Texas Accuses Sony BMG of Putting `Spyware’ on Discs (Update1)
11/21/2005
Nov. 21 (Bloomberg)—Sony BMG Music Entertainment, the world’s second-largest record company, was sued by the Texas attorney general over copyright-protection software it installed on compact discs.
The software, designed to limit the number of copies that can be made of a music disc, also installed so-called “spyware’’ on computers in violation of state consumer law, the attorney general said. The technology can be used to monitor users’ online activity and makes PCs vulnerable to computer viruses.
Sony BMG, a joint venture of Sony Corp. and Bertelsmann AG, recalled discs containing the software because of security risks. The software, called XCP, was put on 52 CDs distributed by Sony BMG, including music by Frank Sinatra and George Jones. Texas officials said copies with the XCP are still available in stores.
“Sony has engaged in a technological version of cloak and dagger deceit against consumers by hiding secret files on their computers,’’ Attorney General Greg Abbott said today in a statement. “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 lawsuit alleges that Sony BMG broke a new state law protecting consumers from spyware, which covertly gathers user information through software that’s hidden in the computer. It’s often used to send information on matters such as a computer user’s Web surfing to a specified Web site.
Sony Statement
On its Web site, Sony BMG said its software isn’t intended to be spyware or to monitor online activity.
“The content protection was designed solely to prevent the unlimited copying and ripping of discs featuring the XCP content protection solution,’’ Sony BMG says on its site. “It is not intended to cause any harm to your computer and is not a monitoring technology.’’
The company said it was developing a program to allow the XCP software to be uninstalled from computers. It also created software that it said “addresses the security vulnerabilities’’ of XCP.
A spokesman for the company had no immediate comment on the lawsuit. New York-based Sony BMG is the No. 2 record company behind Universal Music Group, a Santa Monica, California-based unit of Vivendi Universal SA.