Sony yanks copy-protected CDs

Here’s an update to a recent post from Yahoo! News:

After two weeks of relentless criticism over its XCP copy protection software, Sony BMG Music Entertainment is pulling CDs that contain the software from store shelves. The company is also planning to offer customers a way to exchange CDs that contain the flawed copy-protection software.

“We share the concerns of consumers regarding discs with the XCP software, and we are instituting a program that will allow customers to exchange any CD with XCP software for the same CD without copy protection,” Sony said in a statement posted on Tuesday.

Here’s more:

The biggest problem Sony now faces is helping customers who have installed the nearly undetectable software to remove it from their machines, said Mark Russinovich, chief software architect with Winternals Software LP, who originally identified the potential problem. Users who want to take XCP off their computers had been forced to send an e-mail to Sony and then download an ActiveX control that exposes them to further security risks, he said.

An estimated 500,000 computers have installed the software, according to the article. Will there be a class action? Hm…