Sony Pulls Controversial Anti-Piracy Software

An anonymous reader writes "Bowing to public outrage, Sony BMG has temporarily halted the use of its controversial anti-piracy software in all of its music CDs, the company said in a statement today. The move comes just a day after a top Bush administration official chided Sony and the entertainment industry for going too far: according to this story over at Washingtonpost.com, Stewart Baker, the Department of Homeland Security's policy czar warned would-be DRM makers: 'It's very important to remember that it's your intellectual property -- it's not your computer. And in the pursuit of protection of intellectual property, it's important not to defeat or undermine the security measures that people need to adopt in these days.' The Post has the full text and video of his commentary." We've reported on this story previously.

Comments

$sys$Here's the reason:

[dada21]

Re:$sys$Here's the reason:

[tehshen]

John Cage, is that you?

Re:$sys$Here's the reason:

[myz24]

You should rethink your comment

Re:$sys$Here's the reason:

[PaxTech]

I think if I had a t-shirt with "$sys$" on the front I could become invisible. Hello, ThinkGeek?

Re:$sys$Here's the reason:

[IchBinEinPenguin]

I could become invisible

Only to people who have listened to SONY CD's.

Re:They'll still be liable though

[vidarh]

Doesn't take a genius to predict that seeing as it had happened before this article was even posted...

Re:Dept of Homeland Security?

[Cheapy]

Hey, give the Canadian army some credit.

They have some tough flying squirrels.

I'm Sony's bitch.

[Anonymous Coward]

it's your intellectual property -- it's not your computer

Actually, I use a Vaio, so it actually is their computer. I feel _so_ f*cking pwned right now.

Re:I wonder . . .

[drinkypoo]

Not yet, but the class action lawsuit will likely change that. However, they are primarily due a lesson in holding down the shift key the first time they insert a CD from Sony Music.

You know you've gone to far...

[Anonymous Coward]

...when the creators of the USA PATRIOT Act are on your case about in violating people's rights.

In other news..

[DigitalReverend]

The Canadian Government agreed to provied 4000 army troops, a squadron of jets and a naval fleet to the U.S. in it's war on terror.

After the exchange rates, it came out to 4 canoes, 3 flying squirrels, and a 2 Canadian mounties.

Re:In other news..

[ChadAmberg]

President Bush May Send Up To 5 Marines For French Assistance

President Bush has authorized the Joint Chiefs to begin drawing up a battle plan to pull France's ass out of the fire again. Facing an apparent overwhelming force of up to 400 pissed off teenagers Mr. Bush doubts France's ability to hold off the little pissants. "Hell, if the last two world wars are any indication, I would expect France to surrender any day now", said Bush.

Joint Chiefs head, Gen. Peter Pace, warned the President that it might be necessary to send up to 5 marines to get things under control. The general admitted that 5 marines may be overkill but he wanted to get this thing under control within 24 hours of arriving on scene. He stated he was having a hard time finding even one marine to help those ungrateful bastards out for a third time but thought that he could persuade a few women marines to do the job before they went on pregnancy leave.

President Bush asked Gen. Pace to get our marines out of there as soon as possible after order was restored. He also reminded Gen. Pace to make sure the marines did not take soap, razors, or deodorant with them. The least they stand out the better.

Re:In other news..

[Archades54]

reports say the 4 canoes, 3 flying squirrels and 2 canadian mounties have done more good in iraq than 78% of the usmc. no friendly fire incidents have occurred.

OMG... Overload!!!

[dan_sdot]

Slashdot Hive Mind overload!!!! Bush administration evil... but... music industry evil.... can't side with Bush... but can't side with Sony..... aaaghhh!!!
segmentation fault (core dump).

Thank God It's Temporary

[Mateo_LeFou]

I don't know what I'd do if they removed the stuff PERMANENTLY!

Re:Dept of Homeland Security?

[AndersOSU]

I think the sony root kit is causing problems with something called $sys$magic_lantern

It's not Sony's computer

[remahl]

It belongs to Microsoft.

So when should we...

[JumperCable]

...expect Sony to announce their monthly patch cycle for CDs? That's going to be a real bitch.

Re:do we forgive sony now?

[Wieland]

On second thought, shouldn't technology that can help prevent the further spreading of Celine Dion actually be considered a good thing?

Re:They'll still be liable though

[orderb13]

You're right, no one will call you an idiot, you moron.

Re:They're not going to recall their CDs...

[Armour Hotdog]

Thinking about that though, does it matter if they recall the CD's if the DRM rootkits are already out there installed on computers?

Don't worry - I'm sure if it comes to that, Sony will take the opportunity to continue to spin shit into PR gold:

Sony BMG is aware of the growing public perception that certain copyright technology used on a small number of compact discs has been the subject of great controversy over the last several weeks. While we stand by our use of this technology to protect our valuable intellectual property against the growing phenomenon of internet piracy (which cost the recording industry an estimated $12.7 billion in 2004), we recognize that many people continue to hold a deep distrust of this innocuous technology. Therefore, as a gesture of goodwill, we are offering the following replacement program:

Any person who purchased one of the protected compact discs prior to December 31, 2005 may return the product to Sony BMG, with its original packaging and retail receipt, and choose a replacement compact disc from Sony's extensive library of bagpipe and accordian recordings. Any customers desiring to take advantage of this offer should contact customer service through this link [link to form that initiates overly long chain of correspondance eventually resulting in promise to ship "12 Classic Bagpipe Funeral Marches" in 6-8 weeks]

A trojan-trojan?

[g_adams27]

Was Sony's decision in response to the trojan that takes advantage of their DRM rootkit?

If so, this might be the first time we've ever seen a trojan-trojan: a program that seems to be useful, but actually turns out to be harmful, but then actually turns out to be useful. :-)

Re:Flu epidemic - warning to malware writers

[MS-06FZ]

Jury: We find the defendant guilty on each of the 100 million counts of computer tampering and 2 million counts of involuntary manslaughter.
Judge: I hereby sentence you to 10 million sentences of 2 years of probation and 2 million sentences of 6 months in jail followed by 5 years probation. Due to the outrageous nature of your conduct, sentences are to be served consecutively. You should be out in time to watch the sun swallow the earth.


Yeah, but with good behavior they'll be out in 6 months...

no support for linux?

[jrock-jr]

Sony's Anti-piracy software wont seem to install itself on my distro of linux. Anyone else had the same problem? ;)

Re:Byeee DRM?

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

Hmmm... Anyone wanna surreptitiously install software on Sony's office PCs to help them manage access to their corporate bank accounts?

Well, go ahead. Finish it.

[WidescreenFreak]

After the exchange rates, it came out to 4 canoes, 3 flying squirrels, and a 2 Canadian mounties.

...and a partridge in a pear tree. :)

(Sorry. I had to, particularly with Christmas rapidly approaching. I now prepare myself for the humorless mods and their dreaded "Off-topic" mod points since they don't have the humor to use +1 Funny. Bah. It's only karma.)