Staying with legal shenanigans, SonyBMG have been negotiating to settle some of the lawsuits launched in the US regarding its use of that dodgy 'rootkit' anti-piracy technology on certain CD releases that made users' PCs more susceptible to virus attack.
According to Digital Music News, a proposed out of court settlement would obligate the major to completely withdraw two of the copy-protection technologies that caused problems (the main one made by First4Internet, and the also problematic MediaMax system made by SunnComm) and to compensate those music fans who bought infected CDs.
Many of the conditions regarding withdrawing CDs and issuing 'patches' to enable consumers to remove traces of the anti-piracy software from their PCs are measures SonyBMG has already initiated - the interesting new proposals relate to compensation.
The major is already offering to switch rootkit protected CDs with unprotected equivalents, as well as providing those who bought the CDs with tracks from the relevant album as MP3 files. The new proposal says SonyBMG should also pay customers $7.50 in compensation and give them a free album download, or alternatively three free album downloads. Customers affected by the SunnComm software should get similar though less compensation.
The settlement would also obligate SonyBMG to erase any personal information they hold as a result of using the software (information the major claims it doesn't hold anyway) and to waive certain obligations a punter signs up to when he puts a CD into his computer.
The proposals are now working their way through the New York judicial system.