BBC reports on the settlement of lawsuits brought against Sony after their copy protection "root kits" installed on music cd's turned out to be terribly invasive — as well as sneakily evasive — when played on people's PC's. Worst of all, it left listeners' computers vulnerable to hackers.

"Millions of music fans will be given free music downloads or money to compensate for flawed anti-piracy software on CDs from label Sony BMG. The final approval to the settlement for lawsuits against the music giant was granted by a US judge on Monday.

The EFF Electronic Frontier Foundation is a group of lawyers and technologists defending the public's digital freedoms in court.