Sony tries to pacify customers, offers free downloads

Sony BMG Music Entertainment has offered free music downloads to as many 11 million customers to settle lawsuits over flawed copy-protection software on compact discs.

The settlement would require the second-largest music company in the US to stop manufacturing CDs containing antipiracy software that allegedly leaves computers vulnerable to hackers and viruses.

‘‘We hope this settlement will make a lot of content holders, especially record companies, think twice about going down a similar road,’’ said Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. ‘‘Technology that is effective at stopping copying will always run the risk of exposing computers to hackers.’’