# Sony Busted for Software Piracy!!!! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 3, 2008, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-busted-for-software-piracy/443780 "2008-04-03T11:03:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-busted-for-software-piracy/443780/1 "2008-04-03T11:03:19Z")
[Karma, baby, karma!](http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,25642,23473048-5014239,00.html) > [@](#): > > RECORD label Sony BMG, one of the most vocal and ferocious opponents of music piracy, has been accused of using unlawfully installed programs on its computers by a small software company. > > French company PointDev, which makes applications for Microsoft Windows, claims to have discovered pirated versions of its software installed on Sony BMG computers and is suing the label for €300,000 ($514,910). > > PointDev said it was alerted to the illegal software after a Sony BMG employee rang the software company’s technical support number for assistance and gave a pirated product key when asked for a customer number, French website 01net reported. > > A raid on the French offices of Sony BMG in January revealed that almost half of the software used by the company may be unlawfully installed, according to the report. After all the crap they’ve said (and done) about how piracy was “ruining the industry,” it’s somehow satisfying to see them get nailed for being hypocritical bastids! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-busted-for-software-piracy/443780/2 "2008-04-03T11:13:13Z")
Bwahahahahahahahahahaha! ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-busted-for-software-piracy/443780/3 "2008-04-03T16:48:34Z")
Ha HA! Eat it, Sony! ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-busted-for-software-piracy/443780/4 "2008-04-03T16:51:32Z")
kind of a low figure to sue for though. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-busted-for-software-piracy/443780/5 "2008-04-03T16:52:31Z")
Karma can be a cast iron bitch. That’s why I love her so much. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-busted-for-software-piracy/443780/6 "2008-04-03T17:56:08Z")
I love the smell of Karmic justice in the morning! ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-busted-for-software-piracy/443780/7 "2008-04-03T18:34:37Z")
**YES!** Proof there is an OG and he loves us. ---
**Author:** ![Engineer\_Dude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9fc29f/32.png) [@Engineer\_Dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Engineer_Dude)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-busted-for-software-piracy/443780/8 "2008-04-03T19:25:00Z")
I am in such a better mood now. Thanks Tuckerfan. ---
**Author:** ![Aithele](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Aithele](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aithele)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-busted-for-software-piracy/443780/9 "2008-04-03T19:43:10Z")
Hehe. This is great. Even if the amount seems a little small it doesn’t matter. The bad publicity Sony is going to receive from this is priceless. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-busted-for-software-piracy/443780/10 "2008-04-03T19:58:47Z")
I like it. It’s certainly going to do more damage to Sony’s efforts to appear to have the moral upper hand WRT piracy. I suspect, given the currency for the suit, that the suit is being filed in a European venue. I don’t think that European courts are nearly as generous as US courts towards allowing punative awards to be added to a suit, which might explain the relatively low claimed damages. IANAL, just guessing from the hip, as it were. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-busted-for-software-piracy/443780/11 "2008-04-03T20:03:21Z")
Awesome. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-busted-for-software-piracy/443780/12 "2008-04-03T20:03:36Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] kind of a low figure to sue for though. [/QUOTE] It’s Europe, not the US. That’s probably the number for the amount of licenses Sony didn’t pay for - any additional punitive rewards are, well, additional. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-busted-for-software-piracy/443780/13 "2008-04-03T20:24:53Z")
Shame they’re in Europe; the RIAA hasn’t bothered with silly details like civil trials (and the courts haven’t bothered with making them), so why should PointDev? ---
**Author:** ![hotflungwok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/edb3f5/32.png) [@hotflungwok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hotflungwok)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-busted-for-software-piracy/443780/14 "2008-04-03T20:27:58Z")
So they found this out when an employee called in to tech support with a pirated reg number? That’s just beautiful. I wonder if he still works there? ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-busted-for-software-piracy/443780/15 "2008-04-03T21:21:56Z")
Unless he’s the one who installed it, I’m hoping the guy still works there. If they fire him, he’d have a nice law suit for Sony too. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-busted-for-software-piracy/443780/16 "2008-04-03T21:45:23Z")
I hate to break this to you guys, but media and technology companies are always getting sued for copyright infringement. If they’re guilty, they’ll pay. This is not going to suddenly make them think that piracy is a good thing. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-busted-for-software-piracy/443780/17 "2008-04-03T22:06:33Z")
[QUOTE=acsenray] I hate to break this to you guys, but media and technology companies are always getting sued for copyright infringement. If they’re guilty, they’ll pay. This is not going to suddenly make them think that piracy is a good thing. [/QUOTE] We aren’t talking copyright infringement, we are talking pirated software, two totally different animals. Pirated software is where no license has been purchased, same as someone that downloaded a song from a file sharing site. I wonder if the [BSA](http://www.bsa.org/country.aspx) is going to audit Sony here in the US? ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2008, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-busted-for-software-piracy/443780/18 "2008-04-04T01:22:17Z")
Today, my life is complete. _long, happy sigh_ ---
**Author:** ![AngryIrishLass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bbce88/32.png) [@AngryIrishLass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngryIrishLass)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2008, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-busted-for-software-piracy/443780/19 "2008-04-04T05:17:28Z")
The article said that the Sony employee gave a product key, so maybe they didn’t know it was pirated? I’m not sticking up for Sony, but why in the world would you pirate software then call to have someone help you out from the company you had just pirated from? Though that will be their defense: we purchased it from vendor and did not know it was pirated. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2008, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-busted-for-software-piracy/443780/20 "2008-04-04T06:00:35Z")
**AIL** Last year I retired from a major US company. (Ford Motor Company) You would not believe the lengths they went to making sure that we did not have any pirated or not licensed software on our work computers. Example: I downloaded a FREE MS word plug in from Avery label to help me to print full sheet Avery labels. One day when I hooked to the LAN, the system did an inventory of the software installed on my machine. I then got a nasty gram from the head of IT telling me in no uncertain terms that I must remove that software as corporate IT did not have a license on file for it. The fact that it was free, and made available by the label maker people to help sell labels held no sway. I had to remove it NOW! My machine would be scanned by IT about 4X per year, and we got letters warning of the dire circumstances of having non-legal software on our computers about another 4X per year. So if Sony BMG did not take the necessary steps to make sure that they did not get caught with their pants down around their ankles, fuck em. When they are suing consumers for having illegally downloaded songs, they don’t listen to excuses. If you live by the lawsuit, you die by the lawsuit. I hope the French courts and the software company wrap a dildo with rusty barbed wire and shoves it up Sony’s ass screaming **I’m Rick James, Bitch!** [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-busted-for-software-piracy/443780.md?page=2)