Screaming Penguin

“The proposed settlement will provide significant benefits for consumers who bought the flawed CDs,� said EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn. "Under the terms, those consumers will get what they thought they were buying--music that will play on their computers without restriction or security risk. EFF is continuing discussions with Sony BMG, however, and believes that there is more they can do to protect music lovers in the future.� "Sony agreed to stop production of these flawed and ineffective DRM technologies,� noted EFF Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl. “We hope that other record labels will learn from Sony’s hard experience and focus more on the carrot of quality music and less on the stick of copy protection.� Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) joined in this preliminary settlement agreement with Sony BMG this week to settle several class action lawsuits filed due to Sony's use of flawed and overreaching computer program in millions of music CDs sold to the public. The proposed terms of settlement have been presented to the court for preliminary approval and will likely be considered in a hearing set for January 6, 2005 in federal court in New York City.

The proposed settlement was submitted to Federal District Court in Manhattan on Wednesday. A judge was expected to decide in January whether to tentatively approve it. Under the settlement, Sony BMG, a venture of the Sony Corporation and Bertelsmann, will let consumers who bought the CD's receive replacement discs without the antipiracy technology and will let them choose one of two compensation packages. The first package would allow consumers a cash payment of $7.50 and a promotion code allowing them to download one additional album from a list of more than 200 titles. The second package would permit them to download three additional albums from the list. The court papers said Sony BMG would try to offer Apple's iTunes as one of the download services available to the consumers. Those who bought MediaMax CD's would receive additional compensation.