Sony BMG Busted For Piracy!

[jaxxster]

You cant help but laugh really

"Sony BMG is no stranger to piracy. As one of the most vocal supporters of the RIAA and IFPI antipiracy efforts, the company has some experience hunting down and punishing consumers who don't pay for its products. The company is getting some experience on the other side of the table, however, now that it's being sued for software piracy.
Related Stories

* Music industry softens on podcasts

PointDev, a French software company that makes Windows administration tools, received a call from a Sony BMG IT employee for support. After Sony BMG supplied a pirated license code for Ideal Migration, one of PointDev's products, the software maker was able to mandate a seizure of Sony BMG's assets. The subsequent raid revealed that software was illegally installed on four of Sony BMG's servers. The Business Software Alliance, however, believes that up to 47 percent of the software installed on Sony BMG's computers could be pirated.

These are some pretty serious—not to mention ironic—allegations against a company that's gone so far as to install malware on consumers' computers in the name of preventing piracy.

Sinking pirates can pay (BSA)

While PointDev is claiming €300,000 (over $475,000) in damages in its suit against Sony BMG, Agustoni Paul-Henry, PointDev's CEO, says (from a Google translation of a French report) that this is more about principle than money: "We are forced to watch every week if key software pirates are not [sic] on the Internet. We are a small company of six employees. Instead of trying to protect us, we could spend this time to develop ourselves."

Paul-Henry thinks Sony BMG's piracy of PointDev's products is the fault of more than just a single employee (again, translated): "I think piracy is linked to the policy of a company. If the employee has the necessary funding to buy the software he needs, he will. If this is not the case, he will find alternative ways, as the work must be done in one way or another."

Certainly, one wonders what led to Sony BMG to steal PointDev's product in the first place. It's a safe bet that the company can afford to pay for the necessary licenses, which leaves sheer laziness as the most likely culprit. In any event, it's absolutely inexcusable for a company that has been at the forefront of the antipiracy fight, going so far as to surreptitiously install rootkits on its customers' PCs. "

source: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080...sing-warez.html

 

[nando]

they should sue for 100,000 times it's worth just the the riaa does. eat it sony!

 

[papyrus]

busted!

 

[MC DUI]

Lol suck crap, Karma.

 

[perimbean]

Quoting from another source News (Australia):

Record label 'found using pirated software'
BY ANDREW RAMADGE, TECHNOLOGY REPORTER April 03, 2008 02:00am

RECORD label Sony BMG, one of the most vocal and ferocious opponents of music piracy, has been accused of using unlawfully installed programs on its computers by a small software company.
French company PointDev, which makes applications for Microsoft Windows, claims to have discovered pirated versions of its software installed on Sony BMG computers and is suing the label for €300,000 ($514,910).

PointDev said it was alerted to the illegal software after a Sony BMG employee rang the software company's technical support number for assistance and gave a pirated product key when asked for a customer number, French website 01net reported.

A raid on the French offices of Sony BMG in January revealed that almost half of the software used by the company may be unlawfully installed, according to the report.

The story was first reported in English by file-sharing website ZeroPaid and has since done the rounds on technology blogs, where authors and readers jumped to point out the irony of Sony BMG being sued for piracy.

The record label has become infamous among the online community for its zealous pursuit of people accused of illegally sharing music. It has brought or threatened up to 26,000 lawsuits against individuals, according to media and marketing website MediaPost.

In 2005, Sony BMG caused a security scare by using a malicious form of digital rights management (DRM) on certain discs sold in the US. Sony suspended this form of DRM shortly after Microsoft defined it as "spyware", or spying software.

Sony BMG is one of the “big four” record labels that fund anti-piracy watchdogs the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).

Earlier this year, the IFPI was forced to cut costs under pressure from major record labels.

Local watchdog Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI) says about 18 per cent of Australia's population are involved in illegally trading songs by email or peer-to-peer file transfers.

A request for comment on the PointDev lawsuit has been sent to Sony BMG Australia.

Source: News

 

[.::5pYd3r::.]

Hahahaha, serves them right. I hope PointDev win that lawsuit and $ony goes bankrupt

 

[Heran Bago]

Sony BMG is no stranger to piracy.

We're no strangers to piracy~
You know the rules, and so do I~

A Rootkit free CD is what I'm thinking of~
You'd get this trojan from, any other site~

I, just wanna tell you what I'm DLing~
You're, not gonna, understand.

Never gonna pick discs up.
Never putting money down.

Never gonna go downtown,
and pay you.




Suck a fat one Sony BMG. Hell I don't listen to anything they publish anyway. Hope they fry for this one. Sweet irony.

 

[ImperialX]

I lol'ed to this article.

 

[CockroachMan]

lol.. I'm sure that it was just some stupid employee who installed the pirated software on some machines thinking that no one would care since he uses it at home.. and no one would if wasn't for the employee that called the support

Sony is always saying that pirates should pay.. now it's their turn

 

[Westside]

Fucking stupid of Sony. As much as I hate how they handle music and gaming, I love their mp3 players, TVs, and Cameras...

 

[Kiok]

Wow i dont understand Sony is a multi millionare company. That lawsuit is just pocketmoney for them.

 

[Spikey]

Wow i dont understand Sony is a multi millionare company. That lawsuit is just pocketmoney for them.

If the lawsuit is pocket money, then actually purchasing the software should've been small change.

 

[SG]

Fucking stupid of Sony. As much as I hate how they handle music and gaming, I love their mp3 players, TVs, and Cameras...

I don't. Their crap always dies on you way before it should.

 

[Westside]

Fucking stupid of Sony. As much as I hate how they handle music and gaming, I love their mp3 players, TVs, and Cameras...

I don't. Their crap always dies on you way before it should.

Not really. I had this mp3 player since 2003. My brother's 2 ipods died during that time frame, and he considers him self luckier than others. My old sony camera lasted 6 years and it still works, but I have a newer camera now, otherwise I would use it. One of my TV is a multi-system 25" CRT ass old Sony TV, and it still works to this day.

 

[SG]

Lucky you.

I've had a hifi, several Walkmans ad a TV die prematurely.

Sony has actually been taken to court in America (I think) over deliberate design flaws which shorten the lifespan of their products.

 

[nando]

most of my sony products have died within days after warranty expired. it's like they had a timer to self destruct. except for my old minidisk player, but those things were more overpriced than an iphone.

 

[techforumz]

Yeah, Sony sucks. I have a friend who is absolutely obsessed with anything 'playstation'. And I never knew... Then I hear of the RIAA lawsuits and rootkits. Bye bye sony! I think the last product of yours I have is an old cassette walkman. No money for you! Oh and Hurray! Woot! Woot! The true piraters finally got caught red-handed. They pay their artists about 3c for a $25 album, and then claim about $250,000 for every album downloaded. Totally wrong. These people should be shot, sued, shot again, have their debit stolen, then shot again, cremated (alive) and then thrown in a pile of dung!