http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/ Engadget Comments for http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2008 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/
The worst pieces of software you will ever see are bundled with cheap peripherals. People will get a wireless keyboard, install the software, and that memory hog tray icon remains long after the keyboard is gone. How can you explain to someone that a _music_ cd could harm their computer? Just addressing one issue: if they (Sony) are going to invade, at least they could plant something worth having. No such luck, of course. More maintenance woes for Windows users.]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/
I've been happily using my Mac for almost 2 years and don't miss ANY of these headaches. No viruses, no spyware, and certainly no Sony-supplied CD-based RootKits.]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/

Josh]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/
Bill Gates was right. Sony has gone too far with DRM technology.]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/
The band My Morning Jacket has had to resort to putting workarounds on their website just so people are able to rip the CD and play it on their iPod.

Read this...

http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2005/10/drm_crippled_cd.html

]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/
The worst part of it is not what Sony's going to do to your PC, but the fact that it opens up your PC to anyone else who knows about this exploit. The fact that anybody could do this knowingly is absolutely galling. It is completely unacceptable; it is much worse than anything Kazaa ever installed on anybody's machine. Imagine, for example, someone playing a CD on a hospital's computer in his/her office - not copying it, not doing anything wrong, just playing it - and directly because of that and using the exploit this root kit creates, a virus enters the hospital system and takes its network down. Who's responsible for that? In a world with any sense of justice, Sony is.

I can't even believe Sony would sanction this sort of thing. As much as I hate DRM, given how bad this is, I am inclined to believe Sony put their trust in a third-party DRM vendor and did not provide the oversight necessary to prevent something like this. That's pretty bad in itself, but I have a hard time believing a major company like Sony did this knowingly.

But get used to it, people - this is the mindset of the DRM industry. There is no such thing as "going too far". Install whatever they want, give you no way to get rid of it, let whoever else do whatever they want to your system. They don't care. Wonderful world we live in these days, isn't it?

Sony owes the world an apology, to put it mildly. And the company who created this software ought to be put in jail, wholesale.
]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/Sony will never improve and become a succesful company again if they stay together.]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/
]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/you f****** piece of s*** a*******
I will never, ever, EVER think of buying anything from you ever again, are we clear?
And to all potential Sony fanboys, guess who's been right all along, huh?
(And while typing this, my sony vaio touchpad starting giving me shit again, gee how surprising, piece of shit sony)
Oh, and guess what, HD-DVD will win basically because of Sony doing stupid shit like this, and I used to t]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/
I'd blame MS for making this possible from an arbitrary piece code coded by any geezer applications developer (rather than locking this feature off to 'system only' processes).]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/It's quite an interesting read. Now I won't be buying any built-in copy-protection CD's until after a class action lawsuit.]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/seriously, with shit like this, people should just boycott all sony products, not just cds, but also computers, playstations, cameras, everything]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/
Earth to Sony -- this will inevitably encourage Joe Shmoe to download - which means less money for you. And for all you windows users out there, Windows is one big ROOT-KIT.]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/
Earth to Sony -- this will inevitably encourage Joe Shmoe to download - which means less money for you. And for all you windows users out there, Windows is one big ROOT-KIT.]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/
I have at least two CDs with this copy-protection on them: Velvet Revolver's CD, and DMB's Stand Up. If you have autorun disabled (I can't speak for what happens if you do), you can look at the cd's contents in windows explorer. You'll see the auto run crap, plus a folder of encrypted wma's. This is how they're trying to get around the 'not-working-with-mac' issue. They say to burn the wma's to disc (after you've negotiated a lisence for your computer to play the wma's), and then pop the burnt disc into a mac and copy as usual. This will result in sub-cd quality rips on your mac, as they are copies of a less-than-cd-quality wma copy of the songs. CRAP!

Anyway, since I don't have autorun on, I don't get any of this DRM stuff installed on the computer. So far, I've been able to copy the CDs with this protection using CDex and EAC with NO PROBLEMS. I was prepared to take the CDs back to Best Buy if I could not use these programs to make my copies. But, as I thought, there is no way to make a CD unable to be copied with these programs and still be played in the millions of CD players in consumers homes.

So, disable autorun. Install CDex or EAC. Copy your music!

-Dan]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/
I suppose sony has the right to monitor their music and the way they are being legally and illegally distributed although the way they are doing it through malware is highly illegal.

Which brings me to a point when I buy a PS3 will my PC be hacked by my PS3 through Wireless / Network connections?

I don't really care about "legal" privacy invasion because I know one day we will all have to learn to live with the fact that we have zero privacy (perhaps 20 years from now) though when my PC may be forced to use extra memory for something I don't know is running and of which cannot be uninstalled is just wrong.

Just don't install any Sony products on your PC if your that paranoid, or at least until there are ways to get rid of these harmful installs.]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/A new breed of 'content creators' is being born. Red vs Blue is a perfect example - people voluntarily pay money to support them. It goes directly to the people who are inspired and hardworking. While label execs may think this is some crazy idea, they need to know they are alone in this. Song writers, budding sitcom writers provide content for free. Allow us to support better conent by buyin it directly from you. Buying 'content' and supporting artisits. Thats where the future is. The middleman is about to go down. Sony Electronics, apple, microsoft, and other players better decide what side they want to be on. Because we will be buying their products for the next 50 years and we are not about to forget who helped and who hindered.]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/
iTunes proved that you can legitimately distribute and sell music online; offer it up in the right format with a very large library; build it and they will come. But there’s a problem, a big problem that the music industry pundits and bigwigs just haven’t figured out yet. And it’s a problem that’s been potentially glossed over.

Let’s think back to Napster’s heyday. You logged onto Napster, and you could find ANYTHING (music-wise that is). People from all over the world all of the sudden realized that music that they listened to as a child, heard on a radio while driving past someone, something hummed by a passerby, heard in a movie trailer or tv commercial could now be found, downloaded, and listened to. People all over the world were taking droves of CDs, hordes of LPs and even cassettes and digitizing them and sharing their musical discoveries with billions of other people across the globe. And once they discovered who was humming that tune, or the title of the background music in that trailer; they ran out and bought the CD off Amazon, digitized it, offered it up to billions of others so someone else can discover that artist and buy the box set at Borders.

Try doing that now with the new music stores.

For starters, there really is no way to log onto any of the music stores and search for that music in that trailer, or that acoustic version of that one song that was played live on that one radio station. Napster was really good for that as people described the songs they were sharing and you were able to find that hidden gem. Now you’re back to finding songs by artist, genre, composer, and track. Correct me if I am wrong, but in the old days you went to a record store and looked songs up in that fashion and by searching shelf after shelf until, maybe, you found what you were hunting for. Isn’t all this new technology supposed to be moving us forward? Instead we’ve taken a huge leap back to the early 1980’s, and we are searching through the dusty old CD and record bins in alphabetical order via genre listing; albeit with a shiny DRM digital coating; we’re still searching through the music bins just like the old days. Napster offered us a great new way to search, find, download, and listen to the music we wanted. Now we are searching, finding, downloading, and listening to the music the way they want us to (you know who ‘they’ are).

Now, with the old Napster, you usually found that one illusive song by searching and chatting with other Napster users. With 6 billion people on the planet, you were bound to find it; someone had to have it. But what about now? A couple of days ago, I saw the trailer for Mr. And Mrs. Smith, and in the trailer, near the end, is a techno song that I really liked. Well, now I have to use Google, and search through different online forums and blogs until I found the artist and title of the song. I eventually found what I was looking for; sort of. I logged onto iTunes, and lo and behold the song was not available for either listening or download. This is also ditto for Musicmatch and Rhapsody. And this folks is where the online music stores will falter. There is a large, very large, extremely large backlog of music out there that hasn’t made itself available online, and they seem to be foot dragging on getting this stuff out there and available for listening and downloading. Heck, even some new music isn’t making its way out there yet.

I thought the whole purpose of the online music stores was to change the way we searched for and listened to our music. It really hasn’t changed, and we’re the unwitting lemmings in the RIAA’s game. We still search for music the same we always have (artist, album, genre), and we’re locked into what devices we can use to listen to that music. Not all music is available for ‘legal’ downloading; so people revert back to using Kazaa or Limewire to find unspoiled music tracks instead of spending $13.99 for a CD when all you want is one or two songs.

Essentially, the RIAA and its bedfellows have got us back into their little universe; back into their rules of business and money and spending. They control what we are allowed to find and listen to, what device we use to listen to it and more importantly how we spend our money.
]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/I don't understand why all the record companies haven't digitized every piece of music that they own and offer it online. Sure, there will be stuff that may only sell 500 copies, but how much money were they making when it was out-of-print? Zero.]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/
You can make iMix's, gift tracks to friends and there's no reason why apple couldn't also provide message board or chat facilities if they felt that it was missing...]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/
Besides, if they actually released albums that were worth $12 people would actually buy them. I don't buy many cds because most CDs aren't worth $1, let alone $12-15.

If I hear a cd and the whole album is good I usually buy it, this may even change my views on that though... Now instead of asking if the album is worth $12, I have to ask myself if the album is worth $12 and a security exploit.]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/and get your computer infested with Sony malware.. Looks like an easy choice :)]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/(never got any feedback though, they must be speechless)
--------------------------------------
From: Lucien Pan <> Mailed-By: gmail.com
To: webmaster@sonybmg.ca, webmaster@sony.com
Date: Nov 3, 2005 8:16 PM
Subject: ILLEGAL, IMMORAL, UNETHICAL rootkit techniques in Sony DRM.

To SONY BMG.

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

I am totally disgusted by your ethics and greed. To Sony, the end-justifies-the-means...

Well, as a consumer, I vow to retaliate by NEVER purchasing ANYTHING remotely associated with SONY or any of it's affiliates. Not only CD's, DVD's but electronics as well. For instance, I had my eye on a PS3... Not anymore! I was considering blue-ray DVD. Not anymore! I will simply switch to other vendors and completely exclude any Sony products forever.

That is what happens when you bite the hand that feeds you.

This incredibly stupid, almost criminal behavior on your part truly reveals the real mission behind your corporation. The ugliest type of greed.

If other consumers feel as outraged as I am, no doubt will they boycott your products from now on.

You deserve all that is coming to you, including potential class-action lawsuits for damage, data loss, productivity loss, and tort.

You mess with other people private property, you will pay the price.

Sincerely,
Lucien Pan.

PS: Sony used to be for me a symbol of quality, technology, performance... Sad sad sad. Now everything is tainted by the perception Sony is just greedy, and will use any means, no matter how low, to bolster their profit margins. To the public, perception is reality. No amount of damage control can fix your image now. Not with educated clients anyway.

PS2: The EULA clause limiting your liability to US$5 maximum will not hold in court, mark my words.

PS3: The damage already done to Sony's reputation and image is beyond repair. You will never be back on top where you once enjoyed and deserved that spot.

"Trust takes a lifetime to build, but a single moment to destroy"]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/01/sony-drm-hacks-your-pc/Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM