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Rick Rubin Discloses Sony Rootkit Called Home

Posted by kdawson on from the curiouser-and-curiouser dept.

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."

7 of 249 comments (clear)

  1. Dup by astrosmash · · Score: 4, Informative

    There's an interesting discussion on the same topic over here.

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  2. Slashdot proves you're wrong. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    No, he's correct. You're wrong.

    http://games.slashdot.org/games/05/11/07/1221209.s html

    Sony Rootkit Phones Home

    strider44 writes "Mark from Sysinternals has digged a little deeper into the Sony DRM and discovered it Phones Home with an ID for the CD being listened to. XCP Support claims that "The player has a standard rotating banner that connects the user to additional content (e.g. provides a link to the artist web site). The player simply looks online to see if another banner is available for rotation. The communication is one-way in that a banner is simply retrieved from the server if available. No information is ever fed back or collected about the consumer or their activities."
    1. Re:Slashdot proves you're wrong. by CheechWizz · · Score: 2, Informative

      Simon Cowell may be a marketing genius but Rick Rubin is a musical genius and a pioneer who helped break dozens and dozens of acts with a whole lot more creative merit then Cowell's manufactured pop drivel. Almost all the albums Rubin produces end up being one of the, if not the best album of that particular band or artist. Don't get me wrong Cowell is good at what he does but Rubin is in a whole different ball game all together.

    2. Re:Slashdot proves you're wrong. by Captain+Splendid · · Score: 2, Informative

      He's the Rick Rubin of the UK. Seriously.

      BWAHAHAHAHA

      Try again.

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  3. Re:A simpler solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Here's the thing, RR has been involved in creating some of the most innovative and exciting music of the past 25 years. The Black Crows is basically a secondrate coverband.

  4. Re:And yet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Neil Diamond is working for the Koreans? That's not amusing at all. The terrorists have won.

  5. Re:Won't affect anybody by Detritus · · Score: 4, Informative

    Neil Diamond has more talent in his big toe than most of the artists that get airplay on American commercial radio. I'm not a fan of his style of music, but he is an excellent singer and songwriter.

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