Musiclovers beware! [UPDATED!]

[Umbran]

Psionicist, are you dead-certain as to the accuracy of the information? It sounds a little far-fetched, though not impossible.

Perhaps sopme more information...
Sony, Rootkits and Digital Rights Management Gone Too Far

That blog could be a fabrication, but if so it's quite a lot of work to make Sony look bad...

If it only works against those trying to pirate it, I have no problems with it.

I have a very big problem with Sony installing software on my computer without my permission or knowledge. Even more of a problem that then goes about hiding itself. Even more that it causes problems should I try to remove it...

 

[GlassJaw]

Just another example that the music industry is very afraid at the current business model in music. They feat the internet and what it could do to big record companies. Never think for a second that record companies care about the struggling artists out there. Even with a good-selling album, the artists are lucky to break even with the record company.

If you want to support the artists, save your money on CD's and go to their shows and buy merch. Artists get up to 50% of ticket sales and merch. Remove the record company from the equation.

 

[Psionicist]

Psionicist, are you dead-certain as to the accuracy of the information? It sounds a little far-fetched, though not impossible.

Yeah, but the time I wrote the first post the only information available was the highly technical report itself (link in Umbrans post) and a discussion on Slashdot which is also technical and political.

Fortunately some articles about this are beginning to surface in the regular tech press. A few links:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=2092
http://www.techspot.com/news/19266-sony-taking-drm-way-too-far.html
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2005/11/01/sony_hidden_malware/

 

[fett527]

I'll add my favorite to the list:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/01/sony_rootkit_drm/

Enk brought this to my attention. I have used the Sysinternals site often for utilities and troubleshooting. Even pointed there by Microsoft support before. The report is definitely authentic and most certainly possible. It is VERY technical however and is hard to follow even for someone who works on Windows OSs daily. The article gets nitty gritty with the registry and innerworkings of the OS. If you don't have a lot of technical apptitude with the Windows OS I'd recommend you read some of the other articles to get a better understanding.

 

[trancejeremy]

Good thing most of the music I listen to only comes out on vinyl...

 

[Torm]

Always hold the shift key for about a minute while inserting music CDs in your computer (bypasses autoplay, which is how this stuff installs).

Better yet:

Obtain and install TweakUI (part of the PowerToys for Windows package), and then start TweakUI.
Expand the My Computer branch, then the AutoPlay branch, and then select Drives.
Turn off the checkbox next to each drive letter for which you want AutoPlay disabled.

And, never double click the CD drive icon in My Computer or Windows Explorer while a music disc is in the drive. Right click and 'explore', if you really need to look at those Track files.

 

[IronWolf]

Always hold the shift key for about a minute while inserting music CDs in your computer (bypasses autoplay, which is how this stuff installs).

Though in this case the article on Sysinternals makes it sound like in order to listen to the CD you had to use their player:

"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."

 

[Torm]

Though in this case the article on Sysinternals makes it sound like in order to listen to the CD you had to use their player:

"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."

Then I hope they get sued.

From the Wikipedia article on the Red Book CD standard: "Philips and many other companies have warned them that including the Compact Disc Digital Audio logo on such non-conforming discs may constitute trademark infringement; either in anticipation or in response, the long-familiar logo is no longer to be seen on many recent CDs."

 

[IronWolf]

Then I hope they get sued.

I agree 100%.

 

[BOZ]

man, that is super teh suck.