News Sony installs hidden malware on your machine

am i the only one who has considered this to its fullest extent? putting aside privacy concerns, consider the following.

1) the software hides anything starting with $sys$ from the end user.

2) the end user is not aware that anything hidden with $sys$ is being hidden.

3) email/im/irc/whatever appears "run-me!- im-not-a-virus.exe" which dumps $sys$nastyvirus.exe into your drive.

am i the only person who has seriously considered that this DRM technology is simply waiting to be exploited by anyone who is smart enough to change a filename?!

 

hah. now this can be used as promotional material for linux.

im no expert but im pretty sure this sort of thing cant be done to linux. at least with an open source OS you can dig arround all you want. provided you know how


EDIT: ziadane, thats a scary thought. no way to revoke REALY malacious spyware, addware, viruses from your box with this crap on

 

Hrm... I'll have to start ripping my Sony CDs indirectly now. No biggie.

 

Ill just stick to not buying cds until both RIAA and MPAA decide to be reasonable with thier anti-copying rootkit bs. If I pay forr media I had damned well be able to back it up as many times as I damned well please for my own use.

 

For the same reason why microsoft has the press F8 to agree to install, or the graffical button, push to agree, Sony had better have the same thing; Or else, they are going to buy me a new pc, monitor, and give me some cash for lost data, lost admin time, and pain and suffering.
That's all I have to say about that.

 

The only problem with just boycotting their product is they use their falling sales figures are more fuel for the argument "P2P is kill us". The only way to point out that we are not buying the cd because it is copy protected (badly) is to go out and buy lots of non cp albums so that when ever bean counters do their analysis its clear that its the copy protected cd's that are not selling.

 

I'm curious, does the CD jacket cover say anything about, 'this cd installs software on your computer if you insert it', etc..?

I buy CD's, but I have also been known to download mp3's from various places on the net. If I find a cd that I really like, I will support the artist and purchase it. What they are doing is wrong, and definitely illegal if they aren't notifying the end user that there is software being installed on the PC.

Oh, and since I don't have a cd player/stereo here at work, I listen to all my music here on the PC. Always have. I rip just about everything I buy and keep it here on my machine at work (and at home as well) but that should be my perogative (sp?), right?

 

*sigh*

Bindi, I'm with you on this one.

I'll go back to my happy little world of iTunes. Yeah, there's DRM, but it's beatable, and frankly it's pretty non-invasive anyways.

Sony, two-finger salute right here for you.

 

Why am I reminded of TC? And why am I reminded that freerip does a darn good job of ripping through copy protection? I have that Chili Peppers cd, which freerip ripped just fine. But this...this is just like "TC" or trusted computing. Has anyone else ever heard of it? I'll look for a link later.

edit: found the link. http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa-faq.html

 

Well I guess that I now will have to start looking for rootkits on my users pc - along with all the other malware that’s out there. Not even safe mod is safe anymore. Not to mention that it is illegal in California to do this which makes no difference since California doesn’t enforces its laws.

 

Yeah, this sucks. Sony can kiss my ass, which is a shame, because I've gotten some products from them in the past which I really enjoyed. Oh well. At least I haven't heard any new music in like 5 years that has appealed to me, so the cds I'm after should be safe.

 

You can forget any hope of me putting another legit CD in my computer Sony, sorry, but malware oversteps the mark by a long way. BitTorrent for me from now on.

And as my car uses MP3's that I used to rip, I no have no reason to buy CD's at all...

Well Done on that copy protection.... That'll work

 

It looks like people have started to take advantage...

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=27608

 

Wonderful. Gogo Sony, now the world's largest provider of personal computer hi-jacking technology.

 

It just gets better...

Sony have set themselves up for such a big fall.

 

Dun Dun Dun Duuuuuuuuun Duuun Duuuuuuuuuun Duuun Duuuuuuuun! The force is strong with this code

 

Sony have backtracked already:

I can hear the screams from Sony HQ as we speak.

 

Nice ....

 

It gets better by the day.

I guess Sony can't really do much else now. I'd like to say hats off to them for the gesture, but frankly I think they deserve it for trying underhand, poorly implemented copy protection.


*Officially these can not be called CDs as they do not conform to the standards required to display the Compact Disc logo as they contain copy protection.

 

microsoft are supposed to be working on an update to remove this due to the security problems