Press Mentions: November, 2005

Nov 29, 2005
San Francisco Chronicle
"EDITORIAL: Sony's big screwup"

CAN THE LUMBERING music industry ever adapt to the technological challenges thrown at it? The explosive growth of iPods as well as the increased online music sales suggests yes. Then there's Sony... Sony says it will stop using the software, and it's now facing lawsuits from the tech watchdogs of the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Texas attorney general.

Nov 28, 2005 Los Angeles Times
"EDITORIAL: Out of Tune"

SONY BMG, THE WORLD'S second-largest record company, shot itself in the foot so badly this month that it may have wounded the entire music industry. Its disastrous dalliance with invasive anti-piracy technology gives music fans yet another reason to view the major record labels as victimizers, not victims... The recall is costly, but it may be the least of the record company's worries. The Texas attorney general, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and several private lawyers have filed lawsuits against Sony BMG, arguing that the anti-piracy software violated consumers' rights or state laws.

Nov 22, 2005
New York Times
"Sony BMG Sued Over CD's With Anti-Piracy Software"
By Tom Zeller Jr.

In separate legal actions yesterday, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an influential digital rights advocacy group in California, and the Texas attorney general filed lawsuits against the music publisher Sony BMG, contending that the company violated consumers' rights and traded in malicious software.

Nov 21, 2005
Associated Press
"Sony BMG Sued Under Anti-Spyware Laws"
By Liz Austin

Sony BMG Music Entertainment's troubles over anti-piracy technology on music CDs deepened Monday as Texas' attorney general and a California-based digital rights group said they were suing the music company under new state anti-spyware laws... Cindy Cohn, the EFF's legal director, said Sony BMG should announce the recall using the same marketing tactics they had used to sell CDs, including advertising and radio promotions. "Just putting a little something up on their Web site I don't think is sufficient," she said.

Nov 18, 2005
Baltimore Sun
"Cell phone data tracing traffic in Md."
By Michael Dressler

If you drive in metropolitan Baltimore and use a cellular phone, somebody might be "watching" as you come and go... But Kevin Bankston, staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy advocacy group, says the tracking might violate federal law. Even if it doesn't, he says, it is a dangerous idea. "This is very much a slippery slope. As we begin making more and more uses of cell phone location information, that increases the chances that information will be used for more invasive purposes in the future," Bankston said. "We are basically developing the surveillance infrastructure that has the capability to track people individually - even if that system is not being used to do that yet."

Nov 16, 2005
New York Times
"CD's Recalled For Posing Risk to PC's"
By Tom Zeller, Jr.

The global music giant Sony BMG yesterday announced plans to recall millions of CD's
By at least 20 artists -- from the crooners --> -- Celine Dion and Neil Diamond to the --> -- country-rock act Van Zant -- because they contain copy restriction software that poses risks to the computers of consumers.... "This is only one of the many things Sony must do to be accountable for the damage it's inflicted on its customers," said Jason Schultz, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group in California. On Monday, the foundation issued an open letter to Sony BMG executives demanding, among other things, refunds for customers who bought the CD's and did not wish to make an exchange, and compensation for time spent removing the software and any potential damage to computers.

Nov 11, 2005
New York Times
"Enlisting Cellphone Signals to Fight Road Gridlock"
By Matt Richtel

Some states prohibit drivers from talking on hand-held cellphones lest they become distracted, slow down traffic, or worse, cause an accident. Others are finding that cellphones and driving may not be so bad together... But privacy advocates say that traffic monitoring could be the beginning of government use of cellphones to track someone's movements. Even if the tracking is done anonymously and in clusters, they say, it could allow federal and state officials to track where people are headed en masse - to know, for instance, where protesters are gathering. "This enables the government to have a much easier time of knowing what private people are up to without any sort of process or consent," said Lee Tien, senior staff lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy advocacy group.

Nov 10, 2005
CNET
"Are These the Sony Rootkit CDs?"
By Graeme Wearden

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a cyber-rights group, said on Wednesday that it identified 19 Sony CDs containing a rootkit application that disguises the company's invasive copy-restriction technology... The EFF says it is likely that other CDs also contain the application, although Sony told ZDNet UK last week that discs containing this DRM software had not been distributed in the U.K. The EFF took a dim view on Sony's actions. "Entertainment companies often complain that fans refuse to respect their intellectual property rights. Yet tools like this refuse to respect our own personal property rights," EFF staff attorney Jason Schultz said in a statement. "Sony's tactics here are hypocritical, in addition to being a security threat," Schultz added.

Nov 9, 2005
USA Today
"Some Sony CDs' piracy protection called spyware"
By Jefferson Graham

Sony BMG Music has a firestorm on its hands... Sony says 20 CD titles use this form of copy protection, from British firm First 4 Internet, but it won't say which titles. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit civil-liberties group, identifies 19 on its www.eff.org website from artists including Neil Diamond, Van Zant, Celine Dion and Switchfoot.

Christian Science Monitor
"Sony Aims at Pirates - Hits Users"
By Matt Bradley

Mark Russinovich, a software designer in Austin, Texas, wasn't too surprised to find something ghoulish lurking in his hard drive when he ran a routine virus check on Halloween... While the Sony digital consent form mentions the DRM application, it does not specifically mention a rootkit, says Jason Schultz, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights advocacy group... "The reality is that this isn't going to stop any kind of so-called piracy," says Schultz. "All this technology does is inhibit you from making the same kind of personal, fair-use music you've always made. The real pirates are going to easily circumvent this technology. The bootleggers won't even blink."

Nov 4, 2005
Contra Costa Times
"FasTrak -- Not Lo-Jack -- Helps Recover Stolen Car"
By Mike Adamick

Midnight settled on Dinah Thompson's Danville home, and the thief padded toward her car. Shrouded in darkness, the thief pried open the Subaru's door. He found the hidden keys. He motored out of the driveway, slid down the street and disappeared into the night -- a --> -- stealthy getaway, were it not for --> -- one common commuter device: --> -- FasTrak... "I wouldn't want my daughter's movements and daily routines to be known
By someone, that she's always going here or there at a particular time," says Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit privacy advocate group. "We're barely beginning to scratch the surface of this dialogue and who controls the information."

Nov 4, 2005
USA Today
"Governments, printers have means to invade privacy"
By Andrew Kantor

You've probably heard the saying, "Paranoids have enemies too." Sometimes conspiracy theorists actually uncover a conspiracy. And sometimes the people who claim the government is listening in to their conversations are right... The Electronic Frontier Foundation uncovered this, and found these coded dots on pages from lots of printers from Brother, Canon, Dell, Epson, HP, Kyocera, Lanier, Lexmark, Ricoh, Savin, Tektronix, and Xerox. (You need a blue light and magnifier to see the tiny dots.) The Xerox folks told the EFF that the dots could only be decoded
By the Secret Service. That turns out not to be the case. The EFF itself was able to decode the Xerox pattern; it shows the date and time the printout was made as well as the printer's serial number. (The EFF even kindly put up a program that lets Xerox DocuColor owners decode it for themselves.) What's the big deal? As EFF's Seth Schoen put it, the fact that the EFF could decode the dot patterns "suggests that other people may be reading it."

Nov 4, 2005
NPR
"Digital Surveillance Efforts Continue"
By Larry Abramson

Law-enforcement attempts to monitor cell phone use and other digital information continue. In one recent case, police tried to get a cell phone user's billing information without a warrant. A court said the information would improperly give police the ability to locate the cell phone user.

Nov 4, 2005
Reuters
"Consumers Sing Copy-Protection Blues"

Complaints continue to mount regarding a controversial CD copy-protection initiative
By Sony BMG Music Entertainment... "The disclosure is totally inadequate," says Fred Von Lohmann, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "I read the (end-user license agreement), and it does not say they will install software that hides itself and is difficult to uninstall. When I read that someone is going to install software, I don't think it's going to behave like spyware and try to evade me."