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More Sony BMG goof-ups
As the storm over the XCP anti-piracy technology has calmed down, Sony BMG has come under fire for its other DRM technology.
The MediaMax software that is supplied by SunnComm was already flagged for a security vulnerability. And now Texas attorney general Greg Abbott alleges that it illegally installed on computers: the application installs even if the user declines the end user license agreement. The agreement pops up when a user first inserts a music CD in his computer.
The complaint was added to another Texas suit against Sony over the negligence with the XCP technology. In that case Sony could face a fine of up to $100,000 per infected computer system.
Hopefully a company driven by greed will listen a financial spanking.
Tags: sony bmg, XCP, sunncomm, MediaMax
December 22, 2005 at 05:27 PM | Permalink
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Comments
The only worrying thing about this is that the content producers look like they're all going to be forced by these issues to use Microsoft's brand of DRM whether they like it or not. Windows Media DRM is the only form of DRM software that would already be part of the Windows OS (or easily and "legitimately" added with a Windows update).
By their very nature, no customer would say yes to installing DRM software on their computer if they had a choice of still being able to play the audio CD even if the DRM software wasn't installed. The problem for the content providers with the Red Book audio CD standard is that to maintain compatibility with older audio CD players, they have to retain the unprotected audio tracks and can only mess around with extra data tracks that try to hinder ripping of the audio tracks.
So much for any sort of third party or Open Source DRM solution to avoid the Microsoft lock-in. (no-one seriously thinks Sony et al with give up on seeking a DRM solution for audio CDs do they?)
-Mart
Posted-by: Martin Hill | 23 Dec 2005 01:45:51
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