HONG KONG (AFX) - Sony BMG Music Entertainment has tentatively settled at least 15 consumer class actions brought against the music company over its use of copy-protection software on CDs, the Wall Street Journal said.

In its online edition, the newspaper said the deal offers consumers a copy of the CD without the software or the CD contents by digital download and other compensation depending on the type of software that was on their CD.

The paper cited Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which brought three of the lawsuits involved in the tentative settlement as saying: ‘We think it’s a good settlement for people who bought the discs’.

A US district court in Manhattan will review the agreement in a hearing early next month.

The deal will compensate customers who bought discs carrying a copy-protection technology known as XCP — which can leave computers vulnerable to viruses and other problems when the CDs are played on them — as well as less-controversial copy-protection software known as MediaMax.

Cohn speculated the settlement could cost Sony 50 mln usd or more.