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| From: | B. Galliart |
| Subject: | Re: [DMCA-Activists] EFF and Sony BMG Reach Preliminary Settlement |
| Date: | Fri, 30 Dec 2005 06:04:12 -0600 (CST) |
One of the best sources of technical information on the issues with XCP was written in Mark Russinovich's blog. For those not familar with Mark Russinovich, he is a member of Sysinternals and considered one of the best experts external to Microsoft on how the Windows kernel functions. His qualifications become important for the context of his statements regarding XCP's methods of extending the Windows kernel (and Sony's method of uninstalling those extentions).
Issue 1) Mark Russinovich points out that XCP's poorly written code results in a 2% loss in computer performance, even when no CD is in use at all. Sony has acknowledge in their marketing of the Sony Vaio that computer performance has a money value to it. For example, when the largest selling point between two different Viao desktops is a 6% increase in computer cycles, Sony puts the value on it of $150 difference in retail price.
Issue 1 Provisional Settlement) Class members will be able to seek $7.50 and download one additional album--not exactly an fair trade for a $50 cut in computer performance.
Issue 2) Several forums, including those that commented on Mark Russinovich's blog, have discussed XCP's Aries.sys resulting in crashing the computer, sometimes requiring a reinstall of Windows to resolve (several OEMs will instruct the user to use a Windows restoration CD to resolve frequent computer crashes). Additionally, Mark Russinovich has pointed out that Sony's uninstaller itself can crash the computer. The only safe way to "remove" the Windows extention is to unregister it and reboot. Sony's uninstaller had attempted to force removal immediately which can trigger a race condition to crash the machine. Mark Russinovich goes on to explain exactly how to uninstall safely.
Issue 2 Provisional Settlement) XCP victims that removed XCP by re-installing Windows are *EXCLUDED* from being Class members since they can't affirm to running the Sony provided XCP Uninstaller/Update to remove XCP. Also, those that follow Mark Russinovich's advice on safely unregistering and deleting XCP are similarly excluded since they also can not affirm to running the XCP Uninstaller. No where in the Provisional Settlement is Sony required to follow Mark Russinovich's advice on providing a reliable method of uninstalling XCP. Yet to be a Class member, your still required to affirm that you ran this poorly coded uninstaller.
Issue 3) Both new and used XCP CDs continue to be distributed through smaller CD distributors. Currently, Sony BMG's exchange form only allows up to 9 CDs of any one title to be exchange at a time and requires an up to 6 week waiting period. For the majority of smaller CD distribution shops, this is little to no incentive for them to participate in having their inventory unavailable for 6 weeks. While the settlement requires Sony to provide notification in major news papers, to quote Sony's own executive, "people don't know what a root kit is, and why sould it bother them?" The notification required by the seattlement is likely to be ignored by the majority of readers. Customers that buy used CDs are unlikely to be on the look-out to avoid XCP tainted CDs.
Issue 3 Provisional Settlement) The settlement focuses on encouraging exchange by "authorized resellers" (normally a term reserved for stores that sale brand new CDs) and individual customers. It does not take into account at all that future computers will be exposed to the security issues of XCP because of the failure to recall all CDs are sold through used CD stores.
Issue 4) The XCP "copyright protection" system itself violates the licensing terms and copyright of LAME and VideoLAN Client. Under the VideoLAN Client General Public License terms, XCP is a GPL derived work and distributors of XCP should provide the source code upon request. While some may argue that a poorly written DRM system should be elminated in all forms, the source code could be useful for other purposes even ones that have nothing to do with DRM.
Issue 4 Provisional Settlement) The LAME and VidioLAN Client authors are not represented at all in this court action. No attempt to enforce the terms of the General Public License is made in the provisional settlement. Also, no attempt to get rewards in any form on behalf of either project is included in the the provisional settlement. It appears that Copyright law only applies when it's violation hurts the bottom line for big business. While the RIAA needs to protect Sony from college students, the fact that Sony also violates copyright with XCP seems to have no impact on getting RIAA's Cary Sherman approval. And court action seems to do nothing to correct that.
On Fri, 30 Dec 2005, Seth Johnson wrote:
-------- Original Message -------- Subject: EFF Media Advisory: EFF and Sony BMG Reach Preliminary Settlement Date: Thu, 29 Dec 2005 22:14:05 -0800 From: EFF Press <address@hidden> To: address@hidden Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Advisory For Immediate Release: Thursday, December 29, 2005 Contact: Cindy Cohn Legal Director Electronic Frontier Foundation address@hidden +1 415 436-9333 x108 (office), +1 415 307-2148 (cell) Corynne McSherry Staff Attorney Electronic Frontier Foundation address@hidden +1 415 436-9333 x122 Kurt Opsahl Staff Attorney Electronic Frontier Foundation address@hidden +1 415 436 9333 x106 Fred von Lohmann Senior Intellectual Property Attorney Electronic Frontier Foundation address@hidden +1 415 436-9333 x123 (office), +1 415 215-6087 (cell) EFF and Sony BMG Reach Preliminary Settlement over Flawed DRM New York - Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) joined in the preliminary settlement agreement with Sony BMG this week to settle several class action lawsuits filed due to Sony's use of flawed and overreaching computer program in millions of music CDs sold to the public. The proposed terms of settlement have been presented to the court for preliminary approval and will likely be considered in a hearing set for January 6, 2005 in federal court in New York City. "The proposed settlement will provide significant benefits for consumers who bought the flawed CDs," said EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn. "Under the terms, those consumers will get what they thought they were buying--music that will play on their computers without restriction or security risk. EFF is continuing discussions with Sony BMG, however, and believes that there is more they can do to protect music lovers in the future." "Sony agreed to stop production of these flawed and ineffective DRM technologies," noted EFF Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl. "We hope that other record labels will learn from Sony's hard experience and focus more on the carrot of quality music and less on the stick of copy protection." For this advisory: http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2005_12.php#004287 About EFF The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil liberties organization working to protect rights in the digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages and challenges industry and government to support free expression and privacy online. EFF is a member-supported organization and maintains one of the most linked-to websites in the world at http://www.eff.org/ -end- _______________________________________________ presslist mailing list https://falcon.eff.org/mailman/listinfo/presslist _______________________________________________ DMCA-Activists mailing list address@hidden http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/dmca-activists
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