Sony's EULA Worse Than Its Rootkit?

[The Grim Squeaker]

If you think the Sony rootkit is bad, check out the accompanying EULA! From the EFF's summary:
'If your house gets burgled, you have to delete all your music from your laptop when you get home. ... Sony-BMG can install and use backdoors in the copy protection software or media player to "enforce their rights" against you, at any time, without notice. ...

Forget about using the music as a soundtrack for your latest family photo slideshow, or mash-ups, or sampling.'"

Full End Users License Agreement
Evil!

[Stormin]

I would love to think that sony has shot itself in the dick with this one, but fraknly I doubt it will seriously effect them or the way they are doing things/going to do things.

[Vendetta]

It won't. because they'll never bring it to court.

EULAs are subject to contract law and can, if the terms of the contract are found unreasonable by a court, be made void.

And the court can even void the whole EULA on the basis of one unreasonable clause (and since Article 10 of the Sony EULA means that you waive your right to a jury trial and your right to raise objections over the venue in any dispue about the contract, that could easily be found to be the case).

There's a good chance that if any trial was brought due to the clauses in this EULA, it would be struck down.

[Pezzoni]

Microsoft will wipe Sony's 'rootkit'
By Joris Evers
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: November 13, 2005, 12:15 AM PST

Microsoft will update its security tools to detect and remove part of the copy protection tools installed on PCs when some music CDs are played.
The Redmond, Wash., software maker has determined that the "rootkit" piece of the XCP software on some Sony BMG Music Entertainment CDs can pose a security risk to Windows PCs, according to a posting Saturday to a Microsoft corporate Web log.
The Sony BMG software installs itself deeply inside a hard drive when a CD is played on a PC. The technology uses rootkit techniques to hide itself. Experts blasted the cloaking mechanism, saying it could be abused by virus writers. The first remote-control Trojan horses that take advantage of the veil provided by Sony BMG have surfaced.

To protect Windows users, Microsoft plans to update Windows AntiSpyware and the Malicious Software Removal Tool as well as the online scanner on Windows Live Safety Center to detect and remove the Sony BMG software, the software maker said in its blog.
Windows AntiSpyware is Microsoft's spyware-fighting software that is currently available as a test version and used by millions of people worldwide. Microsoft provides weekly updates for Windows AntiSpyware. The Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool is updated monthly and is part of Microsoft's monthly patch releases.

Previous Next: Detection and removal of the rootkit component will also be in Windows Defender, the forthcoming update to Windows AntiSpyware that will also be part of Windows XP successor Windows Vista, Microsoft said.
In its move to detect and remove the Sony BMG rootkit, Microsoft follows other makers of security software. Symantec and Computer Associates are among those that offer at minimum detection capabilities in their products. Sony BMG itself has also provided a patch to fix the security problem and still allow CDs to be played on PCs.
On Friday, Sony said it had halted production of CDs with the controversial technology, which is designed to limit the number of copies that can be made of the CD and to prevent a computer user from making unprotected MP3s of the music. Sony does still produce CDs that use a different copy protection scheme.

http://news.com.com/Microsoft+will+wipe ... g=nefd.top

[InnocentBystander]

Sony VS M$, guess who is going to win

[Stark]

Shockingly, we WANT MS to win. It feels wierd...

[Jaepheth]

For some reason something like this comes to mind:





Other captions:
"Seemed like a good idea at the time"
"What? You don't like pizza?"