Perhaps his most important point is that that settlement will only have effect in the U.S., not, for example, in Canada.
This particular suit settlement would require Sony not only to recall all the affected CDs, but also to stop using the software that implemented the rootkit and to disavow the relevant portions of the EULAs. It even would require free music downloads, which would be one of the things Sony was trying to counter with the DRM in the first place.
And, of course, this is only one of several lawsuits.
I wonder if it might be Sony’s best course of action to voluntarily admit it screwed up and to proceed to implement something like that settlement in every country.
Meanwhile, Geist speculates that that settlement may serve as the basis for anti-DRM laws.
I wonder if Sony and other companies might better serve their own interests by producing music people want to hear rather than indulging in questionable restraints on their customers uses of the music they buy, whether those restraints are legal or not.
-jsq