Sony suing rootkit maker

Culver City (CA) – Sony is suing the Amergence Group for negligence and breach of contract over its MediaMax CD copy protection technology. You may remember the huge rootkit scandal that broke out in 2005 regarding Sony’s overzealous music copy protection, but according to the lawsuit Sony is blaming it all on Amergence. MediaMax was one of two copy protection schemes – the other being Extendend Copy Protection (XCP) - that were installed on Sony CDs starting in 2003. Security researchers found that the code had rootkit-like properties and monitored users computers and called back to a server.

SunnComm developed MediaMax and changed its name to the Amergence Group in January of this year. Sony is seeking $12 million in damages and claims that Amergence used unfair business practices and was negligent in making the software.

Sony faced numerous class action lawsuits, namely from New York and California state and eventually settled all claims in 2006. Customers who purchased affected CDs could have applied for new CDs and rebates.

Amergence has vowed to fight Sony’s lawsuit.