The Electronic Freedom Foundation has done some great detective work, uncovering some of the absolutely obscene terms of the EULA that ships with the Sony Rootkit CDs.
Here's a quick quote from the EFF of what you can expect when you 'purchase' one of these babies.
"If your house gets burgled, you have to delete all your music from your laptop when you get home. That's because the EULA says that your rights to any copies terminate as soon as you no longer possess the original CD.
You can't keep your music on any computers at work. The EULA only gives you the right to put copies on a "personal home computer system owned by you."
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. And Sony-BMG disclaims any liability if this "self help" crashes your computer, exposes you to security risks, or any other harm."
The whole thing is kind of hilarious, in a morbid way. It's brilliant that Sony thinks it can get away with this kind of thing, and then the whole escapade comes tumbling down around them. Sony's PR has taken a huge denting over the last couple of weeks, and it's not going to get any better until it stands up and admits that it has been totally, utterly wrong in trying to shove this rubbish onto the consumer. Who on earth would buy one of these CDs when iTunes offers iPod downloadability, sharing amongst multiple computers and CD burning?
In related news, Sony has filed for a patent which prevents games being used on any system other than the one the game was first played on. This patent could, potentially, be used in the PlayStation 3 to prevent the booming market in second hand games from taking away from the first-time sales on which Sony gets royalties. No confirmation of its deployment in PS3 yet, but disturbing nonetheless.
Interesting times. Give us your thoughts in the forum.
Here's a quick quote from the EFF of what you can expect when you 'purchase' one of these babies.
"If your house gets burgled, you have to delete all your music from your laptop when you get home. That's because the EULA says that your rights to any copies terminate as soon as you no longer possess the original CD.
You can't keep your music on any computers at work. The EULA only gives you the right to put copies on a "personal home computer system owned by you."
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. And Sony-BMG disclaims any liability if this "self help" crashes your computer, exposes you to security risks, or any other harm."
The whole thing is kind of hilarious, in a morbid way. It's brilliant that Sony thinks it can get away with this kind of thing, and then the whole escapade comes tumbling down around them. Sony's PR has taken a huge denting over the last couple of weeks, and it's not going to get any better until it stands up and admits that it has been totally, utterly wrong in trying to shove this rubbish onto the consumer. Who on earth would buy one of these CDs when iTunes offers iPod downloadability, sharing amongst multiple computers and CD burning?
In related news, Sony has filed for a patent which prevents games being used on any system other than the one the game was first played on. This patent could, potentially, be used in the PlayStation 3 to prevent the booming market in second hand games from taking away from the first-time sales on which Sony gets royalties. No confirmation of its deployment in PS3 yet, but disturbing nonetheless.
Interesting times. Give us your thoughts in the forum.
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