Texas drags Sony-BMG to court over 'rootkit' CDs

Texas drags Sony-BMG to court over 'rootkit' CDs
AUSTIN, Texas - Sony BMG Music Entertainment's horror fortnight over the incorporation of anti-piracy software into its music CDs got worse after the Texas' attorney general and a California-based digital rights group announced that they would be filing lawsuits against the company for the violation of privacy.

"Sony has engaged in a technological version of cloak and dagger deceit against consumers by hiding secret files on their computers," said Greg Abbot, the Texas attorney-general. "Consumers who purchased a Sony CD thought they were buying music. Instead, they received spyware that can damage a computer, subject it to viruses and expose the consumer to possible identity crime."

The world's second biggest record label introduced music CDs with a anti-piracy software called "rootkit" which hides from all the detection kits on the PC. Malware writers began using this software to hide their creations thereby escaping detection of the installed anti-spyware software.

Under immense public pressure, Sony announced that it was temporarily suspending the manufacture of these CDs. But millions of computers have already been affected and the worst thing is that this "rootkit" software is not all that easy to uninstall.

Sony BMG, which is a joint venture between Japan's Sony group and German media company Bertelsmann, owns the recording rights of some of the biggest names in the music industry including Celine Dion, Mariah Carey and Destiny's Child.

The company said that it was committed to anti-piracy and that the new technology dubbed XCP was the first step in trying to protect itself and its stars. But consumer group Electronic Frontier Foundation, based in California said that Sony should be more forthcoming on how exactly it is going to recall the already purchased CDs.

"Regular CDs have a proven track record -- no one has been exposed to viruses or spyware by playing a regular audio CD on a computer. Why should legitimate customers be guinea pigs for Sony BMG's experiments?" asked EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn.