Word Of Advice: Avoid Sony CD's Like The Plague! - Darkforum.com - Dark Stories, Dark Art, Poetry, Photography, Debates and Discussions

waterRTBH · **Word Of Advice: Avoid Sony CD's Like The Plague! -** 11-06-05

...they install rootkits on your system, and the patch is a defective homecalling device.

A couple of links for your reading:

http://www.sysinternals.com/blog/200...al-rights.html

Quote:

I entered the company name into my Internet browser’s address bar and went to http://www.first4internet.com/. I searched for both the product name and Aries.sys, but came up empty. However, the fact that the company sells a technology called XCP made me think that maybe the files I’d found were part of some content protection scheme. I Googled the company name and came across this article, confirming the fact that they have deals with several record companies, including Sony, to implement Digital Rights Management (DRM) software for CDs.

The DRM reference made me recall having purchased a CD recently that can only be played using the media player that ships on the CD itself and that limits you to at most 3 copies. I scrounged through my CD’s and found it, Sony BMG’s Get Right with the Man (the name is ironic under the circumstances) CD by the Van Zant brothers. I hadn’t noticed when I purchased the CD from Amazon.com that it’s protected with DRM software, but if I had looked more closely at the text on the Amazon.com web page I would have known:

And a follow up:

http://www.sysinternals.com/blog/200...ecloaking.html

Quote:

My posting Monday on Sony’s use of a rootkit as part of their Digital Rights Management (DRM) generated an outcry that’s reached the mainstream media. As of this morning the story is being covered in newspapers and media sites around the world including USA Today and the BBC. This is the case of the blogosphere having an impact, at least for the moment. But, there’s more to the story, like how Sony’s patch can lead to a crashed system and data loss and how Sony is still making users jump through hoops to get an uninstaller. At the core of this story, however, is the issue of what disclosure should be required of software End User License Agreements (EULAs) and how the requirements can be made Federal law.

I have my own serious opinions on this, but I would like to hear how others feel. AND how you think this will affect illegal downloading as well.....

Sony's way of protecting their material might be a reason for artists to leave the company for one that is more geared to customer satisfaction. if they continue this way of working, they might just as well sign their death warrant.

When I hear about these types of games, I immediately want to boycott and form a movement to boycott these types of companies. Any more you need to be a coding genius to understand what companies are putting on your computer, if I'm going to a website that installs spyware - I can pretty much accept that. But when I am paying 15 to 20 dollars for a commercial product that is going to AFFECT my computer, that is a wholly different story.

Alas, we thought the same about the On-line Activation of Windows XP and Photoshop cs. Microsoft and Adobe are still alive.

There are also worries about virus's and spyware that might use the hiding of the $sys$ prefix files when the Sony rootkit is installed.

People might say that it is pointless to worry about, but if a virusscanner can't see a file, it doesn't mean it isn't running.

The big trouble is that it only needs to run a little code, the rootkit is already there, installed by the user who played a Sony CD. So if there ARE virus's and other malware around, taking advantage of said rootkit, Sony might be blamed in helping in computer crime (if you can call virus/spyware and similar programs crime) which I would, BTW.

This is just nasty.

DizzyQViper · 11-10-05

last i heard sony removed this crap "because sony thinks the people know illigal downloading is wrong by now". The public thinks it has more to do with the complaints that people coulnd rip songs from their sony disks to their sony mp3 player.. wich is somewhat embarising for sony...

but sony is not the only one with cd's that phone home when inserted in computers.

gah, copy protection is stupid anyway. I can rip and copy those disks without pain.
Usealy i clone them, scan the art work and return the cd to the store saying the disk refused to play on my cd player. in that case the store must give you a refund because they sold you a defective product... tadaa! free cd that sounds just as good as the original with artwork.

waterRTBH · 11-12-05

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051112/...BHNl YwM3Mzg-

A senior Homeland Security official cautioned entertainment companies against discouraging piracy in ways that also make computers vulnerable. Stewart Baker, assistant secretary for policy at DHS, did not cite Sony by name in his remarks Thursday but described industry efforts to install hidden files on consumers' computers.

"It's very important to remember that it's your intellectual property, it's not your computer," Baker said at a trade conference on piracy. "And in the pursuit of protection of intellectual property, it's important not to defeat or undermine the security measures that people need to adopt in these days."

Sony's program is included on about 20 popular music titles, including releases by Van Zant and The Bad Plus.

"This is a step they should have taken immediately," said Mark Russinovich, chief software architect at Winternals Software who discovered the hidden copy-protection technology Oct. 31 and posted his findings on his Web log. He said Sony did not admit any wrongdoing, nor did it promise not to use similar techniques in the future.

Security researchers have described Sony's technology as "spyware," saying it is difficult to remove, transmits without warning details about what music is playing, and that Sony's notice to consumers about the technology was inadequate. Sony executives have rejected the description of their technology as spyware.

Some leading antivirus companies updated their protective software this week to detect Sony's antipiracy program, disable it and prevent it from reinstalling.

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