Use of hidden DRM software costs company $5.75m.
Sony BMG Music Entertainment
‘s ill-advised use of hidden digital rights management (DRM) software on its CDs in late 2005 has cost the company $5.75 million in settlement fees.
Last month
Sony
agreed to pay a combined total of $1.5 million to settle lawsuits filed by the states of California and Texas over its use of hidden DRM software on CDs. Two days later, the company agreed to pay settlement fees to a further 40 states to end the investigations into its use of the copy protection programs.
In late 2005, Mark Russinovich of
Sysinternals
(now
Microsoft
) was first to pick up on the security risks concerning the copy protection software, revealing that the software was using rootkit cloaking techniques (see
VB, December 2005, p.11
). According to the Massachusetts Attorney General, more than 12 million CDs shipped containing the software.
Residents of each of the US states that have settled with
Sony
are entitled to up to $175 in refunds for damages that may have been caused to their computers while attempting to uninstall the software. Sony has set up a website (
http://www.sonybmgcdtechsettlement.com/
) with information for consumers on the matter.
Posted on 03 January 2007 by
Virus Bulletin
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