I had a previous post about certain CDs from Sony that contained a rootkit. Today I saw an article on RedmondMag.com at http://redmondmag.com/news/article.asp?editorialsid=8175 that says Sony has settled the charges against them. If you have purchased one of their CDs and had a problem with removing the software you can be compensated up to $150 for your trouble. Sony BMG will also tell you before they do something like this again. They are also making tools available to remove rootkits.

Since I never purchased one of the affected CDs I can't really say if the settlement is fair but from the outside looking in I would have to say that it is more than I expected to see from them. I figured that after the initial reaction people would forget about it and the practice would go on. Hopefully this means that we will see an end to sneaky DRM. Now if we can just figure out a way to protect copyright without making the honest users jump through hoops or treat them like criminals, then we will have something.