Digital Trends

It never ends! Texas' attorney general has filed a civil suit against Sony BMG Music, alleging its XCP copy protection software violates a new anti-spyware law.

Texas' state Attorney General Greg Abbot has filed a civil suit against Sony BMG Entertainment, alleging the XCP copy protection the company shipped on more than 50 music CDs violates the state's 2005 Consumer Protection Against Computer Spyware Act because the technology installs itself surreptciously, cannot be easily removed by the consumer, and leaves the computer vulnerable to security risks and exploitation. The Texas spyware law provides for penalties up to $100,000 per incident; attorney general Abbot alleges thousands of violations.

The move is just the latest body-blow to Sony over the XCP copy protection the company included on some 4.7 million music CDs. The software was found to use spyware-like techniques to disguise itself when customers put the CDs into their computers, and Trojan horse software quickly appeared which used Sony;'s software to disguise its presence. Further the uninstall technology Sony reluctantly provided was found to cause even more security problems. Sony has withdrawn the CDs from retailers and has set up an exchange program for customers who purchased CDs with XCP copy protection; in the meantime, Sony is facing multiple class action lawsuits—in addition to the new Texas suit—and charges of possible copyright violations over the XCP technology and allegations Sony failed to adequately disclose the nature of its software.

This is in no way relevant to the attorney general's filing, but we'll note just (for entertainment purposes) that Texas is a death penalty state.