By Jim Wagner

Sony BMG is recalling the copyright-protected music CDs that have been causing no end of grief to the company.

The recall comes in the wake of a large number of security issues surrounding the use of Extended Copyright Protection (XCP), a digital rights management (DRM) application created by U.K.-based First 4 Internet, and the applications used to remove the software.

Customers of some 50 different Sony titles bearing the protection scheme will be able to mail in the affected CDs in exchange for a CD without the copyright protections on them, officials said in a statement posted to the Web site Wednesday.

Posted by Greg Hewitt-Long in Adware, Spyware and Trojans at 06:26

By AP , BOSTON

The fallout from a hidden copy-protection program that Sony BMG Music Entertainment put on some CDs is only getting worse. Sony's suggested method for removing the program widened the security hole the original software created, researchers say.

Sony has moved to recall the discs in question. But music fans who have listened to them on their computers or tried to remove the dangerous software they deposited could still be vulnerable.

"This is a surprisingly bad design from a security standpoint," said Ed Felten, a Princeton University computer science professor who explored the removal program with a graduate student, Alex Halderman. "It endangers users in several ways."

The "XCP" copy-protection program was included on at least 20 CDs, including releases by Van Zant and Celine Dion. Sony BMG said 4.7 million were shipped, with 2.1 million sold.

Posted by Greg Hewitt-Long in Adware, Spyware and Trojans at 06:21