Sony BMG is spying on thousands of listeners

Sony is spying on thousands of listeners who buy and play its music CDs on their computers, a leading computer security firm said recently.

Computer Associates International Inc. said that new anti-copying software Sony is using to discourage pirating of its music also secretly collects information from any computer that plays the discs.

The anti-piracy technology, which works only on Windows computers, prevents customers from making more than a few copies of the CD and prevents them from loading the CD's songs directly onto Apple Computer's popular iPod portable music players. Some other music players, which recognize Microsoft's proprietary music format, do play the CDs.

A hacker had mass-mailed e-mail with an attachment, which when clicked on installs malware. The malware hides by using Sony BMG software that is also hidden -- the software would have already been installed on a computer when consumers played Sony's copy-protected music CDs.

The malware, a trojan program which appears desirable but actually contains something harmful, tears down a computer's firewall and gives hackers access to a PC. Sony BMG provided a patch to protect computers against the virus, which is available on its Web site.

"We also intend to re-examine 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 BMG added.

The software works only on computers running Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating system. It limits listeners’ ability to copy the music onto their computers, and locks copied files so they cannot be freely distributed over the internet.