Compliance Toolkit

Sony's malware malaise

Declan McCullagh CNET News

Published: 07 Nov 2005 15:25 GMT

Sony rightly came under fire last week from programmers and Internet users for injecting an undetectable copy-prevention utility into Microsoft Windows when certain CDs are inserted.

Now the lawyers are taking aim too. Robert Green, a partner at the San Francisco firm of Green Welling, says he's readying a class action lawsuit against Sony.

"We're still investigating the case and talking to different people about what happened to them," Green said on Friday. He plans to argue that under California law, if you buy a copy-restricted CD from a music store, you should be informed that a spyware-like utility will be implanted on your hard drive.

The fuss last week began when Mark Russinovich, a Windows programmer and author, posted a description of how he traced some mysterious processes and hidden files on his computer back to SonyBMG's "Get Right with the Man" CD. It turned out that they were part of Sony's digital rights management technology designed to thwart illicit copying.

Sony has back-pedalled a little, saying that the hidden files can be uncloaked but customers still have to beg for help if they want to uninstall the software.

Still, it may be too late for the entertainment giant to fend off the plaintiff's bar. One recent court case in Illinois, Soleto v. DirectRevenue, sets a nonbinding precedent that lawyers expect to be invoked against Sony.

In that case, DirectRevenue was sued for installing spyware on Windows computers without obtaining proper authorisation from a user. US District Judge Robert Gettleman said the company could be sued on trespass, Illinois consumer fraud, negligence and computer tampering grounds.

Then there's a California spyware-related law that says a company may not "induce" anyone to "install a software component" by claiming installation is necessary to "open, view or play a particular type of content."

Translation: Sony could be in double trouble. Its Windows software is hardly necessary to play music — the disc works just fine...

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