Video Business has an article on the consent decree and order that Sony BMG agreed to last week. (Read FTC press release, download PDF of agreement containing consent order.) The settlement lays out requirements for labeling of copy protection on CDs, and to what lengths Sony BMG must go to disclose what the protection software will do. From the press release:

" The settlement requires clear and prominent disclosure on the packaging of Sony BMG’s future CDs of any limits on copying or restrictions on the use of playback devices. It bars the company from installing content protection software without obtaining consumers’ authorization, and, if Sony BMG conditions consumers’ use of its CDs on installation of the content protection software, it must disclose that requirement on the product packaging.

In addition, the settlement bars Sony BMG from using the information on consumers’ listening preferences that it has already gathered through the monitoring technology it installed and bars them from using the information to deliver ads to those consumers. For future CDs containing such technology, the agreement requires that, before transmitting information about consumers, their computers or their use of the CD, Sony BMG must clearly disclose on consumers’ computer screens what the technology will do, and obtain consumers’ consent. If it conditions consumers’ use of its CDs on their agreement to have information collected, Sony BMG must disclose that condition clearly on the CDs’ packaging."

When the settlement hit the newswires last week, as in this article at Variety, the dollar impact was the point of interest. I think the labeling requirements have a greater, more far-reaching impact. The matters at hand are what copy protection schemes -- if any -- will be used, how disclosures will look plastered across a CD jewel case and how consumers, well aware of Sony BMG's rootkit circus, will react to such labeling.