Updates (a shame that the rest got lost; I posted a long one last Friday night, just before the server crash <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cry.gif" alt="" /> )
More and more actions taken against Sony. Sony finally published a
list of the (
52) CDs containing the XCP software.
But it's far from the end...
We learn that Sony-BMG uses another copy-protection software (MediaMax, by SunnComm corp.) that does just as bad, if not worse:
To summarize, MediaMax software:
- Is installed onto the computer without meaningful notification or consent, and remains installed even if the license agreement is declined;
- Includes either no uninstall mechanism or an uninstaller that fails to completely remove the program like it claims;
- Sends information to SunnComm about the user’s activities contrary to SunnComm and Sony statements and without any option to disable the transmissions.
Also, both software's uninstallers, which were so hard to get (you had to go through several processes and provide personal information in order to get it), open more security holes in your pc.
And we learn that these softwares... would themselves infringe the copyright laws.
Matti Nikki (a.k.a. Muzzy) and Sebastian Porst have done great work unearthing evidence pointing to infringement. They claim that the code file ECDPlayerControl.ocx, which ships as part of XCP, contains code from several copyrighted programs, including LAME, id3lib, mpglib, mpg123, FAAC, and most amusingly, DVD-Jon’s DRMS.
These are all open source programs. And of course open source is not the same as public domain. Open source programs are distributed with license agreements. If you copy and redistribute such a program, you’re a copyright infringer, unless you’re complying with the terms of the program’s license. The licenses in question are the Free Software Foundation’s GPL for mpg123 and DRMS, and the LGPL for the other programs. The terms of the GPL would require the companies to distribute the source code of XCP, which they’re certainly not doing. The LGPL requires less, but it still requires the companies to distribute things such as the object code of the relevant module without the LGPL-protected code, which the companies are not doing. So if they’re shipping code from these libraries, they’re infringing copyrights.
The excerpts I quoted are from Freedom to Thinker:
full story. See also:
EFF: Sony-BMG Litigation. 
