AfterDawn: News

German retailer to pay damages over Sony BMG rootkit DRM

If you think back a few short years, you might remember a very controversial copy protection technology (XCP) used on a number of Sony BMG CD titles. The DRM used a rootkit to bury itself deep into the operating system and it was very hard to remove. Sony BMG settled a case with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the United States over the incident, but it stands as the biggest example of DRM going too far.

The incident still is causing ripples however. A German court has ordered a retailer to pay compensation to a man who has claimed financial losses due to the DRM. He had put a CD with the anti-piracy software on it into a number of his computers over time and the end result eventually was many hours dealing with virus alerts, attempted removals and restoring lost data.



He claimed that the incident caused him to lose man hours dealing with the situation, and sued over lost income. He claimed $2,200 in damages should be paid to him as a result of the rootkit infection, which came from an Anastacia CD. The German court ordered the retailer to pay the plaintiff about $1,750 in damages, according to Heise.de (German source).

Written by: James Delahunty @ 15 Sep 2009 1:40

• Previous article

• Some iPhone users finally get MMS enabled

• Next article

• SanDisk CompactFlash cards reach 64GB, 90MB/s transfer rate

• 4 comments

• KillerBug

  I'm suprised sony didn't sue back for installing multiple copies of their virus code without permission.

  15.9.2009 03:10 #1

• pphoenix

  Its not your ordinary XCP Rootkit, its the best XCP Rootkit, as only so can do.
  
  they should have issued huge fines not just compensation.
  
  we should all get $1,750 in damages for listening to the talentless auto-tuned Anastacia.
  
  DRM is a corporation who dreams of propertarian, purchase only our brand lock-ups, best friend, and a big anal fisting to the public.
  
  Get ready to bend over & lube up for the "next best" media format, oh we already have blu-ray so you're already bent over & greased.....

  15.9.2009 10:17 #2

• oappi

  ^
  =) that accusation would not hold very well since it is sony that is installing software not user.
  
  $1750 sound fair for infecting users computer(s), too bad sony customers in us got crappier deal. At least for me it would be days work to backup my data, write down setting and reinstall vista, retrieve data from backup, install software/games/drivers and set settings like i want... just because i wanted to listen sony music.

  15.9.2009 10:19 #3

• KillerBug

  Originally posted by pphoenix:
  we should all get $1,750 in damages for listening to the talentless auto-tuned Anastacia.It has been established in court that disturbing noise can be treated as assault. The offender can be charged a fine that will be given to the victim(s). From this logic, we all deserve at least $1750 from sony for all the terrible noise they call music.

  15.9.2009 23:44 #4