilty as worth the job. Meaning that those same corporations won’t hire within the borders any more than absolutely necessary due to the expense being figured in at a per person cost of doing business. Simply what will happen instead is outsourcing will become epidemic compared to what it is today as they figure ways to reduce the liablilty costs associated with that employment.
November 30th, 2005 at 11:50 am
“I read that some of the money went to finance charity.”
That is how a crime is flipped flopped into an advantage, into public relations.
I imagine that the money paid to charity is then reduced from the charity account and the public relations account.
Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com
November 30th, 2005 at 12:03 pm
New York City is known to have a token conviction record. That is once in a while a triffic dealer or a mafia hit man, a union racketeer or a corrupt judge or politician gets busted, while the drug trade and the mafia business has openly taken over the city police and judges are on the take.
Token convictions serve the purpose of creating an image that the police and the courts are working, while hiding the awful truth: they are on the dole from the crime syndicates.
November 30th, 2005 at 3:16 pm
—I speculate that Spitzer is going for the headlines—
No question. But that’s cool. In the process, he’s high-lighting dirty work by a member of the Big Four Organized Crime family.
Cheers!