More on the fallout of SonyBMG's use of that dodgy anti-piracy software that allegedly buggers up the computers of people who unknowingly install it when they insert a copy-protected disk into their PC.
A consumer rights organisation in Italy - ALCEI-EFI - has filed a complaint about SonyBMG's use of the software to the country's rather exciting sounding 'cyber-crime investigation unit'. They reckon the major label may have contravened Italian computer security laws in using the protection software, which acts not all together unlike a nasty computer virus, and which can only be uninstalled using a patch released by the record company only after everyone got very angry about the whole thing.
The boss of ALCEI-EFI, Andrea Monti, told reporters SonyBMG were in violation of "a number of Italian computer security laws", adding: "What Sony did qualifies as a criminal offence under Italian law". He hopes Italian police will agree with him, so that criminal proceedings can be launched against record label chiefs there.
Monti was keen to stress that SonyBMG's use of this technology was "not an isolated case" of record labels acting "against consumer interests" - though, as previously reported, EMI has been quick to stress it has never used the dodgy software in question. Warner and Universal are yet to comment. Just for the record, CMU has never installed any virus like anti-piracy software on your PC. Never, I tell you.