Sony BMG Settles DRM Lawsuit
Sony BMG Settles DRM Lawsuit
January 3, 2006: After the debacle that was its Digital Rights Management (DRM) software, Sony BMG is striving to settle the class-action lawsuits brought against it by angry customers.
The proposed terms of the settlement mean that Sony BMG will replace affected discs with new ones without anti-piracy software, give customers a US$7.50 cash refund and one free album download from its online music store.
Sony BMG’s DRM software, named XCP, is copy protection software designed to control the amount of times customers can digitally copy and distribute music from protected CD’s. It made headlines around the world late last year when it was discovered that the software automatically installed and hid itself on customers’ machines when they inserted a protected CD, even if they declined to install the software. After installing itself the software opened up vulnerabilities that hackers and viruses could exploit. Worse still, patches released to fix the issue after it surfaced also turned out to be flawed, opening up more security holes.
Sony has since recalled all the affected discs and will not be able to continue using the copy protection software due to the terms of the settlement.
The settlement is due to go before a US judge on January 6 and is expected to be approved.
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