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Sony, in their futile digital rights management efforts, has taken to playing dirty with the music CDs. Multiple security sources are confirming the existence of spyware in the form of rootkits on Sony's music CDs. This behavior is unethical in the eyes of many and the legality may be questionable as well.emphasis mine
Full Story [securitypronews.com]
Hidden software no less, and difficult to remove. So you buy a CD from SOny BMG, pop it into your PC to play it, and bam, you have unwanted software installed on your PC and Sony made it difficult to get rid of.
Both F-Secure and SysInternals said conventional means won't get rid of the file. They said if you just delete it, it could "cripple" your computer.
Texas Sues Sony Under Anti-Spyware Law
from: [breitbart.com...]
Way to go Texas, I knew there was a reason I liked your fine State so much.
Now, can any of our WebmasterWorld members from Texas tell me if spyware is a hanging offense down there?
With each passing week new revelations seem to make this ever-worse for Sony. What's the consensus around here..?
1) Will this (finally) blow over
2) Will this result in significant change in how copyright protection is implemented
3) Will Sony recover from the PR fallout before Christmas (2006)
4) ..
This is just getting started.
A sampling:
How many corporate, government, military, and scientific organizations will ban the use of any Sony CD now on any machine connected to their networks? How long until those bans extend to any copy-protected CD made by any music company? Has anyone sat down with Thomas Hesse, President at Sony BMG and utterer of the line "Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?", and explained to him just how stupid his statement is?
(Not that those countries have been singled out, that's just where they are.)
Way to go Sony! You are having your products banned. It seems it is safer to download your products illegally, rather than pay for them.
But I still love the 55" HDTV Sony in my living room, unless that is spying on me too?
no problem, you guys can just download the MP3s from the net ... for free.
New York AG office purchaces some recalled Sony CDs still on store shelves [businessweek.com].
Businessweek article.
DC class action lawsuit against Sony [prnewswire.com].
logging in to this thread or trying to via proxy could get me upto 3 years jail..:(
and all our emails in France will be monitored to see if we are talking about open source media players or exchanging old pre this proposed legislation "non restricted versions" of Linux with them in ..!
[boingboing.net...]
for those who read french there is more detail
According to the EFF, the vulnerability centres on a file folder installed by the MediaMax software shipped on some Sony CDs, “that could allow malicious third parties who have localized, lower-privilege access to gain control over a consumer’s computer running the Windows operating system.”...the EFF is pointing out “other severe problems with MediaMax discs, including: undisclosed communications with servers Sony controls… undisclosed installation of over 18 MB of software regardless of whether the user agrees to the End User License Agreement; and failure to include an uninstaller with the CD.”
