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 (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/10/sony_sued_for_rootkit/). 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 (http://www.sonybmgcdtechsettlement.com/). The list of popular platters covered by the ruling is here (http://www.sonybmgcdtechsettlement.com/CDList.htm). ®

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