Sony: If You're Bankrupt, You Must Delete All Our Music

from the not-having-a-good-week,-Sony? dept

While, at some level, this seems like just piling on to the PR disaster facing Sony-BMG following the rootkit fiasco, it's still important to highlight some of the ridiculous things the company has done. After telling everyone that rootkits don't matter, because no one knows what they are, and doing various other questionable moves -- almost all of which amount to "trust us," some people decided to figure out just what kind of bargain they were getting when they trust Sony-BMG. While it's already been shown that the end user license agreement that comes with Sony's copy protected CDs doesn't disclose the rootkit functionality that weakens the security on your computer and is quite difficult to uninstall without breaking parts of your computer -- and also doesn't disclose that the CD phones home occasionally -- there's a lot of things that the EULA does tell you. The folks at the EFF went through it and pulled out some of the more ridiculous terms. By far, the absolute best term in the EULA is that if you file for bankruptcy, you need to delete the music. Recall, of course, that when you buy a standard, non-copy protected CD, there is no EULA at all. However, Sony would apparently prefer that all of you out there who have gone through any form of bankruptcy didn't listen to their music.
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  • identicon
    Music Man Number 10, 9 Nov 2005 @ 3:48pm

    Don't you get it?

    Don't you get it? Most Commercial music today is a bunch of crapola. Stop buying their crud, listen to independent artists who distribute via creative commons.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2005 @ 4:01pm

      Re: Don't you get it?

      Not all of the music is "crapola" but it's up to the artists to take the matter in their hands and sign with different label and/or use alternative means of distributing their art.

      Since with the current PR disaster sales of 'protected' CD-s will drop significantly, and of all sony BMG production in general, it's not weird to suggest some bands might move out.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        WirelessGuy, 9 Nov 2005 @ 4:52pm

        Re: Don't you get it?

        I guess if you file, then you need to try and list music as an asset then the bank won't let it be just destroyed. What morons. I think I am going to just stop listening to all forms of music except classical. Its open source =)

        link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Bill Ray, 9 Nov 2005 @ 5:10pm

      Re: Don't you get it?

      THank you. You are so right!!!

      Check out the artists on my site www.billraydrums.com

      No hype, no bullshit. Good music.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    SV, 9 Nov 2005 @ 3:48pm

    No Subject Given

    Actually it makes sense if you think about it. The license to listen to music is a property and bankrupcy declares.... baaah...

    whatever, Sony is on the fast lane down.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Disgusted, 9 Nov 2005 @ 3:54pm

    sony eula

    Do they really think people will buy their products. Most people dont read eulas - especially on cd's. But once the music on the computers starts disappearing, they will have something to say? Can you imagine the support lines at Sony BMG?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Master Mind, 9 Nov 2005 @ 4:55pm

    Its stupid shit.............

    Its stupid shit like this that keep pirated music alive. Long live p2p!!!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Mike, 9 Nov 2005 @ 5:12pm

    Screw them.

    Music Man Number 10 said it right. Artists are crap and the haul more crap with them. Stop supporting them, they are all clones of clones of clones of clones of real artists that actually made good music back when. Independant and underground music is where we should be, not these commercial sell-outs. Now Sony and all the other companies learnig from this stupid mistake will start understnading why ALMOST EVERYONE DOWNLOADS MUSIC FREE, no strings attached, and the only way to stop us from pirating their music is if they stop making it, which I am all for it.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Somerandomgenius, 9 Nov 2005 @ 5:17pm

    No Subject Given

    Sure ill delete all the songs as soon as you fucking moronic bastards return my money....i will...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Somerandomgenius reader, 9 Nov 2005 @ 6:23pm

    No Subject Given

    Why is there even a discussion on this?!?!?! Everybodies reply should should have been and should be similar to Somerandomgenius's comment. Put that crap on my computer and threaten me?!?! FUCK EM!!!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Worldscolide, 9 Nov 2005 @ 7:30pm

    Sad. Sad. Sad.

    i guess what sony dosn't realize is the fact that most of us that know how to use the computer properly have the auto play feature disabled on our CD Drives, making it very hard for the cd to "Install" anything with out us knowing. It's horrifying to know that sony, a company that i once respected, is doing this stuff. I guess that they don't want us to protect our investments. Of course this is why the machine that i use to rip CD's is a Linux box, this way i don't even have to deal with it. Long Live LINUX!!!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Ken, 9 Nov 2005 @ 7:51pm

    Easy response!

    I just cancelled my membership at BMG. Simple response to a disgusting practice.

    Goodbye Sony. So sorry you lost your way, but I won't play that game.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Erin, 10 Nov 2005 @ 7:08am

    Wait...

    When you declare bankruptcy your assets are collected and distributed amongst your creditors. So if you have a huge collection of CDs they'd no doubt be taken away like everything else you own. So how is deleting music files any different?

    Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, I'm just theorizing...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      John, 10 Nov 2005 @ 9:24am

      Re: Wait...

      I thought bankruptcy helped you *protect* your assets? What do you mean they get carted away?

      link to this | view in chronology ]


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