Sony slapped with suits
11/25/2005 @ 6:00 am
Sony BMG Music Entertainment is being sued by a California-based digital-rights group and the Texas attorney general for selling music CDs whose anti-piracy software allegedly made computers vulnerable to hackers and viruses.
When discs with XCP [which is the spyware Sony put on their CDs] are loaded onto a computer, they install a program that limits how many times the CDs can be copied. Critics allege that Sony BMG failed to warn buyers that XCP could potentially weaken a computer’s defenses to attacks from malicious software or hackers, although few users experienced any problems.
Stung by the revelations and the PR black eye it has suffered, Sony BMG has pulled 52 albums from retailer shelves may recall up to 5 million CDs.
Sony is getting itself in big trouble recently, its not doing so well in the electronics market. Its got this to deal with and then theres the other issue of them using software illegally to make the software that stops illegal copying. The psp has had estimates for sales cut twice and isn’t performing very well. And then the PS3 isn’t out for a while and when it is finally realised may even be far to expensive to do well. It would be odd to see such a giant company end up dropping out of some markets.
November 25th, 2005 at 8:08 amI have heard a lot of people complain that uninstalling the software is particularly troublsome and that you have to download a fix from Sony. If an individual did this it would probably be considered hacking which is a criminal offense. Way too boost your image as the good corporation competing against MS.
November 26th, 2005 at 5:27 am