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Sony sued over AACS patents

1 June 2007 11:54 by Andre "DVDBack23" Yoskowitz | 20 comments

Yesterday, the Canadian encryption vendor Certicom filed a broad lawsuit against Sony accusing the electronics giant of infringing on two of Certicom's patents. Although Sony is sued alot, this latest suit can be potentially cripling. The suit is targeting AACS and by extension, Blu ray and the PlayStation 3.

Back in 2003, Certicom sold patent licenses to the US National Security Agency for $25 million including the two in the latest Sony suit. Now, Certicom wants monetary damages from Sony, claiming that the encryptions found in AACS violate Certicom patents on "Strengthened public key protocol" and "Digital signatures on a Smartcard."

Certicom says that Sony needs to take out a license for AACS, Blu ray, PS3 games, and the PlayStation 3 and standalone Blu ray players or discontinue selling them.

Additionally, Certicom claims that the the Digital Transmission Content Protection (DTCP) scheme is infringing and wants monetary damages for every Sony i.LINK (IEEE 1394) implementation that uses DTCP and every Sony product that uses DTCP-IP. Included in that is many VAIO computers, Sony HDTVs, and even a few DVD players.

We will be watching this story very closely and keep updates coming.

Source:
Arstechnica

Permalink to this article

EFF worried patent reform will halt watchdog project (6 February 2008)

AACS LA to fight cam piracy & AnyDVD HD (4 September 2007)

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Discuss this article!
tatsh (Junior Member) 1 June 2007 12:16
See! With patents (especially software) everyone wins! </sarcasm> [ + quote]
BcMester (Newbie) 1 June 2007 13:17
Imagine the court judges in favor of Certicom... Sony will have to pay license fees to Certicom for these things, that will probably jack up the price of a good part of Sony's hardware lineup, of which the Blu-ray players and the PS3 will suffer the most, I think... if they don't decide to dig into the pocket and leave the price as it is (as they should do, as their stuff is expensive enough already). [ + quote]
navi1199 (Junior Member) 1 June 2007 15:40
seesh sony's a glutton for law suits [ + quote]
AXT (Member) 1 June 2007 15:50
I'm gonna sue sony next...You better watch out sony because here i come. [ + quote]
Toto2008 (Inactive) 1 June 2007 17:25
Why does Sony has the nasty habit of using other's people patent and don't pay? do they really think that they can get away with it? AHHH!!, Ironic isn't it. Wasting millions of dollars going after innocent consumers making a legal backup copy and they are the first ones to use other people intelectual property without paying. HEY SONY, THE RULES APPLY TO YOU AS WELL. [ + quote]
Pop_Smith (Senior Member) 1 June 2007 17:42
I don't see why anyone would want to claim a patent on failed copy "protection". Thats probably the dumbest thing you could do. Basically you are saying "Give us all your money for our miserable failure of a wanna-be copy protection"! Peace [ + quote]
natony (Junior Member) 1 June 2007 18:38
Of course the best solution for Sony would be to stop selling all this DRM crippled crap. They'd still have to pay out for what they already sold, but meh. [ + quote]
Blackjax (Member) 1 June 2007 19:57
Classic just classic! Two bullies in an elementary school yard fight over patents and both want your lunch nmoney. To be continued..... [ + quote]
hikaricor (Newbie) 1 June 2007 22:17
So... cracking AACS will soon be considered treason? I wonder if the NSA is using this type of encryption for anything I might find useful. ^_^ [ + quote]
ZippyDSM (AfterDawn Addict) 1 June 2007 22:53
Originally posted by Pop_Smith: I don't see why anyone would want to claim a patent on failed copy "protection". Thats probably the dumbest thing you could do. Basically you are saying "Give us all your money for our miserable failure of a wanna-be copy protection"! Peace hoow else to make money off of it wait till some large corporations gets it and file suits saying they had no right to it :P [ + quote]
borhan9 (AfterDawn Addict) 1 June 2007 23:21
It looks like sony has a virus that it cant get rid of :) [ + quote]
Cfusion (Newbie) 2 June 2007 6:22
If they have a virus-LOL We can crack it for them.. [ + quote]
ZippyDSM (AfterDawn Addict) 2 June 2007 6:38
mmmm spend millions/billions on Copy protection to save thousands/millions from simply copying new releases after 6 months no one cares because the flow of money stops to a crawl thus they need more new releases to get money to spend money on copy protection in order to protect new sales long enough to make money to protect more new sales....my god its endless!! takes some pills and takes a nap oy I been up to damn long >< [ + quote]
Cinnjerm (Junior Member) 2 June 2007 8:17
Originally posted by Pop_Smith: I don't see why anyone would want to claim a patent on failed copy "protection". Thats probably the dumbest thing you could do. Basically you are saying "Give us all your money for our miserable failure of a wanna-be copy protection"! Peace Yeah definately agree. It be kinda like the people who engineered the levies in New Orleans being sued by some fag that claimed they stole his design. [ + quote]
AlBundy (Member) 2 June 2007 11:29
About time a Canadian company stock to to a US company. Go Canada Go. [ + quote]
ZippyDSM (AfterDawn Addict) 2 June 2007 12:15
Quote: Originally posted by Pop_Smith: I don't see why anyone would want to claim a patent on failed copy "protection". Thats probably the dumbest thing you could do. Basically you are saying "Give us all your money for our miserable failure of a wanna-be copy protection"! Peace Yeah definately agree. It be kinda like the people who engineered the levies in New Orleans being sued by some fag that claimed they stole his design. ============================================== considering they failed the goverment can sue the "fag" for all hes worth :P and to think the new ones being put in are about the same ,goverment at work ........>< [ + quote]
kyo28 (Junior Member) 2 June 2007 15:33
Originally posted by AlBundy: About time a Canadian company stock to to a US company. Go Canada Go. Which US company? As far as I know Sony is a Japanese company. [ + quote]
wolf123 (Member) 2 June 2007 21:19
I just have too say lmao rof [ + quote]
akaangus (Member) 2 June 2007 22:17
Quote: About time a Canadian company stock to to a US company. Go Canada Go. Quote: Which US company? As far as I know Sony is a Japanese company. p0wn3d! [ + quote]
Unfocused (Junior Member) 19 July 2007 19:15
They should just cancel all patents and restart from scratch. That would be interesting to see. [ + quote]