Sony Sued by Texas and EFF

Well it looks like the cashola that I sent to the EFF has been put to good use.

Texas has become the first U.S. state to sue Sony over its distribution of flawed copy protection software, while representatives for the EFF, a digital rights watchdog group based in San Francisco, said the organization will bring a class-action lawsuit against Sony in California.

The Texas lawsuit accuses Sony of violating the state's 2005 antispyware law by distributing the software on 52 of the company's music titles this year.

So it seems that they are accused of knowingly distributing spyware. I wonder if there are criminal charges that they could attach to this. It would be nice to see Sony hit for billions in damages. I would also love to see some of BMGs top execs doing the perp walk as well. The allegations of what XCP copy protection software did get even worse:

The Texas attorney general's office is also investigating reports that XCP may be collecting user information and sending it back to Sony, as well as improperly concealing the fact that it does not work with Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod music players.

Yup that program may have dialed home and sent some information without your knowledge right to Sony. I hope it was just demographic information and systems specs they stole and not confidential e-mails and bank account passwords. Who knows what was stolen. You can never tell with a company like Sony.