Sony BMG Sued For Using Pirated Software

[Renegade]

http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/3/sony_bmg_sued_for_using_pirated_software

You read that headline right -- Sony BMG, ardent foe of music piracy, is in trouble for using pirated software.

Hahahahahaha~!

I'm quite sure that I'm not the only one laughing my butt off!

[Deozaan]

April Fool's?

EDIT: Guess not. The original (French) article was published on March 21st.

[Josh]

Why is this something to laugh at? I guarantee every major corporation in existence can find at least one pirated app on one of its machines. There are very few which dont rely on it. Most just never get caught.

[Deozaan]

Why is this something to laugh at? I guarantee every major corporation in existence can find at least one pirated app on one of its machines. There are very few which dont rely on it. Most just never get caught.

It's funny because it makes the consumer feel vindicated for all the Sony rootkit garbage that has gone on because of their anti-piracy measures. Most of those other major corporations you speak of probably aren't as invasive or restrictive to the consumer in how they try to deal with piracy, and that's only if piracy applies to their products.

Honda, for instance, don't have much you can easily pirate. It's fairly easy to track down someone who steals a car (or at least find the car) than it is to find people who steal software.

[Lashiec]

The worst thing is that they didn't pirate something like Photoshop or Windows, but an administration tool developed by a small software company. Pitiful.

Ssssh! Don't tell anyone that I did rip copy-protected CDs edited by Sony

[f0dder]

Ssssh! Don't tell anyone that I did rip copy-protected CDs edited by Sony

<offtopic>Which drive did you use? I haven't found a drive that will let me rip those pesky protected CDs at even 1x speed, and I don't always get perfect results either at 0.1x :/ (plextor PX-716A).

And yes, I obviously do own those CDs, but I want them in bit-perfect FLAC archival form, rather than taking the easy route and warezing from the internet in MP3. Since I bought the CDs, I only think it's fair I can play them in foobar2000, thus avoiding constantly going into the living room and changing CD.</offtopic>

[Lashiec]

A Lite-On LH-20A1H, but none of the ones I ripped is included in the "dirty list" that includes those infected with the infamous rootkit (I wanted the G3 one at one point, but decided to buy another album).

Even then, although I ripped quite a few copy-protected CDs, those which are clearly marked as such, are HARD to obtain perfect results from, with constant spin-up and down of the drive, resulting in 1x speeds like you say, and the CRC never matches those stored in the AccurateRip database, so I bite the bullet, changed to burst mode and ripped IT (only one, for the sake for my patience) in a few minutes. Even though it's not a bit-perfect copy (by technical standards), it sounds perfectly fine to me, which is what matters. The type of music also helps :P

[Renegade]

Why is this something to laugh at? I guarantee every major corporation in existence can find at least one pirated app on one of its machines. There are very few which dont rely on it. Most just never get caught.

It's just hilariously ironic. As Deozaan pointed out, Sony has been at the forefront of "anti-piracy" efforts in the music industry. Now they've just been caught with their pants down. It's awesome!

I rather doubt any judge will have a lot of sympathy for Sony when it comes time for trial if they don't settle out of court.

[f0dder]

Hm, I have a Lite-ON LH-20A1S, and I must say I'm somewhat disappointed with it; if I burn at 16x to 16x-certified Verbatim media, I often get coasters (burn seems to succeed just fine, but on inserting I get an error message along the lines of "no reference position found"). Burning at 12x SEEMS to work, but I'm burning at 8x just to be safe >_<. I had a Pioneer something-something before that, which also had trouble with 16x. I wish my plextor PX-716A hadn't died on me, while it was supposed to do 16x but never did more than 12x, at least it didn't create coasters.

[Lashiec]

Mmmm, supposedly the Pioneer drives are right now the best in the market, along with a certain Samsung model. Even then, in this day and age, any branded drive should have absolutely no problems at those speeds.

(For those claiming off-topicness, fear not. Sony also makes DVD drives, which is somehow linked to the original story that prompted the thread )

[Deozaan]

Why is this something to laugh at? I guarantee every major corporation in existence can find at least one pirated app on one of its machines. There are very few which dont rely on it. Most just never get caught.

It's just hilariously ironic. As Deozaan pointed out, Sony has been at the forefront of "anti-piracy" efforts in the music industry. Now they've just been caught with their pants down. It's awesome!

I rather doubt any judge will have a lot of sympathy for Sony when it comes time for trial if they don't settle out of court.

It's also hilariously ironic in the same way that gamers laugh about the New York Senator person who lost his job because of links with Prostitution Rings or whatever, since he was a major proponent of anti-game legislation because of all the bad things you could do in Grand Theft Auto... such as pick up prostitutes.