Sony has agreed to provide compensation to a limited extent for customers in the United States and Canada who purchased CDs containing rootkit software.
Currently, this compensation commitment has not been officially certified and is still being finalized legally. However, in principle, Sony will offer a cash payment of $7.50 and a music album (downloadable online) to any customer who returns a defective CD as proof of purchase.
If customers do not wish to receive cash, they can download three music albums for free. However, this option is only available for customers who purchased CDs with XCP copy protection software; for those with MediaMax copy protection, users will only be compensated with music albums.
Sony’s settlement move comes after the company faced a series of lawsuits from partners and customers following the discovery by an independent security researcher that the copy protection software on Sony CDs had “issues.”
Tests revealed that once the software was installed on a computer, it was nearly impossible to remove. Additionally, in some cases, it caused computer instability, creating vulnerabilities for hackers to exploit.
According to a statement from Sony BMG, 52 CDs using XCP and 34 CDs using MediaMax were sold in North America. All defective CDs will be recalled.
Sony BMG is currently facing a significant lawsuit in Texas, accusing the company of violating the CPACS anti-spyware law. Furthermore, Sony BMG may also face lawsuits from individual users.
