Maker Pro
Maker Pro

More bad news about that Sony rootkit

A

Andrew

Yep. Quite a screw-up. Ony 20 CD's affected, though. Wonder how much that
will cost them.

I hope they get it stuck to them. For the most part, PC users are not savvy
enough to detect and correct virus problems. Sony has lumped itself into the
same dark group as the virus writers.

I abandoned P2P music downloads because of the inherent spyware problems
with the host software. Now that Sony is including these features on their
CDs, it makes me reconsider my strategies.
 
T

Tim Wescott

Joerg said:
Hello Graham,


Assuming they don't inform users on the CD wrapper about that I smell a
whole lot more lawsuits.

Regards, Joerg

That's what itty bitty fonts are for.
 
J

Joerg

Hello Tim,
That's what itty bitty fonts are for.

True. They might have a warning about DRM or whatever on there. But then
the question will arise whether an average consumer can be expected to
understand it and whether the consumer was made aware of the fact that
this can increase the virus risks. Most likely these questions are going
to be asked in court.

Anyway, this morning's paper had a short blurb in there, about Sony
stopping this scheme for now. Maybe their lawyers pulled the emergency
brake.

The company may be able to swallow a few cases. But if it comes to some
widespread virus problem and a class action is permitted, oh boy.

Regards, Joerg
 
D

Donald

Fred said:
According to the BBC website, Sony have announced that they are
discontinuing the practice.

Let them try getting the genie back in the bottle ...
From the BBC article:

"In response to the concerns, Sony has released a statement "deeply
regretting any disruption that this may have caused." It added that it
would work with anti-virus firms to ensure its anti-piracy system stayed
safe."

"to ensure its anti-piracy system stayed safe." !!!!

Whos saftey are they talking about ??

Its only going to get worse.
 
J

Jasen Betts

Yep. Quite a screw-up. Ony 20 CD's affected, though. Wonder how much that
will cost them.

I hope they get it stuck to them. For the most part, PC users are not savvy
enough to detect and correct virus problems. Sony has lumped itself into the
same dark group as the virus writers.
I abandoned P2P music downloads because of the inherent spyware problems
with the host software.

change to open source software. GTK-gnutella is clean. there may be
something for windows too... possibly the pay version of your favourite
client.
 
M

Mac

Yep. Quite a screw-up. Ony 20 CD's affected, though. Wonder how much that
will cost them.

I hope they get it stuck to them. For the most part, PC users are not savvy
enough to detect and correct virus problems. Sony has lumped itself into the
same dark group as the virus writers.

[snip]

Actually, even expert users cannot necessarily be expected to figure out
things as tricky as this DRM rootkit. The guy who made all this stuff
public (Mark Russinovich) is a pretty savvy customer. ;-)

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

--Mac
 
M

Mike Young

Pooh Bear said:
Virus writers are exploiting Sony's controversial anti-piracy software
to hide their malicious creations.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4427606.stm

I especially like this line:

[Now anti-virus companies have discovered three malicious programs that use
XCP's stealthy capabilities if they find it installed on a compromised PC.]

I think they misspelled "unleashed", or "wrote". Damned efficient of them.
 
P

Pooh Bear

Maybe Sony should have read this first:

The effort required to enforce copyright is approaching infinity.

Encryption, the Industry counters: we will be so clever that we'll
only distribute a product that can be unlocked and used by the
customer, by the miracle of the cipher, a secret code.

The Internet was built for maximum survivability in a nuclear war.
It's everywhere, and growing exponentially. How's the hell is
Entertainment business going to keep up with that? And copyright all
you want. The Internet doesn't care; if it can be digitized and
loaded onto a networked computer, it will be everywhere, soon. The
cyborg guarantees it. Go ahead - sick your lawyers on a few dozen
downloaders. It's just a finger in the dyke; a thousand new holes
will appear every day. Squared.

Comparisons of the Internet to a military cyborg really aren't
hyperbole. The grim history is that Internet was originally built as a
cybernetic military command-and-control infrastructure for
coordinating, among other things, the launch of nuclear missiles.
Researchers at the Department of Defense figured out that virtual
communication circuits on a network beat the heck out of literal,
point-to-point circuits of dedicated wiring. This scheme of virtual
circuits brought with it the prospect the military could build a
control system that could fix itself instantaneously if it sustained
damage. Damage, as in, nuclear damage. When a segment of the network
was compromised - as in, "Oh, heck - they just nuked Denver"
- the system could re-configure these virtual circuits on-the-fly -
with computers and routers instead of work crews with pliers, wire and
soldering guns - and the messages would still get through, right now.
Simply, the Net interpreted sudden silences in any of its network nodes
as damage, and routed around it.

That is the Prime Directive, core message, and DNA of the Internet, all
in one: If you can't get a message through one channel, route around
it - invisibly, silently, relentlessly - until you make the
connection.

And here's the commercially grizzly implication of that Prime
Directive no entertainment executive has, as of yet, been able to
understand: The Internet interprets commercial interest, censorship or
virtual toll-booths of any kind as damage. And routes around them.
Invisibly, automatically, instantaneously.

quoted from http://www.thomasscoville.com/Tinseltown_Burning.pdf
"Why downloading isn't wrong, copyright is dead and Hollywood is in
decline."
 
J

Joel Kolstad

The effort required to enforce copyright is approaching infinity.

The corollary to this is that the effort required to circumvent copyrights
(even for 100% legitimate fair uses) is also approaching infinity. :-(

This is why we're rapidly heading towards seeing a lot of new legislation that
defines what is and isn't allowable for companies to do in their (reasonable
enough) quest ot protect their IP. Unfortunately, Sony went way over the line
of "acceptable protection" into what's clearly the sleazball and possibly even
illegal arena with their root kit... jerks.

The folks who decry the putative millions/billions/whatever dollars lost per
year due to software piracy are kinda in the same boat as environmentlists:
The Earth will outlast the human race anyway, it's just a question of how
crappy we leave the planet by the time it gets there. Likewise, software
creation will outlast all attempts at IP protection/legislation/etc., it's
just a question of how crappy it becomes if piracy becomes so rampant
companies really do lose significant sales and can't afford to hire decent
programmers anymore.
 
J

John Larkin

The corollary to this is that the effort required to circumvent copyrights
(even for 100% legitimate fair uses) is also approaching infinity. :-(

This is why we're rapidly heading towards seeing a lot of new legislation that
defines what is and isn't allowable for companies to do in their (reasonable
enough) quest ot protect their IP. Unfortunately, Sony went way over the line
of "acceptable protection" into what's clearly the sleazball and possibly even
illegal arena with their root kit... jerks.

The folks who decry the putative millions/billions/whatever dollars lost per
year due to software piracy are kinda in the same boat as environmentlists:
The Earth will outlast the human race anyway, it's just a question of how
crappy we leave the planet by the time it gets there. Likewise, software
creation will outlast all attempts at IP protection/legislation/etc., it's
just a question of how crappy it becomes if piracy becomes so rampant
companies really do lose significant sales and can't afford to hire decent
programmers anymore.

One or two people can write a good application program, and make a ton
of money selling it for $25 a copy, or just charging for corporate
support. Similarly, one or three people can make great music, and get
rich giving it away and doing concerts. But Microsoft writes rotten,
buggy bloatware and charges a mint for it, and Sony gives the
"artists" a pittance and price-fixes the CD market.

There's only one proper response to Microsoft or Sony: bootleg.

John
 
M

Mark

The corollary to this is that the effort required to circumvent
copyrights
(even for 100% legitimate fair uses) is also approaching infinity. :-(

Nope, not true... if you can play it in the analog domain it can
easily be re-digitized without the copy protection.

they may as well give up now...

Mark
 
J

Joel Kolstad

Hi Mark,

Mark said:
Nope, not true... if you can play it in the analog domain it can
easily be re-digitized without the copy protection.

1) True, and as far as 'fair use' is concerned this is a pretty viable means,
I suppose. But of course you don't end up with an exact copy, so over time
the information will degrade.
2) The proposed DVD replacement standard, Blu-ray, requires that the original,
uncompressed digital bitstream only be output when the connection to the
display device is, itself, an encrypted link. Which such a link isn't
present, players are required to ouptut a significantly lower quality analog
rendering. !@$#@#$
they may as well give up now...

They're not going to -- just as book publishers were worried that libraries
would put them out of business and Hollywood initially sued to keep VCRs off
the market. Content publishing and distribution is very much a commodity
business, so anyone who's presently making bucketes of money at it is
naturally going to be scared to death of anything they perceive that'll reduce
their sales.
 
T

Ted Edwards

1) True, and as far as 'fair use' is concerned this is a pretty viable means,
I suppose. But of course you don't end up with an exact copy, so over time
the information will degrade.

Nope. One person somewhere will do it once and digitize the result.
That copy will then circulate without the copy protection.
2) The proposed DVD replacement standard, Blu-ray, requires that the original,
uncompressed digital bitstream only be output when the connection to the
display device is, itself, an encrypted link. Which such a link isn't
present, players are required to ouptut a significantly lower quality analog
rendering. !@$#@#$

I've never been interested in computer games so never investigated the
how but the what has been obvious for a long time. There are some
pretty smart kids out there who aren't too busy earning a living. Even
back in the days when the Commodore 64 was the state of the art, the
neighborhood kids had cracked copies of the latest games before the
local stores.
They're not going to -- just as book publishers were worried that libraries
would put them out of business and Hollywood initially sued to keep VCRs off
the market.

Note that they did not succeed. Corporate greed forces them to continue
to try but they will change or die. Look what is happening in the music
business. Name CD's selling for $20 and up while the artists get little
or nothing. More and more are burning and selling their own work.
There is even at least one outfit that commits to handing over 50% of
_gross_ sales to the artist(s) and are selling alblums at less than half
what the biggies charge.

Like that big green fellow said, "Change is good, Donkey."

Ted
 
K

Keith Williams

The corollary to this is that the effort required to circumvent
copyrights
(even for 100% legitimate fair uses) is also approaching infinity. :-(

Nope, not true... if you can play it in the analog domain it can
easily be re-digitized without the copy protection.

My DVDR will detect copy protection (MacroVision?) from my older
(6-7 years?) DVD player and refuse to copy a DVD. I know it's SMOP
with a PC but apparently they don't want to make it too easy for
those who already own a license.
they may as well give up now...

Not going to happen.
 
R

Richard the Dreaded Libertarian

The corollary to this is that the effort required to circumvent copyrights
(even for 100% legitimate fair uses) is also approaching infinity. :-(

This is why we're rapidly heading towards seeing a lot of new legislation
that defines what is and isn't allowable for companies to do in their
(reasonable enough) quest ot protect their IP. Unfortunately, Sony went
way over the line of "acceptable protection" into what's clearly the
sleazball and possibly even illegal arena with their root kit... jerks.

The folks who decry the putative millions/billions/whatever dollars lost
per year due to software piracy are kinda in the same boat as
environmentlists: The Earth will outlast the human race anyway, it's just
a question of how crappy we leave the planet by the time it gets there.

Actually, this is a boogeyman. Regardless how draconian the penalties, the
people who would download freebies wound't have bought the work anyway -
if we can't get it for nothing, we'll do without. :)

Cheers!
Rich
 
Top