LONDON, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- Sony BMG Music Entertainment, the world's second largest music label, is being sued in the United States over security software on some CDs.
The company, a joint venture of Germany's Bertelsmann and Japan's Sony Group, produced some CDs with so-called "rootkit" software designed to deter casual piracy by enabling record labels to limit the number of copies that can be made from an original CD, the Financial Times reported Thursday.
Critics, however, say the rootkit software slows PCs, makes them more susceptible to crashes and -- worst of all -- makes them vulnerable to viruses designed especially to exploit rootkit software.
One group has identified 19 CDs with the controversial security software.
Sony BMG has not publicly responded to any of the U.S. lawsuits.
