08 November 2005
Sony faces police investigation into DRM code
By Robert McMillan, IDG News Service
Sony may be investigated by Italian police over its controversial
copy protection software.
An Italian digital rights organisation has taken the first step
toward possible criminal charges over the XCP software which, it was
recently discovered, cloaks itself on users' computers and
communicates with Sony servers over the Internet.
The group, calling itself the ALCEI-EFI (Association for Freedom in
Electronic Interactive Communications - Electronic Frontiers Italy),
filed a complaint about Sony's software with the head of Italy's
cyber-crime investigation unit, Colonel Umberto Rapetto of the
Guardia di Finanza.
The complaint alleges that XCP violates a number of Italy's computer
security laws by causing damage to users' systems and by acting in
the same way as malicious software, according to Andrea Monti, chair
of the ALCEI-EFI. "What Sony did qualifies as a criminal offense
under Italian law," he said.
Should police determine that a crime has been committed, prosecutors
will be required to begin criminal proceedings against Sony, Monti
said.
XCP is used on about 20 of the company's music titles and prohibits
Windows users from making more than three copies of any XCP-protected
CD. It has been widely criticised since it was revealed the software
uses many of the same techniques as spyware and computer viruses to
disguise its existence. XCP's developer, a UK company called First 4
Internet said the techniques were necessary in order to prevent
illegal copiers from circumventing the digital rights management
(DRM) software, but critics say First 4 has gone too far and that the
product may be a security risk.
And confirming its new status, Computer Associates yesterday
reclassified Sony's software as spyware and will begin searching for
and removing XCP with its anti-spyware software.
Even a software patch released by Sony last week to decloak the
hidden digital rights management software counts as spyware.
search: