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Sony Temporarily Halts Production of CDs With Disputed Antipiracy Software

Posted on: Sunday, 13 November 2005, 12:00 CST

By Hiawatha Bray, The Boston Globe

Nov. 12--Sony BMG Music Entertainment has temporarily halted production of music CDs that contain an antipiracy program, after two weeks of sharp criticism from technologists and Internet privacy advocates who said it was a destructive form of spyware.

The software program, called XCP, is supposed to limit listeners' ability to make copies of Sony's music on their computers and illegally distribute them over the Internet.

Created by British data security firm First 4 Internet LLC, Sony has XCP installed on about 20 of its titles, including those by jazzman Dexter Gordon and singer Vivian Green.

"We stand by content protection technology as an important tool to protect our intellectual property rights and those of our artists," said a statement issued by Sony BMG and posted on the company's website. "Nonetheless, as a precautionary measure, Sony BMG is temporarily suspending the manufacture of CDs containing XCP technology." The company also apologized for inconveniencing its customers.

Sony's move follows a torrent of criticism that started with well-known software engineer Mark Russinovich. Russinovich had accidentally discovered that the Sony BMG software had installed itself on his machine without his knowledge, after he'd played a Van Zant CD that contained the code on his computer.

Russinovich found that key portions of the program hid themselves on his computer's hard drive, using techniques similar to those used by computer criminals. In addition, the antipiracy program lacked an "uninstall" feature, and was almost impossible to remove from a computer without damaging data.

When Russinovich published his findings on his website, security specialists around the country launched their own investigations.

Specialists at Computer Associates International Inc., a major computer security firm, found that the Sony BMG program secretly transmitted information about the user's listening habits over the computer's Internet connection.

Then on Thursday, several security firms reported that computer criminals had developed attack software that made it easy for them to seize control of computers that used the Sony BMG program.

These companies, including industry leader Symantec Corp., added the program to their hostile software listings and started developing cleanup software that would remove it from affected computers.

Meanwhile, attorneys in California and New York filed class action lawsuits against Sony BMG, alleging that the use of the antipiracy software was illegal.

Sony BMG issued a software patch a week ago to modify the behavior of their security program, and it also offered users a way to safely remove XCP from their machines.

But with continuing criticism from the software world, Sony yesterday said it would halt the production of music CDs containing the software, at least for now.

XCP isn't the only antipiracy software Sony uses. Over the past 18 months, Sony has sold about 20 million CDs containing MediaMax, an antipiracy program designed by SunnComm Inc. of Phoenix.

MediaMax works on computers running Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh operating system, as well as Windows machines.

There have been no reported problems with MediaMax, and a Sony BMG spokesman yesterday said the company had no plans to stop using the SunnComm software.

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Boston Globe

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SNE, 6758,

Source: The Boston Globe

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