Sony BMG Will "Temporarily" Stop Making Anti-Piracy CD's, No Offer Of Relief To Impacted Consumers

In response to public outcry, Sony BMG Music Entertainment has agreed to stop selling music CD's that carry "anti-piracy", or rootkit technology, to consumers worldwide. The anti-piracy features which Sony had been including on new music titles creates even broader security risks to those who use the CD's, including leaving a listener's computer vulnerable to hackers.

Since the discovery of the security holes on October 31st by Mark Russinovich, chief software architect at Winternals Software, the word of the technology leak has spread broadly throughout the tech and consumer world. The "XCP" technology, which affects users of Windows-based computers only, was intended to keep purchasers from making more than a certain number of copies of the CD. The technology also prevents users from loading the songs from the CD onto an iPod while leaving the opportunity open for loading songs to owners of Windows Media Player-compatible portable media players.

The extent of damage to home computer users is not known at this time, but the technology was only present on 20 popular music titles at the time the decision was made to stop including it. Fortunately, some leading antivirus manufacturers began including the Sony XCP technology for recognition in their virus definitions as potentially malicious, enabling it to be detected as a virus and to be disabled.

Sony has neither made admittance of wrongdoing nor has any offer for replacement or refund been made to any purchasers of CD's which contain the XCP Technology. Thousands of the discs are still in CD stores at this time. Sony has no plans to recall those music CD's at this time, but they began making a patch available for download on their website which purports to fix security holes left by the discs. But some computer experts have reported that the patch not only does not work but may cause more crashes and potentially further damage.

The best bet for all concerned: DO NOT PURCHASE ANY Sony/BMG products until they discontinue all copies of CD's carrying this technology. Send a message back to the company that you don't like being treated like a criminal for giving them your hard-earned money.