Sony Rootkit Redux: Canadian Business Groups Lobby For Right To Install Spyware

An anonymous reader writes "Michael Geist reports that a coalition of Canadian industry groups, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the Canadian Marketing Association, the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association and the Entertainment Software Association of Canada, are demanding legalized spyware for private enforcement purposes. The potential scope of coverage is breathtaking: a software program secretly installed by an entertainment software company designed to detect or investigate alleged copyright infringement would be covered by this exception. This exception could potentially cover programs designed to block access to certain websites (preventing the contravention of a law as would have been the case with SOPA), attempts to access wireless networks without authorization, or even keylogger programs tracking unsuspecting users (detection and investigation)."

Comments

Only over my dead body

[Kardos]

will you be installing your spyware on my computer.

Re:Only over my dead body

[Kardos]

And therein lies the problem. "Oh, but the law permits them to".

Stallman saw this shit coming decades ago, sadly he's right :x

Re:Only over my dead body

[iksbob]

In which case, the only option is to not buy the spyware-infested product. Since the spyware is secret, there's no way to tell which disks are infected and which are not. The only safe alternative is to avoid buying any official content what so ever. The industry will drive any previously paying customers that give two s**** about their privacy to turn to the "piracy" avenue of acquiring content.
The contortions the industry goes through to reach out and nail their own coffin shut are quite impressive.

Re:Only over my dead body

[TheGratefulNet]

blueray runs 'mobile code' when it starts the disc.

for that reason (a big one) I refuse to buy BD discs or even support the business model with recorders/players.

I can't know what they run and it could be harmful. I refuse to play that game.

Re:Only over my dead body

[mwvdlee]

Who says they have to distribute the spyware with paid products? They might simply pay computer manufacturers to include it, similar with drivers (closed source GFX card drivers for Linux?) or any other products. They wouldn't need to ask you or even tell you. They might even be able to have such software installed on the BIOS level with every motherboard sold if they pay the manufacturers enough money. I can't see of any way to avoid it if they're legally allowed to.

Re:Only over my dead body

[jxander]

If these laws (or any like them) are allowed to pass, the explanation will be "we installed it because the law permits it, any further harassment by you will result in fines and jail time."

That's why it's important to spread the knowledge now, well in advance. That's why it was so important for sites like Wikipedia to stage the blackout in defiance of SOPA/PIPA last year. Raise awareness BEFORE the laws are passed. Because once they are, digging the hooks out will be an extremely painful process.

Re:Only over my dead body

[lgw]

The Department of Justice certainly remembers the Sony Rootkit. Remember, this rootkit found its way ont a great many government computers, which had to be cleaned by government IT staff, and was recent enough that there was already laws about that. Sony was fined enough for investors to notice, and punish the leadership, but the DoJ also said: do this again and Sony will no longer be a going concern in the US.

Any new spyware/rootkit product, even if intended only for the Canadian market, could also easily make its way onto US federal government computers, and the DoJ made it clear at the time that it wasn't just Sony they were warning - any company pulling this stunt again would cease to exist within the US. Apparantly the govenment's love for corporation does not reach quite so far as overlooking putting spyware on government networks (especially the DoJs own network) - so we've got that going for us.

Re:Only over my dead body

[Frank T. Lofaro Jr.]

Then they'll pass a law where providing tools to remove spyware will get you a 5 year prison sentence.

Re:Only over my dead body

[Gr8Apes]

Funny enough, I'm pretty sure my BD ripper program doesn't phone anybody, especially as it's not on the net.

Legit uses for legalized spyware

[Synerg1y]

Law enforcement computers, politician's computers, government computers, homeland security computers. My bet is within a week 50% of those folks wouldn't have jobs, and 75% in a month.

Re:Legit uses for legalized spyware

[Solandri]

Read TFA. This would allow you to do exactly that.

a program that is installed by or on behalf of a person to prevent, detect, investigate, or terminate activities that the person reasonably believes (i) present a risk or threatens the security, privacy, or unauthorized or fraudulent use, of a computer system, telecommunications facility, or network, or (ii) involves the contravention of any law of Canada, of a province or municipality of Canada or of a foreign state;

So if you think a police officer, politician, or someone working at the government is breaking any law - Canadian, provincial, or foreign, you can break into their network and computers and install your rootkit and keylogger. Hackers and groups like Anonymous would simply have to claim "we broken into the system because we suspected the owner was violating Moldavian law" or something like that, and they'd be in the clear.

Open Source

[DaMattster]

This makes a good argument for using open source. Removing a secret rootkit is a lot easier when the underlying layers of the operating system aren't obscured. I'll be this goes nowhere. Either that or proprietary OS vendors suffer sales losses as people flock to Linux and *BSD

Re:Open Source

[fredprado]

Only if you or anyone whom you trust can read code. That is not so hard to find. Open source is open for all, and chances are that anything fishy inserted in open source software will be detected by someone and the whistle will be blown.

Are we in China or some place like it?

[Maow]

It's getting pretty hard to differentiate between living in North America under corporate controlled government and China under government controlled corporatism.

If only there were a similarity that I could put my finger on, it seems there is but it escapes me.

I guess we'll see how similar if this passes. I doubt it will, but it indicates we have more in common that I'm comfortable with. Hell, just the fact that this has been proposed is a lot more egregious than I'd have ever imagined possible just a few years ago.

Re:Are we in China or some place like it?

[overmoderated]

It's getting pretty hard to differentiate between living in North America under corporate controlled government and China under government controlled corporatism.

Different control mechanisms, same goal.

Happened already here.

[Anonymous Coward]

My own computer running Windows 7 was hacked in a drive-by when I visited a website (didn't download anything), and the drive began spinning wildly. The router logs showed connections to the Dutch anti-piracy group, BREIN. If it's not currently legal, it isn't stopping them.

Sure - no problem

[Eristone]

I say absolutely. As long as part of the law is continuous video surveillance of all executives of the companies that install the spyware. (Bedroom, bathroom, mistress' place, hotel room, etc.) And their families. And it has to be accessible by any Canadian citizen to do with as they please at any time.

Re:Dear CCC et al

[jxander]

... without an immediate apology? Are you sure that you're Canadian?

nobody ever won a war with their customers

[Presto Vivace]

It is amazing that corporations do not recognize this simple truth.

Re:Dear CCC et al

[gstoddart]

OK, how's this ... Dear CCC et all, we're sorry to hear you're a bunch of ignorant douchebags who feel it should be your right to install crap onto our computers. Screw off. Sincerely, Canadians. Have a nice day.

Only One Appropriate Response

[Scarletdown]

The only appropriate response to such a request is, "Go fuck yourself."

Re:Hang them. Problem solved.

[VitaminB52]

I dislike your solution for the problem.

However, I hate the problem more than I dislike the solution.

Re:I reserve the right to install and recommend Li

[denmarkw00t]

That doesn't solve the problem, though - more and more people are using Linux on a regular basis, and while they are shielded from a good majority of threats seen on Windows, it doesn't meant that 1) there isn't spyware that can affect them and 2) that they would know how to lock down their systems just because they have an OS more capable of being finely-tuned and locked down. Don't mistake a great tool for a great carpenter.

Re:Great

[Em Adespoton]

This raises a very valid point: once this spyware is on a system, it'll be trivial for malware authors to co-opt the malware to steal data for their own use. Not to mention, the temptation for PRIVATE GROUPS to misuse information lifted from private citizens in secret is huge.

Luckily, this goes against Canadian Privacy law in so many ways, I don't see how even the Conservative government could succeed in ramming this through.

Vote with your wallets

[Tool Man]

Simply stop buying their crap, there are alternatives. I think the choices will start to become more apparent to the masses over time, and the losers will be those depending on unsupportable business models.

Consider: You can buy DRM-free music, today, where they make no attempt to lock it to specific devices. Emusic is one, and Magnatune is another. In the latter case, you are even encouraged to share your purchase in limited amounts, and there's also free streaming if you are OK with the per-song nag message. Non-lossy formats are supported too, and they go for quality content instead of large amounts of crap. (Yeah, preaching here, but I just bought a lifetime membership.)

In TV/movie terms, Netflix has just released a season of a series, "House of Cards", that *they* produced. Screw Sony and their ilk, this is produced and distributed without their help. I'm hoping this gives big media companies a shocking wheeze, where it's apparent even to them that they're becoming irrelevant.