United States of America Vs Sony BMG Research Paper

United States of America Vs Sony BMG - Research Paper ExampleThe relinquish This case is about the violation of the Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by Sony BMG Music frolic in 2008. Sony Corporation of America is a fellowship whose Sony BMG subsidiary represents musical entertainers who are popular eve with underage children. COPPA aims at protecting the childrens solitude against misuse of their private instruction by the online lodge. The act as was passed on 21st April, 2000 and provides court-ordered guidelines for companies or organizations which provide Internet services through websites. This act covers the privacy of children who fall below the age of thirteen years.1 The legal provision of the act to the online service providers is that consent must(prenominal) be obtained from the parents of children under the age of thirteen before collecting personal instruction about the children. Moreover, the parents develop to be informed when an online se rvice provider needs to use or reveal personal data of the children. 2 In 2008, Sony BMG Music Entertainment violated the provision of COPPA by collecting, using and disclosing information of children below thirteen without the permission of their parents. This led to the legal suit against the company by the USA on behalf of the national Trade instruction. ... The information collected from the underage children by the company affected more than 30 000 of the youthfulness people within its 196 websites. The ethical and legal issue in this case is that the company collected the information with full knowledge that it was obtained from underage children. This demonstrates that the company knowingly violated the Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act. The legal issue was worsened by the failure of the company to reveal that it intended to keep the information. Additionally, the company did non disclose how the collected information was to be used. Applicable Law The law that was violated by the company is the Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The national Trade Commissions implementing rule was withal violated by Sony BMG which made the commission to be the Civil Penalty Complainant. The Federal Trade Commission on 5th April, 2010 requested for opinions of the common on the use of private information by the online community in relation to the changes and advancement in technology. This was through the Commissions publication in the Federal Register.3 The public opinion on the matter was received from members of the public, technologists, advocacy groups, representatives of various industries and academicians. The information obtained from the public was useable in clarifying and defining various terms within the COPPA, such as Child, Website and Private Information. The considerations of the opinions of the public led to the definition of a child as an individual below the age of thirteen. These considerations were based on expert opinio n on the ability of a child to make right judgments on the information provided to the online service providers. The assessment of a childs level of