Sony BMG has struck a deal with the plaintiffs involved in a class action lawsuit over rootkit software the company utilised with its music CDs. Under this settlement, Sony will offer US customers money and free downloads to encourage them to replace CDs that have the rootkit.
The record label has agreed to compensate buyers of CDs that contained the XCP and MediaMax DRM programs, and to provide software utilities to allow consumers to uninstall both types of software from their computer.
Its looking like customers who exchange their XCP CD can either download three albums from a list of over 200 titles, or can claim a cash payment of $7.50 (£4.36) and a free download of one album. MediaMax CDs are not being recalled, but there is compensation offered for buyers of these disks as well.