Spyware
Record label pays the price for an anti-piracy scheme gone wrong

Sony settles lawsuit from rootkit fiasco

Record label faces the music

Tom Sanders in California

Sony BMG has settled a lawsuit with the State of California over rootkit technology illegally installed on computers. 

The record label has agreed to pay a $750,000 fine and will reimburse consumers up to $175 to offset the cost of repairs required to uninstall digital rights management software that the company bundled with several of its music CDs.

Advertisement

The settlement also bans Sony from distributing CDs with bundled DRM technology without proper disclosure.

The settlement stems from last year's rootkit fiasco. In an attempt to prevent illegal copying of its music, Sony bundled anti-piracy software on several of its music CDs that installed automatically when a user inserted the CD in a computer.

To prevent consumers from uninstalling the application, the software used rootkit technology to hide the files and the processes from the user and the system.

Security experts argued that the rootkit was poorly engineered and that worm authors could exploit it simply by placing the characters '$sys$' in front of a file name.

Although Sony initially denied that its software posed a security risk, the company was proved wrong when the Stinx-E Trojan started exploiting the rootkit's features.

An estimated 450,000 Californians purchased one or more of the malware infested CDs, but the state is not aware of how many tried playing the CDs on their computer and are therefore eligible for compensation.

The complaint accused Sony of 'false or misleading advertising', 'unfair and unlawful businesses practices', and 'unauthorised access to computers'.

"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 does not inflict security vulnerabilities on computers," said California attorney general Bill Lockyer.

"To its credit, Sony BMG learned this lesson and has stopped the practices that led to this lawsuit.

"But the settlement further protects consumers by prohibiting similar conduct in the future and requiring Sony BMG to pay consumers back for out-of-pocket expenses they incurred to repair harm to computers caused by the software."

Sony settled a class-action lawsuit in January from a group of consumers, agreeing to exchange CDs and pay up to $7.50 in cash.

  • Have your say
  • Send to a friend
  • Print
  • Digg
  • Reddit
  • Share

Tags:

Do you agree?

Further reading

Related whitepapers

Related jobs

Most watched

Xperia X1

Video Review: Sony Ericsson Xperia X1

First Looks Editor Ian Williams gets hands on with the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1

HTC Hero

Video: HTC Hero launch

Handset maker unveils its latest Android-based smartphone

IT white papers

Search white papers

Top categories

Poll

Poll: Summer smartphones

Poll: Summer smartphones

Which smartphone will you be taking to the beach this summer?

View poll results

Advertisement

Advertisement

Newsletter signup

Sign up for our range of FREE newsletters:

Existing User

Newsletter user login:

Enter email address to edit your newsletter preferences

Job of the week

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Hiring now on ComputingCareers:

Related IT jobs

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Spotlight

Twitter

Twitter charges are bad idea, say V3.co.uk readers

Over a third insist the service should remain free for...

great wall of china

Podcast Special: Views from the Valley

The hottest stories from the US, including news of China's...

Mobile phone charger

Top 10 articles, 3 July 09

Free upgrades for Windows 7, and standard mobile phone chargers...

Red Hat

Red Hat beta builds on virtualisation plans

Kernel-based Virtual Machine virtualisation added to latest Enterprise Linux beta

Primary Navigation