News

Sony BMG has agreed to settle a NY-based group action lawsuit triggered by the company's use of two different digital rights management (DRM) technologies. Click here to download a .pdf version of the 42-page Motion and Memorandum of Law in Support of Plaintiff's Application for Preliminary Approval of Class Action Settlement.

The settlement applies to CDs protected by Sony's XCP and MediaMax technologies and offers inducements to consumers to get them to accept the settlement. Sony agrees to supply consumers who purchased any of the DRM-compromised CDs with DRM-free copies of the discs, as well as giving them a cash payment of $7.50 and a free download of one copy of any of the 200 CDs Sony chooses to make part of the program. Consumers can forego the cash payment and opt for three free downloads instead. Here's an interesting kicker: Sony will make the downloads available through iTunes, which was one thing both DRM systems prevented.

In addition to compensating consumers, Sony also agrees to provide software that will uninstall XCP and MediaMax from consumers' computers, immediately recall XCP CDs, and refrain from manufacturing MediaMax CDs for at least two years. Further, Sony will not collect personal information on the settlement class members through XCP, MediaMax, or any future content protection technology without express and affirmative consent of those affected. If an outside agency—such as a government, say—should negotiate better terms for any subset of the settlement class members, Sony must give those same benefits to all of the class-members.

There's more: According to the settlement, Sony BMG will implement several changes to its policies and procedures concerning content protection software and the EULAs [End User License Agreements] associated with that software. These changes will ensure that the content protection software will not be installed without the user’s express consent, will be removable from the user’s computer, and will not render the user’s computers vulnerable to known security risks. In addition, the EULAs will be written in plain English and will accurately describe the nature and function of the content protection software."

The question is whether customers will agree to a EULA that they understand—or if they'll buy compromised media that is clearly labeled as such. Sony's original EULA was obviously written with the awareness that the answer is no. Now we will get a chance to find out.