Sony BMG Pulls CD Anti-Piracy Software

Stung by continuing criticism, Sony BMG Music Entertainment promised Friday to temporarily suspend making music CDs with anti-piracy technology that could leave computers vulnerable to hackers.

The world’s second-largest music label defended its right to prevent customers from illegally copying music but said it would halt manufacturing CDs with the “XCP” technology as a precautionary measure.

“We also intend to reexamine all aspects of our content protection initiative to be sure that it continues to meet our goals of security and ease of consumer use,” Sony said in a statement.

The anti-piracy technology, which works only on Windows computers, prevents customers from making more than a few copies of the CD and from loading the CD’s songs onto Apple Computer Inc.’s iPod portable music players. Some other music players, which recognize Microsoft’s proprietary music format, would work.

Sony’s announcement came one day after security companies disclosed that hackers were distributing malicious programs over the Internet that exploited the anti-piracy technology’s ability to avoid detection. Hackers discovered that they could effectively render their programs invisible by using names for computer files similar to the ones cloaked by the Sony technology.

A senior official for the Department of Homeland Security cautioned entertainment companies against discouraging piracy in ways that also made computers vulnerable. Stewart Baker, the department’s assistant secretary for policy, did not cite Sony by name in his remarks Thursday but described industry efforts to install hidden files on consumers’ computers.

“It’s very important to remember that it’s your intellectual property, it’s not your computer,” Baker said at a trade conference on piracy. “And in the pursuit of protection of intellectual property, it’s important not to defeat or undermine the security measures that people need to adopt in these days.”

Sony’s program is included on about 20 music titles, including releases by Van Zant and the Bad Plus.

Security researchers have described Sony’s technology as “spyware,” saying that it is difficult to remove and that it transmits without warning details about what music is playing. They also say Sony’s notice to consumers about the technology is inadequate. Sony executives have rejected the description of their technology as spyware.

Some leading anti-virus companies updated their protective software this week to detect Sony’s anti-piracy program, disable it and prevent it from reinstalling.