Sony has temporarily suspended the manufacture of CDs that contain the XCP  software (Extended Copy Protection) said John McKay, a Sony spokesperson.

 XCP's developers have previously stated they are in the process of writing new  copy protection software that does not use the controversial cloaking  techniques  that were in the original XCP and that have stirred up so much  negative publicity  for Sony.

 XCP is designed to limit the number of copies that CD owners can make.

 A Windows operating system expert named Mark Russinovich reported how  XCP  used "rootkit" cloaking techniques to hide itself on his computer. At the  time,  Russinovich described the software as "digital rights management gone  too  far,"  and criticized it for not warning users that it would become virtually  undetectable  and extremely difficult to remove.

The widely publicized hack of Sony's computer networks is worse than previously thought, also affecting 24.6 million Sony Online Entertainment network accounts.

Sony -- which has kept its Sony PlayStation Network offline for nearly two weeks as it investigates a computer intrusion -- took a second gaming network offline on Monday, saying it too appears to have been hacked. It said banking and credit card information belonging to more than 23,000 customers outside the U.S. may have been compromised.

The Sony Online Entertainment network, used for massively multiplayer online games like EverQuest, Star Wars Galaxies and Matrix Online, has been suspended temporarily, Sony said Monday. Add this to the 77 million accounts that may have been compromised last week, and Sony is responsible for one of the largest recorded data breaches.

The entertainment network is separate from the PlayStation Network but both hacks have similar traits, said Mai Hora, a spokeswoman for Sony Computer Entertainment in Tokyo.