Delicious irony, Sony DRM breaks copyright law

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2005-11-14 04:21am

They stole code from LAME

I guess it is not about Copyright but the right to get as much cash as possible.

Spyder · Post by **Spyder** » 2005-11-14 04:29am

Over the past week I've heard about their root kit, the game disks that get bound to a machine and now code theft.

They're going for the hat trick.

Glocksman · Post by **Glocksman** » 2005-11-14 07:45am

Is it just me or does it seem like Sony 'jumped the shark' once they got into the content business in a big way after they bought their movie studio and big record labels?

Sony used to have a good reputation as an innovator and manufacturer of high quality goods. I have a 17 year old 27 inch Trinitron TV that still works perfectly and is my main television. Despite that, if I were looking at new TV's today, Sony wouldn't be on the list because of negative experiences with more recently made Sony products (bad VCR, several bad CDROM drives, bad boombox, and a bad Walkman).

Nowadays it looks like they're more concerned about SonyStyle™ than quality.

Braedley · Post by **Braedley** » 2005-11-14 06:12pm

The only thing I will ever buy from Sony now is a TV, and even then, I'll probably go with a different brand. I have lost any and all loyalty to them, regardless of their quality. I imagine that this fiasco has driven away countless other customers, not only from DRMed CDs, but every other Sony product out there.

Post by **Beowulf** » 2005-11-14 06:46pm

I lost my loyalty (not that I had any) when I had to send my laptop in for service 3 times for the same problem. There may not be any reason to boycott Sony when nobody buys anything because their stuff sucks.

BloodAngel · Post by **BloodAngel** » 2005-11-14 10:21pm

I only bought a PSP from Sony, which seems to be doing nicely so far.

But besides that, Sony's just alright...

Tranan · Post by **Tranan** » 2005-11-15 04:32am

Beowulf wrote:I lost my loyalty (not that I had any) when I had to send my laptop in for service 3 times for the same problem. There may not be any reason to boycott Sony when nobody buys anything because their stuff sucks.

Start to chant my fav brand. Panasonic, est domico, panasonic,

Vertigo1 · Post by **Vertigo1** » 2005-11-15 10:44pm

The only sony product I have is the CD Walkman mp3 player. So far its lasted pretty well. Had it for nearly three years now.

RThurmont · Post by **RThurmont** » 2005-11-15 11:20pm

Sony's design isn't even that good...now that Phillips has decided to start paying attention to design some of their recent products have been incredibly elegant...take the Expanium MP3-CD player for instance. It blows any comparable Sony product out of the water, and actually won a major European product design award

Sony could (and should) be relegated to insignfigance after violating its sacred duty to the customer in this manner.

Vertigo1 · Post by **Vertigo1** » 2005-11-15 11:31pm

heh, call me when a Philips product actually lasts beyond the warranty period. So far the only Philips product that has actually lasted is my old stereo.

Kazuaki Shimazaki · Post by **Kazuaki Shimazaki** » 2005-11-16 09:19am

Vertigo1 wrote:heh, call me when a Philips product actually lasts beyond the warranty period. So far the only Philips product that has actually lasted is my old stereo.

Well, I once bought a CD/tape player from Philips. It definitely didn't last long.

As for Sony, its TVs are great. We used to have a Sony and it never broke down and at least subjectively it was better than anything we had ever since.

We also have a Sony VA10 laptop. Now that isn't so good or reliable. Even regular maintenance or installation seems harder to do on a Sony.

The Sony came with some nice little games. Unfortunately, you can only play them on the Sony. I tried to transfer it off to my computer. I don't think it would be illegal seeing my dad never plays the game, so the number of Users of the Game remains 1 - as it should be. Legality became a moot point because for some reason that stupid game would only play on the fucking Sony - the rest of us are missing some mysterious files.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2005-11-16 12:23pm

Kazuaki Shimazaki wrote: The Sony came with some nice little games. Unfortunately, you can only play them on the Sony. I tried to transfer it off to my computer. I don't think it would be illegal seeing my dad never plays the game, so the number of Users of the Game remains 1 - as it should be. Legality became a moot point because for some reason that stupid game would only play on the fucking Sony - the rest of us are missing some mysterious files.

You didn't simply try to copy the files straight off the hard drive without using any installation software, did you?

Kazuaki Shimazaki · Post by **Kazuaki Shimazaki** » 2005-11-16 12:56pm

General Zod wrote:
Kazuaki Shimazaki wrote: The Sony came with some nice little games. Unfortunately, you can only play them on the Sony. I tried to transfer it off to my computer. I don't think it would be illegal seeing my dad never plays the game, so the number of Users of the Game remains 1 - as it should be. Legality became a moot point because for some reason that stupid game would only play on the fucking Sony - the rest of us are missing some mysterious files.
You didn't simply try to copy the files straight off the hard drive without using any installation software, did you?

I know I should have used an installation software, but there is none packaged with the game - basically, it was preinstalled as a goodie, with no disc anywhere. I guess with a lot of time and effort, I could somehow grab all the files and fiddle with the registry and all that, but it ain't worth it for a game - it isn't that good.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2005-11-16 01:16pm

Kazuaki Shimazaki wrote:
I know I should have used an installation software, but there is none packaged with the game - basically, it was preinstalled as a goodie, with no disc anywhere. I guess with a lot of time and effort, I could somehow grab all the files and fiddle with the registry and all that, but it ain't worth it for a game - it isn't that good.

Then there's your reason for it not working. It's not a problem on sony's fault, it's simply a registry dependent program that won't work unless it's properly installed.

Kazuaki Shimazaki · Post by **Kazuaki Shimazaki** » 2005-11-16 01:20pm

General Zod wrote:Then there's your reason for it not working. It's not a problem on sony's fault, it's simply a registry dependent program that won't work unless it's properly installed.

Of course I'm blaming Sony on it. They should have provided the installation disc! In any case, it is one of those very simple, small games that should have all fit nicely into one folder, without bothering the registry!

Besides, this doesn't explain all the other troubles I had with that stupid Sony.

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2005-11-16 08:01pm

Vertigo1 wrote:heh, call me when a Philips product actually lasts beyond the warranty period. So far the only Philips product that has actually lasted is my old stereo.

Does a 1950's vacuum tube count? 'Cause I have a couple of Philips tubes from way back then that still work.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2005-11-17 08:09pm

From the SA forums, posted by "Gunblade"

Ahh, Sony. It's crazy how the different parts of the company are sabotauging each other.

Sony electronics: let's make a digital music player!
Sony music: No, people will pirate our music! Make it so it can only play from specially ripped CDs! I'm sure people will buy more CDs from to use our player rather than get an iPod and listen to whatever they want.

Sony games: We need a storage medium for the PSP
Sony electronics: Use our overpriced, incompatible with anything else cards!
Sony games: OK, as long as you lock the firmware to keep people from copying games. The fact that it will mean no software for the PSP is irrelevant to us.
Sony electronics: Hey, we're moving to a new, smaller format that won't work with the PSP

Sony-Ericson: Hay you guys, we're making phones that can't use the ATRAC format you've been pushing.
Sony music: We're dumping millions into that you assholes!

Sony movies: People are selling products that duplicate our copyrighted works! Stop them, lawyers!
Sony electronics: You mean the ones we got the supreme court to legalize during the 80's?

Sony computers: Buy a Vaio with a DVD-RW and you can edit movies and media anyway you want!
Sony movies: No dont

Datana · Post by **Datana** » 2005-11-18 12:12am

Looks like Sony and F4I are digging themselves even deeper. It was recently found that F4I's DRM contains large portions of mpglib, a GPLed (not just LGPL, as LAME is) library, as well as bits from VideoLAN. Some more details here and here.

The Grim Squeaker · Post by **The Grim Squeaker** » 2005-11-18 01:36am

From the SA forums

Pretty accurate, I think that this is the reason Samsung decided not to go ahead with it's own music store idea, it's seen (Like the rest of the industry) how Sony's conflicting interests are making it's products less useful and more limiting.
Hell, the PSP alone would do much beter if they used a cheaper more mainstream memory card, and didn't keep re-writing every firmware update to stop anyone from modding the psp into something useful (SNES emulator).

EDIT: DAMN, post number 3,300

.
only 33 to go, then I need to double it

(Well once the next testing wipe comes the difference will be another 200 posts, but ti's the principle of the thing)