Originally published February 16 2006
Expert discusses Sony's anti-piracy suit settlement
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Computer Security expert Brian Krebs discusses the settlement agreed to by Sony BMG Music Entertainment to bring a class action lawsuit involving its flawed anti-piracy software to a close.
Sony BMG Music Entertainment has agreed to a settlement that would end a nationwide class-action lawsuit brought against the company over security flaws in anti-piracy software that it shipped on millions of music CDs.
The Sunbelt Software blog has a copy of the proposed settlement in the case, which was brought last month by a New York-based attorney on behalf of customers throughout the country who bought the affected CDs.
After reading the document, I did a little investigating of my own using the court's PACER document lookup system and found another document -- a hearing order -- indicating that Sony BMG and the plaintiffs reached an agreement on Dec. 27 to settle the case.
The lead attorney for the plaintiffs, New York lawyer Scott Kamber, said the two parties signed a settlement which is awaiting preliminary approval by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
According to the terms of the settlement, Sony would be required to stop making CDs outfitted with the flawed "XCP" and MediaMax digital rights management software, programs that security experts showed not only destablized users' PCs but also opened them up to new threats from online attackers and viruses.
Sony BMG also would be required to "implement consumer-oriented changes in operating practices with respect to all CDs with content protection software that Sony BMG manufactures in the next two years; refrain from collecting personal information about users of XCP CDs or MediaMax CDs without their affirmative consent; and provide additional settlement benefits to Settlement Class Members including cash payments, 'clean' replacement CDs without content protection software, and free music downloads."
Any Security Fix readers who need a refresher on what this whole fiasco is all about can check out the Piracy section of this blog to read the more than 20 past posts on this subject dating back to Nov. 1.
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