In a piece today in The Times, Sony boss Michael Lynton yet again champions 3 strikes for alleged pirates and states that combating piracy could add millions to the economy. He also says that due to piracy, in 2008 Hollywood made the lowest number of movies in the last decade. So where did its record earnings go?
In 2005 there was a huge scandal when it was revealed that Sony’s attempts to crack down on music piracy had got out of control. The company included a rootkit (XCP) on many of its music CDs which was installed on the user’s PC without permission. Now a court has ordered compensation to be paid to an XCP victim.
Sony claims that there is a downward trend for pirated PSP games, and that more people are handing over money for games, to join what the company calls “the good side”. It is unclear where Sony sourced this data, but statistics gathered from BitTorrent trackers show an increase in PSP piracy.
In a keynote speech at the Broadband World Forum, John McMahon, President of Sony Pictures Television asked ISPs to join their battle against piracy. McMahon further said that DRM is one of the major causes of piracy, but says Sony doesn’t have any plans to get rid of it.
After originally threatening to leave, London-based EMI Records has confirmed it will remain a member of the IFPI. With its self-imposed deadline of March 31st 2008 looming, the company has struck a deal so that EMI – together with other members – will now contribute less to anti-piracy activities.
Sony Pictures aquired the Youtube-like video sharing service “grouper”. CEO Michael Lynton announced this deal earlier today, and said Sony is paying $65 million dollar for the internet startup.
For now Grouper will keep its current management, but they will be working closely with a team at Sony Pictures. Lynton stated:
“Consumers are spending more and more [...]
An internal BETA version of the PSP game “Gangs of London” has been leaked onto several BitTorrent sites last week. Sony spokesman David Wilson warns potential pirates that “the leak” is incomplete and that it might be a bit “buggy”.
He said:
“The version of Gangs Of London that you have brought our attention to here is [...]
Mashboxx is the first p2p application that offers music downloads authorized by major record labels. This week Mashboxx finalized their deal with SONY BMG.
