Posted by Virus Bulletin on Sep 22, 2006
Rootkit battles still going.
Canadian public interest body CIPPIC (The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, also known as Clinique d'intérêt public et de politique d'Internet du Canada) has filed a swathe of complaints against music publisher SonyBMG, in response to the disappointing outcome to a recent class action lawsuit.
Sony's response to complaints about the rootkits and other dubious technology it released to its customers' computers to protect 'digital rights' was noticeably less generous to Canadians than to their neighbours to the south. In the US, Sony rapidly agreed to pay compensation, amounting to around $7.50 per CD purchased, along with providing replacement malware-free CDs, free downloads and, most significantly, accepting tight controls on tactics used in its DRM efforts. Canadians, after a lengthy and increasingly fraught legal debate, have been offered $7.50 Canadian, around 10% less than US consumers, and protection measures imposed are far weaker than those in place in the US.
Many are now arguing that the refusal to introduce adequate safeguards to control the use of protection technology threatens Canadian digital security, and that the lack of explicit laws on the issue in Canada have left it open as a testing ground for any intrusive techniques the likes of Sony may wish to try out in their efforts to hold on to the music market, under threat from ever-growing free access to entertainment on the web. Accusations leveled against Sony also include keeping important documents related to the case secret.
Numerous documents and statements on either side of the issue are available at CIPPIC's site and at Sony's dedicated rootkit pages. Analysis of the ongoing case from Canadian technology law blogger Michael Geist can be found here.
Posted on 22 September 2006 by Virus Bulletin
