Sign the anti-RIAA Petition here.
Read Orson Scott Card's excellently written 2-part article on the whole filesharing brouhaha: MP3s Are Not the Devil.
Studios Moving to Block Piracy of Films Online
Makers of Kazaa suing record labels
Makers of Kazaa suing record labels
Record Company Executive: Okay, people! We bought and paid for this DMCA thing! Who screwed up and let Congress write the bill so that it could be used against US!?!
‘Shift’ key breaks CD copy locks
Student faces suit on key to CD locks
Everybody who has used M$ TweakUI or similar software to disable CD autostart and told others how to do it is a criminal. Bah!
Keyboard Manufacturers Named in DMCA Suit
I believe the K5 story is a parody.
It is.
Cross posted from Music Catch Basin:
Do not -- repeat DO NOT -- purchase music under the Sony/BMG label. I do not call them CD's because they do not conform to the CD-DA spec published by Philips.
They contain a DRM rootkit which, if you have autoplay enabled for your CD-ROM, will automatically install (even if you say NO). This rootkit also creates security vulnerabilities on your machine.
Of course, Linux and Mac users are immune.
This software will do nothing to prevent piracy, and puts legitimate *PAYING* customers at risk. Please teach Sony a lesson by not purchasing from their label.
You know me, I don't republish hoaxes. Feel free to google for "Sony rootkit", if you wish to double check.
I know I say an alert about this and forgot to pass it on here.
Sony claims it is only harmful to a system if you try and brute force remove it and is there just to protect their intellectual property and does nothing else. Yeah right. Like I wanna pay for a company to install a spy on my system.
I just read an article in one of the computer-newspaper at work, which calls the XCP-program Malware. They say that "Business Week" reports that the finnish Security specialist F-Secure told Sony on Oct. 4th that the player-software leaves systems vulnerable to Hackers when installed on a PC, but Sony didn't react and still distributed CDs with the malware disguised as player. The bomb only exploded end of Oct., when computer-expert Mark Russinovich warned in his blog about it.
The states of California and Texas have now raised a claim (is that the right expression for going to court? My brain is sluggish this late) against Sony. The general attorney of New York is considering to do so, as is the "Home Security" Ministry, according to Business Week. (Article translated from CP 49, p.15. I can't link to the article, because the newspaper is controlled circulation and the site password-protected for readers only. But you can probably find the Business Week original article.)
The attorneys general of Texas and CA have each launched civil suits against Sony/BMG. There are also three private class-action suits as well. I think that Spitzer is looking into the recall (or lack thereof -- XCP'ed media is still available in NY).
Sony's initial reaction was "Most people don't know what a rootkit is, so what's the concern?".
And... I hate to suggest this, but if you're boycotting Sony, that means you should avoid PSP or PS3 purchases either.
As a side note, if you are running Windows (any flavor) and haven't disabled AutoPlay yet, you should!
What exactly is a "rootkit". Pardon my ignorance, Scott, but I don't know. (I have some ideas what it is. But just for clarity sakes...) How would I know this program is working?
And how recently was this done? That is, in what year did they initiate such an act? I just got a CD on the Epic label (a Sony subidiary) in the mail today. It's a Canadian import. (Burton Cummings' first album, the one with "Stand Tall" on it.) It's most recent copyright is 1999. Should I be worried about this CD?
According to the alert they supposedly only started it recently, as in since the last summer.
And a rootkit is a tool box or kit if you will for hacking into the the root controls of a computer system. usually microsoft as it is rather easy to hack into. it lets an outside user control how and what goes on within the system without letting the user of the system know about it.
As for your CD look for XCP on the back or somewhere on the cd and that will tell you if the CD has the stuff on it.
from the alert:
CDs with XCP technology can be identified by the letters "XCP" printed on the back cover of the jewel case for the CD
Sony now has more trouble for their copy protection/hack software. The patch that was supposed to fix the problem has the same software on it and opens up more doors into the computer.
So looks like if they couldn't convince people not to stick music cds in a computer by reason they'll do it by fear.
Detailed informations on the Sony rootkit: http://www.sysinternals.com/Blog/
More Sony spyware: http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=925
And Dan Glickman, head of the MPAA comes up with another whopper...
We do DRM to prevent suckersconsumers from accidentally becoming Evil Content Pirates™.
MPAA = hypocrites. They illegally copied some documentary about how the MPAA ratings boards work. Sorry, I don't have a link to it, but it was in the news a week or two ago.
The movie was "This Movie Is Not Yet Rated".
Here's CNN.
How does one accidentally become a content pirate?
They were running. The floor was wet. They slipped, fell forward, their head hit the mouse or Enter button, and they accidentally downloaded hundres of megabytes of data.
Ahh I see that. I used somethign like that to explain how my wife got pregnant with our first child.......
A judge has allowed Andersen vs. Atlantic to continue as a class action.
This is significant, because the RIAA cannot just drop the suit to avoid discovery -- they're the defendants this time. Andersen is alleging RICO violations among other things. She is the woman who's daughter the RIAA attempted to pull out of school (without her knowledge) by posing as the child's grandmother.
Scott, can you explain what the basics of the case are? I tried Google and Wikinews, and couldn't find a clarified explanation of it.
Thanks.
See here
Actually, the whole website, not just this case.
Tanya Andersen was one of the Doe defendants in the RIAA's Evil Content Pirate™ lawsuits. Of course, Ms. Andersen had never downloaded or shared what they claimed she did. She won attorneys fees, among other things, but the RIAA dropped the case (tried for "no prejudice", but the judge ruled otherswise, IIRC) just before it got into discovery.
Andersen then filed suit against the RIAA for various offenses, (I think malicious prosecution, but I'm not sure).
In any case, one of the RIAA's more egregious offenses was contacting her daughter's school, claiming to be the child's grandmother, and trying to get the kid out of school to question her without her mother present. If you or I did that, we'd be facing a long time behind bars.
Anyways, the RIAA's history has been, sue for zillions of dollars, offer to settle for a few K, and if someone fights and demands to go to court, drop the case before discovery starts.
In this case, however, Andersen is suing *THEM*, so they can't make it go away by dropping it. In addition, the judge has granted the case class action status.
Does anyone know if this is for real?
I was at a drawing session at my alma mater on Wednesday, April 30, and someone was passing around this flyer about a bill that threatens artists' visual copyright. Is this for real, or some hoax/myth/scam?
I tried searching at Snopes.com, but found nada.
Anyone else know about this?
I've heard something about it, not sure if it stands a chance. Slashdot discussed it here: http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/04/26/1946253
It has good intentions, but I'm not sure the implementation is good.
There's an issue -- since Congress seems to extend copyright whenever Steamboat Willie is about to expire -- that some works are under copyright, but nobody knows or can find the copyright holder. This bill is, as I understand it, intended to address this.
However, as written (again, my report is third party), it has some serious loopholes that corps would have no qualms about exploiting.
There was a discussion about that at Radio Comix with some additional links.
At the moment it's an old dead bill, but as Ursula Vernon put it "Somebody on the internet, where NOTHING EVER DIES, found it and maybe didn't read the date and decided this was a current threat, and now I'm getting spam about it from earnest, well meaning people who are understandably concerned about their art. "
I wonder how people would react to this, especially the Napsterites who like to post entire works by authors online with the authors' permission. Granted, the linked story isn't about artistic works, but I wonder if it's raised an eyebrow among other people with strong opinions on copyright law.
On the other hand, SCOTUS just approved pulling stuff out of the Public Domain, and handing it to a private entity.
The New Leave It To Beaver is in copyright limbo.