Federal courts have decided the penalty Sony BMG must suffer for exposing thousands of music fans' computers to hackers with dodgy DRM software last year. District court judge Naomi Reice Buchwald granted final approval for a settlement yesterday.

Consumers will receive new malware and vulnerability-free CDs, a patch to remove the offending XCP or MediaMax code, and Sony will be dishing out free downloads.

Electronic Frontier Foundation legal director Cindy Cohn said: "This settlement gets music fans what they thought they were buying in the first place: music that will play on all their electronic devices without installing sneaky software."

Sony's pages about the settlement, including how to claim, are here. The list of popular platters covered by the ruling is here. ®

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