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The EFF wants you to come forward to see if you are eligible to receive free music and/or cash

If you were one of the many consumers that purchased a Sony BMG CD that had XCP or MediaMax copy protection on it, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) wants you to come forward to see what type of compensation you will receive.  If you think you may be a victim of one of the company's rootkit CDs, the EFF also has a site that explains how to submit a claim, view a list of affected CDs and a description of benefits. 

It's time for music fans who bought Sony BMG CDs loaded with harmful XCP or MediaMax copy protection to claim their settlement benefits: clean versions of the music, plus (in many cases) additional downloads and cash. Submitting a claim not only gets fans music that will play on their computers without restriction or security risk, it lets Sony BMG know that consumers care about this issue.

At the minimum, a replacement CD or access to free downloads of the content on the CD are available to qualified parties.

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the shift-key trick still works, doesn't it?
By johnsonx on 3/13/2006 1:03:43 PM , Rating: 2
I've taken to holding down the Shift key whenever I insert a commercial CD or DVD into my computer, just in case. 'They' haven't found away around that one have they?




By AstroCreep on 3/13/2006 2:15:32 PM , Rating: 2
For the newer ones (like XPC) I think that all the shift does is disable the autorun. I say this because I had the DRMed Life of Agony CD (with XPC content) and even with holding Shift when I loaded it, I wasn't able to view the CDs contents through Windows Explorer, however it didn't install any of the DRM stuff; I ran the scan and it came back 'clean'.


By Egglick on 3/13/2006 3:31:15 PM , Rating: 2
Yeap, I do the same thing. If the CD doesn't Autorun, it can't install anything.

That still doesn't make any of this cool though. It's clear, though past and present practices that Sony doesn't give a damn about their customers. I hope they die a horrible death.


"DRM is a joke in your town..."
By PreOmegaZero on 3/13/2006 10:43:28 AM , Rating: 2
We all know DRM only hurts the music buyer that wants to share CD's or Digital Audio files with friends, family, etc. and NOT the ones sharing online over high bandwidth lines or selling bootleg copies in the streets of NYC or any other city.

Sadly enough though, my public library carries a bunch of both MediaMax and XCP 'protected' CD's and when I tried explaining what the CD's do to Windows-based computers, all I got were blank looks. So I rented the CD's and copied it WITH the DRM included just for sh*ts and giggles then rightfully destroyed the CD-R 23 hours later :)

Piece of garbage DRM...(mind you I actually own a MediaMax 3.0 CD and was and probably will be the last 'audio' CD I purchase unless they curb this BS)




RE: "DRM is a joke in your town..."
By dmcanally on 3/13/06, Rating: 0
By lemonadesoda on 3/13/2006 3:26:00 PM , Rating: 2
I'm not sure you understood his comment. His public library isnt a public HTTP on a www server, but a building run by the local city council, which can be found near the centre of the city/town, where you can borrow books, borrow/rent records, and borrow/rent CDs.

The fact is that JUST BY PLAYING the CD (not copying or doing any illegal activity), the protected CD can cause havoc=damage to your PC.

The lending library is not aware of the damage their CD's are doing to their "customers". In fact, if the is a case that if negligent, then the libraries could be sued for damages as a result of their property harming the borrowers PC. Harm = commerical harm = time needed for rebuild etc.

So, as a consequence, public service institutions open themselves up for damages as a result of lending these CDs.

MPOV



good
By mxzrider2 on 3/13/2006 2:54:57 AM , Rating: 1
some one needs to take a bite out that crime, lol




RE: good
By AlexWade on 3/13/2006 8:08:07 AM , Rating: 2
Unfortunately, this will not deter Sony or Warner or any other big label from treating us like criminals. This will eventually put more copy-protection, which will be broke by the ones break the law, which means the only ones who lose are the ones who don't break the law.

And why do the labels think everybody uses Windows? They never include support for Mac or Linux.


By Aquila76 on 3/13/2006 8:46:48 AM , Rating: 2
My wife bought a Backstreet Boys CD the other day (hey, she's free to enjoy whatever she likes, as am I). As soon as she popped it into her PC to transfer it to her Creative MP3 player, it popped up a MediaMax box and started installing crap. It took me a couple hours to get all the crap out of there. I then ripped the CD to WAVs and reburned it to a CD w/o the DRM. Thanks, Sony, for killing half of my day off. You owe me.




"People Don't Respect Confidentiality in This Industry" -- Sony Computer Entertainment of America President and CEO Jack Tretton

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