Thursday, January 05, 2006

Sony and the Root KIts Play Out

Details of the Sony US settlement re their offending DRM-enabled "root kit" CDs are helpfully reported at Out-Law.com. Inter alia, customers who bought the protected CDs will be entitled to $7.50 each and one album download from a list of 200 titles, or three album downloads from the list if they waive the cash offer.

Sony BMG also undertakes to take "commercially reasonable steps" to destroy the information that it collected from users – the "spyware" aspect of the fracas - namely, album details and IP addresses – within 10 days of collection, except as otherwise required by law or court order. And they undertake to make sure that in any future CD production, no software is installed before the user accepts the EULA -a major step towards transparency which will hopefully now be accepted as an industry must-do.

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