Whenever I read news like this, I want to write Ray Bradbury and say I knew he was right from when I first read F451, and it's a damn shame he wasn't wrong.
Oh, I'm sure he's gotten a few thousand versions of that letter by now.
SonySyph, I LIKE that name, and it's so much catchier than "Sony DRM Rootkit."
Anyone care to start a Google Bomb???
Better yet, have someone set up SonySyph.com and get web sites to link to it with the name "Sony." See to it that anyone who searches for Sony or Sony products gets the skinny on their root kit.
How do you answer the security concerns being raised by people who have been burned by the DRM Sony has distributed on it's audio CDs?
Will this practice be expanding to other product lines, such as game CDs or clients?
How will the ability to hide a file from the OS by prepending $sys$ to the file name impact the anti cheating measures in SWG? Will this make the game more vulnerable to cheaters?
How do you feel about a division of your own company creating a root kit that may enable rampant cheating in Star Wars Galaxies?
If selling a terrible, poorly designed product actually got people to buy an "upgraded" version with the same name in the future, then the auto industry would-
Wait a second.
This theory explains the continued existence of Ford.
The newer models are always "better" than the old ones, while each and every one of them has sucked hard enough to make you want a couple hundred things "fixed" in your current vehicular incarnation of frustration.
To stretch the automotive analogy a little further, this means Apple is the Toyota or Honda of the market, and is trying to become the Ford, which doesn't make sense form a business perspective.
Sony has a feedback page for their music site here.
I just sent them to following message:
I've been following the news about the Root kit being installed by many of your copy protected CDs. I'm disturbed by the fact that, among other things, it allows any application to hide files by adding the text $sys$ to the beginning of a file name. How long before this is used by viruses and spyware to hide from virus scanners.
I'm also disturbed by the fact that you can't uninstall the DRM software, and that trying to do so renders your CD ROM drive non functional.
I have no desire to have to reformat my PC and reinstall the operating system from scratch to get rid of what is, to be blunt, a massive security hole.
I will not be purchasing any Sony label music in the future. This included the purchase of Sony labeled music through iTunes. I was going to get my brother a Playstation 3 this Christmas. I will NOT be doing this. I will also stop buying new games for my existing Playstation 2, and am seriously considering selling the game system and the games I've accumulated.
I will not purchase Sony products in the future. I have no desire to pay for something that deliberately damages my computer.
I plan to check my home PC for any signs of this DRM root kit, and if I find it, Sony will be receiving an itemized bill for the time taken to reinstall the operating system and my applications.
I found that Real player's ability to write files to a Minidisk made it a far more functional alternative than the actual software that Sony makes for minidisk players.
It's the primary reason I kept realplayer on my windows PC for so long.
Then I got an iPod, and the Minidisk player went the way of the dodo for me.
Since what you jokingly recommended was vandalism, and thus illegal, you really should have posted that AC.
Of course we all know you were kidding, and you didn't mean it as a serious recommendation, but if someone were to go out and do it, and the jackasses who developed this root kit see your post, then you could find yourself on the receiving end of some legal hassles.
I'm saying that paying 25 cents to see an episode of the POS show Enterprise is too much. Hell, when it was on the air I could watch it for free and I considered that too expensive.
Some things are so abysmal that you can't give them away.
Anyone have the link to Microsoft's patent on this technology?
You know they have one. You just know they patented some twist of how they do this that's different than how UNIX does it, but it's worded so vaguely that it could apply to UNIX if a lawyer wanted to read it that way.
I was trying to illustrate the concept of someone not having access to, or control of, works derived from their own, and how it exists within the legal system as I, a layperson, understand it.
My favorite example, and a better one in this case, was the book "The Wind Done Gone" which was a parody of "Gone with the Wind." Unfortunately, the legal system came down against "The Wind Done Gone" and as a result the only places you can find a copy are used book stores, if you're lucky. The parody was barred from distribution in the US more for political reasons than anything else. Since "Gone with the Wind" is in the public domain in Australia, I suspect the parody might end up in circulation there at some point, depending on the various legal conditions set on the parody by the US courts. (The settlement may, for example, ban overseas sale of the book)
To pull a parallel example from the Patent world, let's say I patent an enhancement to a a Ford Engine. Ford has all the patents on that engine, but they d NOT automatically get the right to use the enhancements provided by my enhancement.
Slashdot Mirror
I could back up my entire MP3 and iTunes archive on ONE DISK!
WAHOOOOO!!!!!!!!!
The cast of "Legend" were not available for comment.
Well, this one elf chick was, but she was babbling about human emotions and porridge.
Whenever I read news like this, I want to write Ray Bradbury and say I knew he was right from when I first read F451, and it's a damn shame he wasn't wrong.
Oh, I'm sure he's gotten a few thousand versions of that letter by now.
SonySyph, I LIKE that name, and it's so much catchier than "Sony DRM Rootkit."
Anyone care to start a Google Bomb???
Better yet, have someone set up SonySyph.com and get web sites to link to it with the name "Sony." See to it that anyone who searches for Sony or Sony products gets the skinny on their root kit.
How do you answer the security concerns being raised by people who have been burned by the DRM Sony has distributed on it's audio CDs?
Will this practice be expanding to other product lines, such as game CDs or clients?
How will the ability to hide a file from the OS by prepending $sys$ to the file name impact the anti cheating measures in SWG? Will this make the game more vulnerable to cheaters?
How do you feel about a division of your own company creating a root kit that may enable rampant cheating in Star Wars Galaxies?
Well, there go my plans to buy a PlayStation 3.
Guess I'll get the next Nintendo Game Cube instead.
If selling a terrible, poorly designed product actually got people to buy an "upgraded" version with the same name in the future, then the auto industry would-
Wait a second.
This theory explains the continued existence of Ford.
The newer models are always "better" than the old ones, while each and every one of them has sucked hard enough to make you want a couple hundred things "fixed" in your current vehicular incarnation of frustration.
To stretch the automotive analogy a little further, this means Apple is the Toyota or Honda of the market, and is trying to become the Ford, which doesn't make sense form a business perspective.
I read a good hunk of the article, and these jokers are throwing around cease and desist orders like beads at mardi gras.
Funny, I didn't see anything there about them no longer including it on the CDs in the first place.
And of course the uninstaller is IE only.
Guess I'll have to maintain that "No Sony ANYTHING" stance.
... Or stole anything without understanding what they were stealing.
Remember, smart people don't resort to auto theft.
Smart criminals become accountants or energy firm executives.
Really, do we really need yet ANOTHER system for searching for porn and warez?
Sony has a feedback page for their music site here.
I just sent them to following message:
I've been following the news about the Root kit being installed by many of your copy protected CDs. I'm disturbed by the fact that, among other things, it allows any application to hide files by adding the text $sys$ to the beginning of a file name. How long before this is used by viruses and spyware to hide from virus scanners.
I'm also disturbed by the fact that you can't uninstall the DRM software, and that trying to do so renders your CD ROM drive non functional.
I have no desire to have to reformat my PC and reinstall the operating system from scratch to get rid of what is, to be blunt, a massive security hole.
I will not be purchasing any Sony label music in the future. This included the purchase of Sony labeled music through iTunes. I was going to get my brother a Playstation 3 this Christmas. I will NOT be doing this. I will also stop buying new games for my existing Playstation 2, and am seriously considering selling the game system and the games I've accumulated.
I will not purchase Sony products in the future. I have no desire to pay for something that deliberately damages my computer.
I plan to check my home PC for any signs of this DRM root kit, and if I find it, Sony will be receiving an itemized bill for the time taken to reinstall the operating system and my applications.
I found that Real player's ability to write files to a Minidisk made it a far more functional alternative than the actual software that Sony makes for minidisk players.
It's the primary reason I kept realplayer on my windows PC for so long.
Then I got an iPod, and the Minidisk player went the way of the dodo for me.
Since what you jokingly recommended was vandalism, and thus illegal, you really should have posted that AC.
Of course we all know you were kidding, and you didn't mean it as a serious recommendation, but if someone were to go out and do it, and the jackasses who developed this root kit see your post, then you could find yourself on the receiving end of some legal hassles.
Complaining to the ether of the Internet is all well and good, it lets us vent, but what can we DO about this?
Is there anything we can actually do to let our congresscritters know that this issue will have a direct impact on their chances of getting reelected?
What exactly are you getting at?
I'm saying that paying 25 cents to see an episode of the POS show Enterprise is too much. Hell, when it was on the air I could watch it for free and I considered that too expensive.
Some things are so abysmal that you can't give them away.
Because a PIM is vital in an Office, and is a chunk of software that people in Offices will need and use.
25 cents per episode of "Enterprise"?
That's a bit steep, isn't it?
I got confused.
Ignore my post about Google and China
This is nutty.
Didn't Google build the "Great Firewall of China"???
Did Mao not pay his filtering bill this month?
Is Google blackmailing China?????
Anyone have the link to Microsoft's patent on this technology?
You know they have one. You just know they patented some twist of how they do this that's different than how UNIX does it, but it's worded so vaguely that it could apply to UNIX if a lawyer wanted to read it that way.
Poor choice of words on my part.
I was trying to illustrate the concept of someone not having access to, or control of, works derived from their own, and how it exists within the legal system as I, a layperson, understand it.
My favorite example, and a better one in this case, was the book "The Wind Done Gone" which was a parody of "Gone with the Wind." Unfortunately, the legal system came down against "The Wind Done Gone" and as a result the only places you can find a copy are used book stores, if you're lucky. The parody was barred from distribution in the US more for political reasons than anything else. Since "Gone with the Wind" is in the public domain in Australia, I suspect the parody might end up in circulation there at some point, depending on the various legal conditions set on the parody by the US courts. (The settlement may, for example, ban overseas sale of the book)
To pull a parallel example from the Patent world, let's say I patent an enhancement to a a Ford Engine. Ford has all the patents on that engine, but they d NOT automatically get the right to use the enhancements provided by my enhancement.
So the correct way to put it is Google WAS working to cure cancer, but they are no longer doing so.
Wait, does that mean they cured it???
Microsoft is in it deep now.
Google IS working to cure cancer after all.
I suppose this means the "OpenOffice over the web" and other rumors are true as well.
Headline from 2020: "Google buys nearly bankrupt Microsoft"
"We did it mainly to put them out of their misery" says Google CEO...