Slashdot Mirror
Rick Rubin Discloses Sony Rootkit Called Home
caffeinemessiah writes "Rick Rubin, the legendary music producer, recently signed on as co-head of Columbia Records, which is owned by Sony BMG. In a recent New York Times interview (on pg. 4 of the online version), he discloses, possibly accidentally: 'It was the highest debut of Neil [Diamond]'s career, off to a great start. But Columbia — it was some kind of corporate thing — had put spyware on the CD. That kept people from copying it, but it also somehow recorded information about whoever bought the record...' Seems like the rootkit might have been a little more than your vanilla invade-your-rights-DRM scheme."
...Bravias have rootkits! Honestly, at this point, I think non-rootkit news about sony would be front page worthy. At this point, it is just expected.
I guess this is their "We can't afford watermarking all the CD's music, but we'll steal the buyer's identity instead" solution.
Although somewhat difficult to understand at first, I find that as an allegory for DRM, your story works quite well.
I don't know, he might know plenty about systems. RJR and RMS are practically twins.
+0 Meh
Oh, one, touching one, reaching out
Touching me, touching you...
The number of people who own a computer, are technically smart enough to listen to music on it, and who listen to Neil Diamond, is zero.
And yet Sony has walked away with less than a slap on the wrist.
Replace "Sony" with "Al Queda" or "North Korea" in the same story and see how it reads. Amusing, isn't it?
I am government man, come from the government. The government has sent me. -- G.I.R.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Now that Sony knows the true identities of all the Neil Diamond fans, they can now complete their deathstar and will be the ultimate power in the universe!
sounds like multi player Microsoft Bob to me...
well, at least he's creative........ right?.....
You could have boiled your entire spew down to four words:
"He's an ego-whore."
...who's Rick Rubin?
Should we tell Rob Manuel so he can update Name That Beard?
http://www2.b3ta.com/namethatbeard/
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Oh, one, touching one, reaching out
Touching me, touching you...
Sweeeeet Dee Arr Emm
Rootkit really got me good...
I'm too naive,
To think that Sony never would
Oh, no, no..
If you listen to Neil Diamond, you have something to hide.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
Yeah I've seen that type of first post before. . .ah, here it is After the first few words I realize I should just stop reading. . .but it's just so damn ridiculous I have to keep reading to see where the madness will end. . .like I said before, it's the literary form of goatse; curiosity is a curse.
If you are about to mod me down, keep in mind that this post was most likely sarcastic.
Because replacing every instance of 'you' on the front page with "YO' CRACKA ASS" would cost a fortune in bandwidth. Add to that the cost of getting the /. office cafeteria to stock that much fried chicken and watermelon and you realise that black moderators would would bankrupt the company. That's if they didn't rob it first.