RSSSony BMG accused of using pirated software
By Ed Oswald | Published March 31, 2008, 2:23 PM
Small French software developer PointDev is suing Sony BMG saying it uses pirated copies of PointDev's Ideal Migration software.
The application manages Windows domain consolidations and provides migration tools to move networks to Windows 2000 and 2003. Sony is being accused of using this software without a license.
Sony's position smacks of irony, considering that it, along with other record labels have taken a hardline stance against piracy. Its offices were raided in January after PointDev obtained a search warrant from the courts.
In those raids, at least four servers were found with unlicensed copies of Ideal Migration on them. They were seized as evidence, which PointDev has used as a basis for its suit against the company.
"We are not interested in an amicable settlement. It is not just a question of money but more importantly in principle," CEO Agustoni Paul-Henry said. He also implies that piracy may be a problem overall within the company.
Paul-Henry said he plans to make an example out of Sony to ensure that other companies know they will not be free from prosecution.
"I think piracy is linked to the policy of a company. If the employee has the necessary funding to buy the software they need, it will," a translation of the report from La Province reads. "If this is not the case, he will find alternative ways, as the work must be done in one way or another."
Essentially, the company feels that this is not the work of a single employee, but is rather an act of ignorance by the company overall, meaning it could be endemic.
Sony reportedly attempted to have the La Province report quashed, but has otherwise remained quiet about the case.
The most important point of this topic is that when the french company wins. Sony will have to pay.
Don't worry there are may rootkits they can add or BS the consumer that some new product costs 3 times as much to make as it really does.
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|A little taste of it's own medicine. When a teenager's computer is confiscated, do you think Sony tried to quash the story from being printed? I think not.
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|Ya know, just because a company does this - does not make it moral let alone legal for others to do the same.
I work in the IT business and if the company you work for will not approve the funding for needed software the work simply does not get done or at the very least, it does not get done quickly as you have to scramble to find a free alternative.
Nothing can justify theft of a product or service - ever.
If you see someone steal a purse or beat down your neighbor - does that then make it right for you to do the same?
Do you really think this will effect Sony in any way aside from some small measure of bad publicity? No, it will not. The IT person or persons responsible will take the fall for it and the company will walk away virtually unscathed when it is all said and done. Sure they will end up paying money for the software in the end - and it might cost them 2 or 3 times what it would have - but that is it...end of story.
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|Are you equating the crime of copying bits to beating someone or taking something away? Because they don't equate. By this very logic it should be 20 years in prison for jaywalking.
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|lol, the hunter becomes the hunted
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|Pot. Kettle. Black.
Now, please sue them for 9000 times the price of said software per instance installed. Just like the RIAA did in their $220,000 fine for downloading 24 songs. :p
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|I love it. I don't feel the least bit bad for downloading, sharing and copying tens of thousands of dollars worth of Sony BMG music and Sony movies.
Warner is on the list too, jagoffs.
The irony is I use a Sony DVD burner to share all my ill gotten media. I've made over a dozen copies of certain movies just so these asswipes lose money.
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|Why would you be so proud of such a thing? I guess it just means zero conscience. *sigh*
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|Sony BMG doesn't make any movies. They just make music.
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|Not conscience. It's zero respect for Sony due to rootkits and shady tactics.
If you've downloaded one song or a million, it's the same thing. I'm sure have downloaded something you didnt pay for at some time.
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|And its also zero respect for those that pay higher prices which are in part caused by pirating. You alone don't affect this, but add everyone up that does it and there you go.
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|Yes, let's charge consumers $50 additional when the buy one of our computers to not install the bloatware ...... wait, people don't like that? Let's change our minds, this was a bad idea.
Typical repetitive Sony behavior, I can't stand them. By the way, it doesn't "cost" a company anything when you download a song you were never going to pay good money for anyways, it's only when you start sharing with people who might have.
I'm trying to make a difference but I'm only one man damn it.
It says they even tried to bury this story from coming out in the news, shady ****ers. Stealing from Sony is like stealing from a dirty two bit crook or beating a child molester with a baseball bat, you don't feel the least bit bad about it.
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|. By the way, it doesn't "cost" a company anything when you download a song you were never going to pay good money for anyways, it's only when you start sharing with people who might have.
this is only true for folks who's ability to think ahead is maxed out at about 3 seconds. Everyone else can see that other consequences and costs are directly attributed to such behavior. (Of course, these don't affect the downloaders, just the honest consumers)
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|Right there with ya holly
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|When it comes to software policy, Sony BGM doesn't make the best of choices. After all these are the people who were to blame for the rootkit scandal a couple years ago.
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|"sony BMG is pro-copyright ! don't you think it is about as hypocritical as you can get being accused of piracy?"
Guess who makes those CD/DVD duplicating machines often used by the pirates. SONY also provides them with a steady supply of blank media too. Hypocritical, you damn right; it's right up there with that horny New York governor who busted ho houses, except for the ones that he was caught patronizing...
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|Wow.....Irony much??!
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|I'm going to second the 'who cares' notion. Anyone who has worked in a corporate environment knows that these problems fall under the responsibility of the IT department. A lazy or impatient IT employee may choose to bypass waiting weeks for software requests to be approved in a micromanaged office environment. Once the software is deployed, rather than explaining the situation and getting the licenses, the software then just sticks around and thus you have this problem.
It's unfair on Sony to characterize the company by the decisions of individual employees.
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|Wow! Who's IT department do you work for, Sony's? Oh, wait a minute, you don't work IT, you're just talking out of your...
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|A lazy or impatient IT employee may choose to bypass waiting weeks for software requests to be approved in a micromanaged office environment.
It's called defiance of the law. When I am made aware of anything even resembling piracy on my network, I use all my resources to shut it down. Why? Because it is MY responsibility as an IT person. Any IT that does not do this is asking to be fired.
By the way...Sony, not the IT department, will be fined over this. The fact that Sony hires such incompetant losers reflects quite a bit on Sony!
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|Reply to: "It's unfair on Sony to characterize the company by the decisions of individual employees".
Totally disagree. A company's profits and reputation is built directly on the quality of their product and their employees.
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|I work in the IT department for a Small/Medium buisness. Infact I am the Administrator, and I will say this. Our company has a stict no piracy stance. If illegal software is on the network it is removed at the end of the day when i do the system audits and a report is made on the user who installed the software. First offence is a warning and higher restrictions on the network, in the case of it being one of my engineers they are fired on a first offence, for everyone else, second offence after a warning is the sack. If our software budget doesnt allow for us to buy the licence, I search for Open Source GPL equivilants.
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|Who cares?
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|"Who cares?"
Who cares ?? What kind of mentality comes up with a statement like this?
sony BMG is pro-copyright ! don't you think it is about as hypocritical as you can get being accused of piracy?
Who cares ? !!!
Is that the best you can say?
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|What's up LoserMaid? Still churning away at that pointless and meaningless 9-5 job with no chance for advancement, hoping you will have enough money to retire?
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|Galway,
You just got trolled. Don't reciprocate with this lowest common denominator.
He is nothing....an insignificant nobody.
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|Of course it is. This is Sony. If it were MS on the other hand they would be screaming bloody murder.
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|"Who cares?"
Those of us that don’t have our heads so far up Sony’s a** for starters and the company who a Sony employee tried to get support from using a pirated product.
Yeah that’s really good
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|Now thats funny right there, I dont care who ya are!
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|I wouldn't doubt it, this is $ony we're talking about. Their so desperate they'll do anything.
Its not bad enough they can't make a decent video game if their lifes depended on it. Or that they have a video game console that only has 3 good games on it and that said console is the only reason they won the hi-def video player wars. Their TV's aren't top sellers anymore. I live near a $ony store and I usually see maybe 2-3 people in their at a time (most of them are probably sales people), you walk past an Apple store and you see 20-30 people in their at a time. $ony just needs a new CEO with a soul, then they can be called Sony again.
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|oooh $ insted of "S." Take that, conglomerate!
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|Yeah, take away that retarded '$', it almost makes me want to side with Sony out of spite.
...okay not really.
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|Roll up the fanboys who will preach the sony gospel.
There is little left to like about sony. They are without doubt my least liked company and all the woes and troubles that come their way bring a smile to my day.
Piracy is another reason added to the list !
"Essentially, the company feels that this is not the work of a single employee, but is rather an act of ignorance by the company overall, meaning it could be endemic."
Rather sums up there attitude to customers and part of their philosophy.
Hypocrites !!
Good riddance to them ...
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