Dave Horvath
20 Dec 2006 5:24
Music entertainment giants Sony BMG Entertainment will pay the sum of $1.5 million in addition to thousands of consumer refunds to settle out of court. A lawsuit brought up in California and Texas courts was filed over Sony putting DRM and anti-piracy software on their music CDs which would then become installed on the consumer's computer. This was not only hidden from the consumer but was found to open a huge back door security hole in the user's machine. When this was brought up to the people at Sony BMG, their removal tactics at the time caused damage to the computers they had infected.
The two types of copy-protection software that were loaded on consumer's computers are known as MediaMax and XCP.
The two settlements state that California and Texas will each receive $750,000 in civil penalties and costs. Additionally, Sony BMG agreed to reimburse consumers who had their computers damaged when attempting to uninstall this malicious software. Although this sounds noble in effort, Sony has agreed that anyone who files a claim can receive a ratehr generous sum ranging between $25 and $175 in refunds. I, personally am not sure who at Sony BMG did market research on average repair costs, but this seems a tad low.
California Attorney General Bill Lockyer had this to say about the case. "Companies that want to load their CDs with software that limits the ability to copy music should fully inform consumers about it, not hide it, and make sure it doesn't inflict security vulnerabilities on computers"
Source:
Fox News