against protection spyware

The 2005 Sony CD copy protection scandal was a public scandal dealing with Sony BMG Music Entertainment's surreptitious distribution of software on audio compact discs.

As a copy protection measure, Sony BMG included the Extended Copy Protection (XCP) and MediaMax CD-3 software on music CDs. XCP was put on 52 albums[1] and MediaMax was put on 50 albums. [2] This software was automatically installed on desktop computers when customers tried to play the CDs. The software interferes with the normal way in which the Microsoft Windows or Mac OS X operating systems play CDs, opens security holes that allow viruses to break in, and causes other problems. Anti-spyware and adware program that protects your PC from spyware and other potentially unwanted software. It is widely described as spyware.

As a result, a number of parties have filed lawsuits against Sony BMG; the company ended up recalling all the affected CDs; and greater public attention was drawn to the issue of commercially-backed spyware.

History & technical information

Background

In August 2000, Sony Pictures Entertainment US senior VP Steve Heckler foreshadowed events of late 2005. Heckler told attendees at the Americas Conference on Information Systems "The industry will take whatever steps it needs to protect itself and protect its revenue streams. It will not lose that revenue stream, no matter what. High-performance inbound and outbound virus scanning and disinfection, content filtering and 4-in-1 heuristic real-time scan engine for Exchange 55 and 2000. Sony is going to take aggressive steps to stop this. We will develop technology that transcends the individual user. We will firewall Napster at source - we will block it at your cable company, we will block it at your phone company, we will block it at your [ISP]. We will firewall it at your PC. These strategies are being aggressively pursued because there is simply too much at stake. Panda Software.