Sony BMG tries to settle rootkit scandal in Canada; everyone objects
9/19/2006 12:02:03 PM, by Nate Anderson
The Sony Rootkit Pain Train keeps rolling, this time crossing the border to blow its lonesome whistle up in Quebec, where a judge is overseeing the final details of the Canadian settlement agreement. Though the US case wrapped up months ago, the Canadian agreement was only finalized a few weeks back and remains subject to court approval. It's much like the US agreement—but because this is Sony, it contains the usual assortment of shenanigans, and the objections have been flying thick and fast as snowballs up in the Frozen North.
The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, for instance, objects strongly to the proposed settlement. David Fewer, the staff attorney for CIPPIC, points out to the court that Sony managed to leave out the US agreement's injunctive relief that would prevent Sony from pulling similar stunts with their DRM in the future. "The absence of these protections renders Canadians vulnerable to Sony BMG's market testing of new digital rights management technologies that do not comply with the terms of the protection provisions of the U.S. Settlement Agreement," Fewer says.
His filing makes many of the same points articulated by law professor Michael Geist in a newspaper column yesterday. Commentators are especially concerned with the affidavit of Christine Prudham, VP for Legal and Business Affairs at Sony BMG Canada. Prudham told the court that injunctive relief might "prove incompatible with Canada's international copyright obligations."
It's a claim summarily dealt with by Fewer, who says that "Ms. Prudham provides no basis whatsoever for this statement, and for good reason: I am aware of no authority or court that would support this assertion." Geist goes into more detail, debunking Sony's claims one by one. In short, Sony gets a pretty thorough hiding.
The objection period closed yesterday, so the matter is now before the court. If the judge upholds the settlement as written, Sony will only need to notify the court before issuing untested DRM in Canada; the CIPPIC and others want the company forbidden from offering such programs without restrictions, as it is in the US.
Curiously, Prudham's arguments in opposition to injunctive relief make the case the Canadian consumers will get it anyway, since Sony BMG Canada is a small operation and relies on its American frère for most services. Whatever happens in the US will probably happen in Canada. If this is true, of course, it raises the obvious question of why Sony BMG objects so strongly to the same Canadian provisions that it has already agreed to south of the border.
arstechnica.com
Links to case documents can be found at the above link. |
