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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."

8 of 249 comments (clear)

  1. didn't we know this? by l2718 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The analysis of the trojan already showed that it phoned home. Of course the point of this was to gather data.

  2. Re:root kit? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Although somewhat difficult to understand at first, I find that as an allegory for DRM, your story works quite well.

  3. 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."
  4. Re:A simpler solution by Purity+Of+Essence · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't know, he might know plenty about systems. RJR and RMS are practically twins.

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    +0 Meh
  5. Neil Diamond proposed this scheme decades ago by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh, one, touching one, reaching out
    Touching me, touching you...

  6. Re:A simpler solution by jollyreaper · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe it didn't phone home, and Rick Rubin (a music producer, not a computer geek) just doesn't understand what the root kit did. Have you seen the way Rick Rubin looks? He could have easily fallen out of Richard Stallman's beard. When someone who looks like that tells me something, I listen. Or tell him I don't have any spare change; I guess it depends on what he says.
    --
    Kwisatz Haderach
    Sell the spice to CHOAM
    This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
  7. A brontosaurus standing on its head. by yusing · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If they want him to "save the record business", the first thing they better do is lose the RIAA, and stop manufacturing that huge steaming pile of bad will.

    The industry's refusal to get into digital sales online was criminally stupid. Everyone told them that, and they just dug in. They're a brontosaurus standing on its head.

    We now know how they always worked; the truth is out there. You can feel it all over. If we ever did, we don't *need* them any more. We don't like them any more, and we don't like the homogenizing and genericizing of the sound. Artists need them for one thing only: marketing.Since they've been worse than useless for decades, they'll need a lot of re-org and a lot of giveaways and a lot of goodwill-mending to survive.

    I don't think they can; I hope they can't. Good riddance. I haven't bought a new RIAA product in five years; I won't pay $20 for a record I bought 20 years ago either. Personally I'll smile every time one of them buys it. They had their chance, and they gave us the finger.

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    "You must try to forget all you have learned. You must begin to dream." -- Sherwood Anderson

    1. Re:A brontosaurus standing on its head. by arkham6 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Bad will? Bad will? What bad will. You walk into any music store and ask a random person buying CD's if they like or dislike the RIAA, they are going to look at you blankly.

      Ask them what they think about the lawsuits being filed daily by the RIAA, and they will shrug and say "Yeah? So, i'm not getting sued, i don't care."

      Ask them if they are upset that there is a rootkit in that CD they are holding, the would probably not understand the ramifications.

      Face it, the American people care for their rights, up into the moment choosing between those rights and getting the newest, shiney toy.