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President of RIAA Says Sony-BMG Did Nothing Wrong
Zellis writes "In a press conference held on Nov 18 Cary Sherman, the president of the RIAA, stated in reference to Sony BMG's "rootkit" software that "there is nothing unusual about technology being used to protect intellectual property." According to Sherman, the problem with Sony BMG's XCP DRM software was simply that "the technology they used contained a security vulnerability of which they were unaware". He goes on to praise Sony's "responsible" attitude in handling the problem, saying "how many times that software applications created the same problem? Lots. I wonder whether they've taken as aggressive steps as SonyBMG has when those vulnerabilities were discovered, or did they just post a patch on the Internet?" It seems that the latest spin is to portray the Sony rootkit as no more of an issue than a software coding error that unintentionally creates a security hole. Will they get away with it among the non-technical public?" Arguably, Sherman is right -- but I enjoy much more the fact that this whole r00tkit fiasco has set DRM back by years. Gogogo poor implementations!
Sherman would be correct -- in a free market. Fortunately for us, those who rely on helping create freedom-reducing laws eventually find themselves violating their own creations.
The real dilemma for content creators was their inability to collude together on a newer standard to replace CD, and now it is too late. Wouldn't you be mad if your cartel couldn't react in time to new situations?
The simple fact that any audible signal can be recorded is important, yet the record companies still seem blind that they have a viable MP3 market because most consumers (with jobs) would rather pay $1 (with Jobs) than spend 20 minutes finding a song illegally or even bothering to rip their own CDs. I have more than a few friends who've rebought albums from iTunes that they own on CD. $10, to them, is worth the time.
Does the RIAA need to continue the "piracy is wrong" campaign? Yes! But that should be the limit. Let honest people know they're not reimbursing others for the content they pirate, and I believe you'll see people continue to pay. I believe people are generally good and moral (99% of the time even a thief acts in a good way).
Do record labels need copy protection and lawsuits? Not against consumers, not even the guy seeding a torrent to hundreds of others. They need to re-evaluate their market and see that people will pay and more people are becoming more technologically inclined so even at a lower price they can see bigger profits.
Nonetheless I don't think we need to worry about the RIAA or rootkits or whatever much longer. The new generation (10-16) of kids recording today are already using the next distribution system (PureVolume and MySpace). I know of a few young bands already making decent money selling very professional CDs by promoting their music online for free.
I'm starting to filter the RIAA news (at least mentally) since it isn't news to me. They had a great run of 70 years, and just like gaslamp lighters, their time has come.
RIP A CD, R.I.P. R.I.A.A.
The most surprising thing to me about this whole affair is that there are companies selling rootkits. Which makes me wonder -- who else is buying them? Who knew this was a legal commercial enterprise? Can we get a list of their other customers?
Never mind that their software contained copyrighted code
Sony may not have done anything patently illegal. The EULA does inform the end user that they are making modifications to their system. However this fact is (reportedly) buried in the EULA and there is not any install notification. The fact the program goes so far to hide itself that it reprograms part of the windows core system (and does not implement proper checking which can lead ot deliberate crashing) is definantly unethical.
There is nothing wrong with being gay. It's getting caught where the trouble lies.
Actually, I'm only surprised it took the RIAA so long to stand in line with Sony on this publicly.
See my blog for my free opinions.
"Nothing unusual" != "nothing wrong". Sherman's response that Sony's crimes against its customers aren't unusual makes it worse. He defends the crimes by saying they're standard practice. He should get frogmarched to prison after a RICO case shows he conspires with the media cartel to commit these crimes, and to cover for them.
--
make install -not war
We've sold off industry, education and science. Looks like our business leaders are now selling their soul. Sure they've done bad things in the past, but their actions are now so blatant. They don't even try to hide what they do any more; they just "pee on our legs and tell us that it's raining".
At what point can we say that business has gone to far? When PR boys start trying to convince us that it's ok for them to install stuff to spy on us? I'm waiting for the brain implants and mandatory goggles to "protect their intellectual privacy rights".
Yuck.
What are you eating? isItVeg?.
These are the same guys that believe that lobbying to create laws to protect intelectual property (DCMA) is a good thing.
One can hardly expect them to consider the technology arena as holy and untouchable.
Basically they only care about the bottom line - they'll do whatever it takes as long as they don't loose money by doing it it.
It took a California lawsuit, the EFF, and a week of bad press on Slashdot for them to pull this.. :)
This is "responsible"?
I tend to agree with a lot of other posters on here that if it were an individual they would be in jail right now.....
How the heck is it responsible?
I really like the part where Sherman says the record industry is really a lot more giving when it comes to allowing the copying of data...
The responsible thing would have never put the rootkit on the disks to begin with.......
Piracy is bad, but so is getting rooted...
Where is the middle ground? Id like to find it and sit there.
Jeez.....
Given that:
1) The Sony rootkit contains pirated open source code, and
2) The RIAA finds nothing wrong about the Sony rootkit
It follows that RIAA does not consider the piracy of copyrighted material wrong... Well, I'm off to go copy a few CDs, with the cartel's blessing this time.
Just what is being sold here? Music, with a 3,000 word EULA -- or software? I think what has been created is an entirely new category of product.
And I, for one, feel this new product is being sold under deceptive marketing practices that have it masquerading as be a product it's not. It pretends to be a regular music CD, with only fine print informing you otherwise. This deserves full investigation by all regulatory authorities with appropriate punishments doled out. In addition. these CDs should be sold in an entirely different section of any store from regular music discs.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Saying that 'because software you choose to install may lead to security leaks make it okay that software that installs itself without warning opens up security leaks' is like saying 'because sleeping with someone you choose to may give you herpies then it is okay that someone who rapes you gives you herpies'.
I hope your company sends Sony an invoice for all of the time you spend fixing this problem at your standard charge-out rate (not your salary rate).
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
To pass this off as a bug "of which they were unaware" is horribly inaccurate.
The software hides itself -- by design, not as a bug.
The software makes itself difficult to remove -- by design, not as a bug.
The software places itself in fundamental system areas, like accessing the CD, compromising those areas -- by design, not as a bug.
No, the problem isn't a bug. The problem is a company thinking they have the right to get into places on my system that they have no business being, and then hiding to make it difficult to clean.
A common component of all anti-spyware legislation and attempts that I'm aware of is that everything has to include a reasonable and effective uninstall procedure, that clears out the software. Sony didn't have this -- again by design.
Furthermore, the "vulnerability" in this program that SONY was "unaware of" is not a typical software bug that developers might be reasonably unaware of. This software is specifically designed to hide any file starting with the $sys$ prefix! The idea that the creators of this software are "unaware" of something they specifically designed this program to do is almost as insane as the fallacy above.
Whats worse, the uninstaller is designed to break security too! If you are putting a remotely accessible ActiveX control on a machine, which has a function called "ExecuteCode," you're allowing any web page to "ExecuteCode" on that machine. This isn't a vulnerability, its a bad design, and the design is so obviously bad that it is impossible to be sympathetic.
If you are savvy enough about computers to be designing DRM software in the first place then obviously you would know that these things are problems!
Causal fallacy.
It's not like he doesn't know it, but why bother building proper arguments when you can get away with absolute b*llshit and still be quoted as a respectable source? I couldn't finish reading the whole article, and to compare file-sharers to bank robbers and shoplifters was just insulting.
Cary Sherman: Obviously, anyone who has stopped downloading (or uploading) illegally will not get sued.
Thank you, Cary Sherman, for your infinite compassion towards us petty thieves, we are not worthy of such.
Maybe it's just a coincidence, but I just blogged earlier this morning that they should be compensating users financially for the trouble they have caused. And/or face some criminal liability.
Seems like the only way to rid yourself of their blunder is to wipe and reinstall windows. IMHO users should be compensated for that.
There's absolutely no way that Sony didn't realize the risks associated with using a rootkit. It's been covered here before (among many other places, typically regarding spyware). So we can safely say they knew what risk existed.
They were just hoping everyone was to dumb to realize what they were doing.
Am I bias or just looking to attack Sony? No, definately not. I didn't get this garbage, heck I'm not even a real music fan, so the whole thing is a null as far as I'm concerned. To be honest, I like Sony hardware. So I'm not a anti-sony jerk taking advantage.
I just know I hate reformatting my computer because windows got screwed up, and I know what I'm doing and can do it quickly. There's quite a few people out there with this garbage installed on their computer... and some don't even realize what's going on.
Come on Sony... open up your wallets and compensate them for your blunder. You knew what you were doing was wrong. You did it anyway. Now compensate. If it were up to me, your execs would be in jail for a year or two for hacking, since that's effectively what you did.
I really don't want Sony to get off free here. Just think about what the next one is going to try and get away with. Just wait until version 2.0 includes a keylogger to ensure you don't transcribe the lyrics.
Come on Feds... don't back down.
"How much easier or logical can it get?"
Those steps are neither easy nor logical. You're giving wayyyyyyyyyyy too much credit to the average computer user. Most people will not even make the assumption that they have a choice in disabling any of that stuff. It scares the hell out to me to see the amazement of friends and co-workers when I show them how to do things that the average Slashdot reader takes for granted as easy.
The easiest and most logical thing that can be done is NOTHING WHATSOEVER. Most people seem to forget that "do nothing" should always be the first option. If you're putting a music CD in your CDROM drive to listen to music, you'll know that you need to launch your music player.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
Let me start by saying that I hate "market" democracies. DJ radio is the worst form of democracy as it tries to create one group of listeners without thinking about the many subgroups.
MySpace does a MUCH better job. You can see what your friends are listening to, and try it yourself. Rather than buy an album that's nationally loved by 2 dozen promoters, you can buy an album that 2 dozen of your friends love and you're more likely to actually like it.
Mass marketing will be replaced by viral mini-markets. A talented local band can do very w ll in th ir local 2-3 state area.
I'd rather see 500 local bands make $100,000 a year than 5 bands making $10M. $100,000 a year is great money for a part time, easily doable if copyright was gone. 6 shows a year to 500 fans (10% of your fan base) and 5000 albums sold.
Yet radio and mass broadcast marketing (protected by coercive copyright) was our only option due to the radio cartels. Podcasts and MySpace are finally taking own the national promotion scene.
First let's take a look at the claim that Sony was merely trying to add a layer of protection to their IP by using XCP and weren't aware of the potential security flaws.
For starters, if they just wanted to encrypt their data or have a program running in the background that prevented the user from opening a certain application, this is all possible with XCP. In fact, the only reason to use XCP is to bypass the built-in security measures that your computer should have immutably enabled and functioning. That is, they wanted their DRM software to be in a position of ultimate control over your computer. Ordinary security features prevented this, so they install XCP to hijack your computer, to bypass security - and not only that, but they provide that control to any program that prefixes its name with $sys$. That is, XCP is a security flaw by its very nature and it was licensed with just this functionality in mind. There is no other reason to use it, but to circumvent security measures.
Now I'd like to address the seemingly prevalent belief that people are up in arms against this software primarily because it may allow a virus or other undesirable program unfettered access to you system.
People are used to security flaws within windows. They happen all the time and MS releases patches. They are not well loved for it, but for the most part, people continue to use windows and tolerate the seemingly ubiquitous lack of security. Why then, would they make an exception for Sony's case? I believe the answer lies not in the DRM itself, but in Sony's arrogant and anti-consumer attitude that they're right to control their "property" usurps the consumer's right to control the functionality of his or her computer.
One statement that whoever-it-was in this interview made in defense of Sony was that DVD's have been DRMed forever. You can't rip them to disk, you can't copy them, you can't even play them in non-licensed players. CDs, on the other hand, (as manufactured by Sony) are designed not to prevent you from playing them, or copying them, or presumably using them as you see fit, but rather to prevent you from copying in excess and giving too much of Sony's IP away without their consent. The problem with this logic is that for one thing, nobody is giving the movie companies kudos for locking down their DVDs. That I can't legally rip my copy of Spaceballs to my iPod video isn't a fact that gains MGM much love. And secondly, CDs were never designed to be crippled in the first place. When I buy a CD, I expect it to behave like a CD. Sony wants to change the way CDs behave - and the only notice they give you about it is an enigmatic little "CP" icon and the words "content protected". Content protection sounds good to me - does that mean that my CDs will scratch less, or that if I lose the CD, the content will continue to be made available to me, because I paid for the content? I thought not.
Lastly, I'd like to take issue with the notion that the Sony fiasco has set DRM back for years. I don't think it has. In the official release, Sony has only recalled the discs with XCP and has all but promised that future CDs will be released with some form of DRM. As long as the methodology doesn't usurp the functionality of the computer or provide in any egregious way a security risk, Sony will continue to distribute crippled CDs. That is, after all, the reason for the fiasco in the first place. It wasn't the DRM that got them in hot water, it was the way they went about achieving it. There are still many CDs out there with the "CP" logo that Sony hasn't recalled. Santana's newest CD comes to mind.
This is the way that the future is going to go. DRM has more than a foot in the door, it nearly has a whole leg. The Sony fiasco must serve as a wake-up-call for us, or we risk losing the public domain forever. (DRM + DMCA = unlimited copyright terms) We mu
If it causes harm intentionally, then you are guilty of fraud and destruction of property, and should be subject to criminal as well as possible civil penalties.
If it causes harm unintentionally, you should still be subject to civil penalties.
There is no excuse for software that causes harm unless I clearly waived my rights to redress and that harm was unintentional.
While this may be reasonable if the software is free (as in either speech or freedom), it is not reasonable if the purpose of the software is to protect someone else's property interests.
The bottom line, is that such untrusted, unvetted code, should only be deployed to dedicated machines where the harm is not likely to be wide-spread (i.e single purpose devices), and particularly where the harm will affect those who would naturally benefit from what the software should do: if a firmware upgrade is sent to my cable box by my cable company, and it kills the box so that I get a refund on not being able to view content, this is likely reasonable. But it should certainly not kill a general purpose computer. If anything, that is an argument for dedicated devices who's sole purpose is the decryption and display of encrypted content.
You could've hired me.
However, that is not really the issue which Sony is attempting to defend. Sony is attempting to defend an action which essentially transfers ownership of _your_ computer to itself. And it is that which prompted the legal slap, and rightly so, for what it's worth.
It's easy to lose sight of what the issue is here -- the parent post is very much right.
It doesn't matter whether you like the RIAA, the artists, or whether you use MP3s.
The issue at hand is very simple.
Sony dumps some very low-level software on your system that alters the way the system works in some unexpected ways. The vector that this software is arriving in is not expected -- many sysadmins on corporate networks, for example, allow audio CDs (to help prevent copyright violation from people bringing in MP3s).
Sony has essentially done something to the system that the user does not expect.
This is a very classic case of going behind the user's back to do something that he is not going to want to have happen. The same thing happens with a lot of other software out there, true, but having a Gator or Bonzi Buddy from *Sony* instead of a random shady startup is a little different -- that says that this is an attempt to legitimize doing anything to a user's computer that a software vendor can get away with.
The counterclaim made by Sony when someone pointed out that they were doing something nasty surreptitiously was that "most users don't know what a rootkit even is". Yes, that may well be true. However, the problem is that something is being done to my system at a low level -- I don't know how my car works, but I trust my mechanic not to break it. When I stick an audio CD in a CD drive, I expect it to play music, not to modify the function of my kernel. The fact that the typical user does not have the knowledge necessary to understand how he is being screwed over and what to do to repair the problem is absolutely no defense against this.
Furthermore, they claimed that this was perfectly acceptable, and appear to be ready to do it again. The question is not minor -- this is the first time that I'm aware of that a mass-market company is attempting to do nasty stuff to computer users, and taking advantage of the fact that few users are able to identify what software is causing problems and what might be a bad idea to do to their system. Fortunately, there are a few technically knowledgeable and competent people out there (like the well-respected gentleman at Sysinternals) who are able to bring this up. If Sony can get away with this, it's a green light to any *other* company that sees a perceived advantage in somehow modifying your computer system to do so via any means necessary. Today, Windows boxes are the only ones affected, but what about tomorrow, when Linux and Mac OS boxes are hurt?
If Sony is not slapped down *hard* legally for this action, the floodgates of adware and spyware from major companies will have been opened.
I'm rooting very, very hard for the ambulance-chasers on this one, and it has nothing to do with the fact that this involves DRM. Software is something that Joe Average has to deal with on a daily basis, and his ignorance about how his system works or how to fix damage done to it should not be something that it's okay for every company in the world to exploit.
Sony is *not* going to listen to anything other than legal suits on this one -- if they were going to listen to common ethics, they would have done so by now.
Any program relying on (nontrivial) preemptive multithreading will be buggy.