Any one copying Sony CD's?

[David]

Apparently Sony is loading cloaking software on any computer that plays or copies one of their CD's!

http://www.sysinternals.com/blog/2005/10/sony-rootkits-and-digital-rights.html

[tchanson]

Originally posted by 125shifter
Apparently Sony is loading cloaking software on any computer that plays or copies one of their CD's!

http://www.sysinternals.com/blog/2005/10/sony-rootkits-and-digital-rights.html

Not anymore. At least for now.

The root of this (so to speak..) is of course their battle with Apple and iTunes. I have my issues with iTunes, but this salvo from Sony/BMG was truly epic in its stupidity, even by their historically boneheaded standards.

Tim




Sony BMG Pulling Controversial DRM
By Nate Mook, BetaNews
November 11, 2005, 1:58 PM

Following a week of consumer pressure, Sony BMG is backing away from its controversial CD copy-protection software, which installs a rootkit to prevent the DRM from being removed and potentially opens the door for security vulnerabilities. The label will stop making CDs that use the technology, known as XCP.

"As a precautionary measure, Sony BMG is temporarily suspending the manufacture of CDs containing XCP technology," the company said in a statement. "We also intend to re-examine all aspects of our content protection initiative to be sure that it continues to meet our goals of security and ease of consumer use."


The news comes one day after antivirus firms discovered a new trojan horse that takes advantage of a cloaking mechanism employed by Sony's software. Security researchers warned that viruses and other malware could hide using the DRM and thus make removal more difficult.

Lawsuits have also been filed against Sony BMG in both California and New York by consumers who claim that Sony's DRM, which attempts to stop computer users from copying a CD's audio tracks to a hard drive, is invasive and damaging to computer systems.

Beyond the cloaking risk, coding errors in the DRM software have been reported to leave systems vulnerable to crashes.

SysInternals' Mark Russinovich first reported on the software after his company's security tool recognized a "rootkit" on his machine. Rootkits are malicious applications that hide deep within an operating system to perform tasks without a user's knowledge. The technology can be used to cloak viruses and worms, or in this case, DRM.

Russinovich's report spread like wildfire across the Net and was quickly picked up by mainstream media. Sony responded with a statement claiming it no longer used the technology and offered instructions for customers explaining how to remove the hidden software from their PCs.

Antivirus vendors have also been forced to decide whether to classify Sony's software as malware if it is detected on customers' systems. McAfee, Sophos and Computer Associates have taken an aggressive stance and offer removal tools, while Symantec is directing users to Sony customer support and Microsoft remains undecided.

For its part, Sony says it has been responsive to the situation by posting removal instructions. But Russinovich disagrees, saying, "Without exaggeration I can say that I've analyzed virulent forms of spyware/adware that provide more straightforward means of uninstall."

[campbellcj]

I own several legally-purchased CD's that either won't play on my car's changer and/or can't be ripped to my computer/portable players.

This REALLY pisses me off and any label or artist propogating this crap will not get a penny more of my money!

[nostatic]

you guys are so last week:

http://weblogs.usc.edu/ccp/archives/2005/11/sony_invades_yo.html

and Mac too!

http://weblogs.usc.edu/ccp/archives/2005/11/sony_drm_not_ju.html

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Originally posted by nostatic
and Mac too!

http://weblogs.usc.edu/ccp/archives/2005/11/sony_drm_not_ju.html

Wow. F(_)CK THAT!

Time to double-check my Amazon wishlist and delete anything Sony-related.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

FYI, I am now officially boycotting all Sony products. According to Sony, the following are labels owned by Sony/BMG:


Arista Records
BMG Classics
BMG Heritage
BMG International Companies
Columbia Records
Epic Records
J Records
Jive Records
LaFace Records
Legacy Recordings
Provident Music Group
RCA Records
RCA Victor Group
RLG - Nashville
Sony Classical
Sony Music International
Sony Music Nashville
Sony Wonder
Sony Urban Music
So So Def Records
Verity Records

[island911]

All your computer are belong to us.




it's in the EULA

[stomachmonkey]

If you think the root kit is bad read their EULA

http://www.boingboing.net/2005/11/09/sonys_eula_is_worse_.html

[djmcmath]

Sony owns RCA and Epic? That's too bad. Seems like a couple of my CDs actually have those labels on them. It'll be a shame not to buy any more of their work.

Should the boycott extend to Sony audio equipment? Is the department that manufactures amps and speakers related to the music label?

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Dunno, but I just bought a Samsung HDTV.

[Don 944 LA]

Sony " Jumped the shark " on this " New Technology "

It has also made it's way to DVDs as well. There is a new format that was messing with the usual convention of " Backing up " say .. Blockbusters DVDs... but like anything else.. 2 years to develop, 2 weeks for some 14yr old kid to figure out ...

The Audio protection is really pissing alot of people off....., and if you notice sites like Amazon BOLDLY state " CD Copy Protected "... They tried this a few years back with the Ultra-Quality DVD Audio (standard CD plalist on a DVD with HUGE files) and it would render Macs inopperable, and you had to remove the CD player and break apart the CD unit to get the disk out. This had many fixes and many Pissed off people.

They are banking on people to pay for the CD AND again for the mp3 files ( for each device ) AND again and again and again ...

Don

[addictionMS]

Sony BMG, the joint venture record label, was on Friday forced into an embarrassing climbdown over its use of copy-protection technology on music CDs that exposed some PC users to hackers.

...


“We deeply regret any possible inconvenience this may cause,” Sony BMG said, adding that it stood by its content-protection technology as “an important tool to protect our intellectual property rights and those of our artists“. The company said: “Nonetheless, as a precautionary measure, Sony BMG is temporarily suspending the manufacture of CDs containing XCP technology. We also intend to re-examine all aspects of our content protection initiative to be sure that it continues to meet our goals of security and ease of consumer use.”



http://news.ft.com/cms/s/018223e4-52f0-11da-8d05-0000779e2340.html

[BlueSkyJaunte]

If they're not recalling their broken CDs then anything they say or do is bull*****.

[legion]

They are still producing CDs like this too, correct?

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Bots that take advantage of this have already been spotted (which means they're in the wild):

http://news.com.com/Bots+for+Sony+CD+software+spotted+online/2100-1029_3-5944643.html

[kach22i]

The latest posting on this topic - on a stereo forum.

http://www.martinloganowners.com/~tdacquis/forum/showthread.php?t=1237

[widebody911]

Now it seems there's even bigger vulnerabilities in the program Sony has released to fix the original problem.

http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2005/11/multiple_securi.html

I think an executive or two from Sony need to be reading this from inside a FPMITA jail cell.

[Jims5543]

I said this in another related thread. I am sorry, I am apologizing to anyone on here that is in the music industry.

I decided about 3 years ago to stop letting music be important to me. Along with that decision was my decision to not buy any CD's anymore. I listen to the radio and to sattelite and that is it.

This is my personal decision, I am unsure if anyone else has decided this as well. The greedy execs at the top of the music food chain know people will copy music and its driving them nuts.

When I was a teen I would sit all night waiting to get that one song I wanted off the radio onto a cassette tape, my family was not very well off and I could not afford to buy music in the stores. I would also copy friends tapes on a duel cassette deck at a friends house, this was pretty common when I was a teen. No one knocked down my door and took my boom box. Copying music is nothing new just the technology has advanced.

I wonder how many have done the same as me and just stopped listening and buying.

[Hetmann]

I'm not buying much music anymore either. Most of what I do buy is old music anyway. Lately, I've been ripping my vinyl collection to mp3. A lot of today's product isn't that good. It's too bad the producers are having to go to these measures to squeeze out every last cent. Maybe if they had more product worth buying they'd do better.