Unbelievable! Sony music CD's install rootkits to prevent 'music piracy'. Extensive analysis available here.
From the blog of Mark Russinovich of Sysinternals.com Wow! Talk about scumware you never asked for in the first place!
Yep, count me among the people that will not buy sony discs again. Also, btw, they are legally bound by Phillips to NOT use the official CD logo on them because they do not meet Phillips strict standards and therefore technically not even CD's. HAHAHAHA Edit: Heres a great link from Fark: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4406178.stm
It had never occurred to me to check to see who manufactures the CD's but I will now and it won't be Sony! <edit>Bugger about "Talk Talk" -- I wanted that one for my Christmas
Surely those large scale pirates will find a way around it anyway. Only people sony will catch will be those individuals making backup copies or a copy for their friend etc. Thats just out of order.
Heh, good point! So it is better to download the torrent than to buy the CD.... Hmm me thinks this could backfire on Sony/
It was on yahoo news today that someone created a virus which destroys the protection Sony set up. It looks like Sony wasted millions of dollars on nothing.
I just heard about this on a local tech radio show (Shouldn't I be listening to football?) They claimed sony's root kit will grab any file that has "$sys$" in it. SO guess what is appearing in spammer files?
Looks like they are so caught up in an "us vs them" with the public, they didn't fully grasp the downside of taking over computers! And so sloppily at that. I have to think if they would have embraced downloadable music and created the best mp3 music site, they would end up coming out ahead, instead of trying to hold on to everything. Sure they own the music, but instead of focusing on listeners it has become an industry built by copyright lawyers. You always get what you give.
Don't forget these were the same people who had a superior videotape format (BetaMax) and threw it away by trying to keep exclusive rights to production. They seem to be following the same "shoot yourself in the foot" business model as IBM (remember OS2?) and Apple.
Oh yeah? betamax was Sony? They really don't learn do they? Shoot yourself in the foot... Barney Fife is the only one clever enough to pull off that strategy!
Stewart Baker, nominated to be Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security (Policy) is reported to have been the source of a comment that is very succinct in summing up the Sony situation during a talk (referring to DVD / CD copy protection):