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German retailer to pay damages over Sony BMG rootkit DRM

15 September 2009 1:40 by James "Dela" Delahunty | 4 comments

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).

Permalink to this article | Topic: Lawsuits & Legislation

RIAJ to stop mobile music piracy in Japan (19 September 2009)

Sony ramps up anti-piracy efforts in South-East Asia (19 September 2009)

IFPI: 'Ten inconvenient truths about the music industry today' (31 May 2007)

Sony to pay $1.5 million for subjecting consumers to DRM (20 December 2006)

Judge Grants Final Approval for Sony BMG CD Settlement (24 May 2006)

AnyDVD removes Macrovision's CDS-300 copy protection (13 April 2006)

More artists take a stand against DRM (16 December 2005)

Sony BMG to re-evaluate CD protection (12 December 2005)

EFF: SunnComm's MediaMax security patch is not secure (9 December 2005)

More insecure CDs from Sony BMG (7 December 2005)

Another lawsuit filed against Sony (3 December 2005)

Sony BMG was warned about XCP (29 November 2005)

Sony BMG hit by lawsuits over XCP (10 November 2005)

Trojan takes advantage of Sony BMG DRM (10 November 2005)

Sony BMG's Thomas Hesse on the 'rootkit' DRM (10 November 2005)

Sony BMG criticised over XCP (3 November 2005)

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Discuss this article!
KillerBug (Senior Member) 15 September 2009 3:10
I'm suprised sony didn't sue back for installing multiple copies of their virus code without permission. [ + quote]
pphoenix (Inactive) 15 September 2009 10:17
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..... [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 15 September 2009 10:18
oappi (Junior Member) 15 September 2009 10:19
^ =) 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. [ + quote]
KillerBug (Senior Member) 15 September 2009 23:44
*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. [ + quote]