Guevara v Sony BMG Music Entertainment
Customers Allege Sony was Fraudulent in Marketing Product
A class action lawsuit was filed in California Superior Court on behalf of all customers who have purchased Sony BMG audio CDs containing First 4 Internet's XCP2 software, directly alleging fraud, false advertising, trespass, unauthorized computer tampering, and violation of state statutes regarding the distribution of malware. The suit explicitly claims Sony BMG's copy protection scheme utilizes a rootkit as a means of monitoring operating system transactions without detection.
The court filing states "As a result of Sony's failure to disclose the true nature of the digital rights management system it uses on its CDs, thousands of computer users have unknowingly infected their computers, and the computers of others, with this surreptitious rootkit. This rootkit has been responsible for conflicts within computer systems, crashes of systems, and other damage."
The suit seeks $75,000 in damages for each defendant who voluntarily attaches his or her name to the class action.
As is standard procedure with class action lawsuits, the filing discusses in detail the situation of at least one defendant. In this case, the filing tells the story of a Los Angeles man who purchased an unnamed Sony BMG audio CD, and placed it in his CD-ROM drive. At that time, the suit claims he was the victim of a rootkit installation.
