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Sony BMG's Copy-protection Problems Grow

Posted by sf_web on November 17, 2005 08:56:46

Source: SecurityFocus

Sony BMG Music Entertainment announced plans on Wednesday to pull from store shelves nearly 2.6 million CDs that include a controversial copy-protection program, offer consumers an opportunity to return the discs, and create a more secure program to help remove the software from people's computers.

The announcement preceded a congressional hearing held that day where Republican and Democrats alike criticized the overly broad digital protections used by some media companies to guard their content. Underscoring the impact such protections can have on consumers, a Princeton University professor's asserted on Tuesday that the software utility created by the media giant to remove its copy-protection program from consumers' computers actually opens up the systems to attack.

The revelations had Sony BMG reversing course on its copy protected CDs. The company had already ceased to manufacture the CDs that included the troublesome technology, known as Extended Copy Protection (XCP) software, created by U.K.-based First 4 Internet.

"We share the concerns of consumers regarding discs with XCP content-protected software, and, for this reason, we are instituting a consumer exchange program and removing all unsold CDs with this software from retail outlets," Sony BMG said in a statement sent to the media on Tuesday and posted on its Web site on Wednesday. "We will shortly provide a simplified and secure procedure to uninstall the XCP software if it resides on your computer."

Posted by snorrrtyd on November 22, 2005 02:30:44

Even Gartner agrees this one was a bad move all around. An article in Infoworld shows you can get around the protection with scotch tape. "After more than five years of trying, the recording industry has not yet demonstrated a workable DRM scheme for music CDs," concluded the Gartner analysts. "It will never achieve this goal as long as CDs must be playable by stand-alone CD players."

Looks like "copy protection is dead." :P

Posted by sf_web on November 22, 2005 05:56:04

Also check this out:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/80457/us-rights-body-and-state-of-texas-file-against-sony-bmg.html

"US rights body and state of Texas file against Sony BMG 10:37AM"

"The leading US digital rights campaigner has filed a class action lawsuit against Sony BMG, demanding that the company repair the damage done by the DRM software it included on over 24 million music CDs. The record label also faces litigation from the US state of Texas."