 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2005-11-11 13:51
Read this:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-briefs11.4nov11,1,4659916.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
The Sony DRM (Digital Rights Management) player software is set up to allow 3 copies. It acts as a "root kit" (intercepts kernel calls on your Windows machine) so that it's not visible at all - not in the registry, not on the disk, nowhere ... and it has administrator rights.
Since it does that and this virus uses the software as its "back door", nothing can see it right now - and it can shut down your anti-virus system.
Nasty stuff ...
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2005-11-11 14:37
> Nasty stuff. Nasty company.
Yup. And off my buying list.
--
Ben
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Author: clarinetwife
Date: 2005-11-11 16:22
Thanks for tip Mark and your links Ken. We are getting our new computer with DVD within days, and I was wondering, are there any messages that the software is being installed, or do they just have you agree to thebig hairy EULA and then it is installed without further notice?
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2005-11-11 16:35
clarinetwife wrote:
> Thanks for tip Mark and your links Ken. We are getting our new
> computer with DVD within days, and I was wondering, are there
> any messages that the software is being installed, or do they
> just have you agree to thebig hairy EULA and then it is
> installed without further notice?
I don't know - I will not play copy-protected anything (software or otherwise) on my computer. If I can't make a backup copy for my protection, I refuse to use it.
It's already bad enough with the license & registration over the Internet for those things you _can_ copy (but, in their defense, when the Symantec people screwed up on my license renewals - 4 at my house, 1 at my middle kid's apt. - they gave me an extra year on them).
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Author: hans
Date: 2005-11-11 17:42
Can the unwanted DRM program that creates the vulnerability survive a hard drive re-format?
Does anyone know if the software that comes with Sony's MP3 players includes the DRM program?
Hans (who is unlikely to buy anything from Sony again for a long time)
P.S. - Mark, thank you for this thread.
Post Edited (2005-11-11 18:00)
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Author: Don Poulsen
Date: 2005-11-11 18:45
I would doubt that it would survive a hard drive reformatting, as this basically erases the table telling the computer where files are located on the hard drive (although not necessarily the data itself). I presume you are just talking about getting rid of the program, not getting around it, as reformatting the hard drive would be a drastic step to enable making additional copies.
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Author: johnsonfromwisconsin
Date: 2005-11-11 20:34
From a technical standpoint, this stuff is grotesque.
From a moral standpoint, this behavior is reprehensable.
Truley, if it were a malware or spyware programmer doing this independently, they'd likely be subject to arrest. It is quite dissapointing corporations can wantonly commit these stunts with only the prospect of losing pr or money looming over them.
I'm personally boycotting Sony. If it were up to me, punishment would be quite severe.
-JfW
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2005-11-11 20:40
> Can the unwanted DRM program that creates the vulnerability survive a
> hard drive re-format?
I don't know about the specific program, but technically it can.
(The whole fist cylinder of a hard disk is reserved for the partition sector (that is just one single sector of several dozens or even hundreds available). That first cylinder is usually where harddisk encryption applications (that prompt for a password prior to booting) reside.
Unless you wipe your harddisk (some DoD procedure requires you to do that seven times) such programs can survive. As said I don't know whether Sony's one is capable of doing that.
If you have nothing to lose you may try http://updates.xcp-aurora.com/ ...
--
Ben
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Author: marzi
Date: 2005-11-11 21:07
The problem is what one company does, others follow, what happens when all the dvd producers do this? Thanks, i'm not buying any sony either then.
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Author: Shorthand
Date: 2005-11-11 21:54
They follow if its proven to be a good idea in the marketplace. This one certainly hasn't been and is unlikely to be copied as Sony-BMG has had to back down on it.
No, it wouldn't survive a hard drive format and reinstall of Windows. However, that's alkin to killing a fly with a shotgun. Technically, things CAN, but its more than a little tricky and probably well beyond the goals of these programmers who were simply trying to kluge a way to prevent excessive music copying and sharing.
Sony forgets that at some point the bits are decoded and sent to your sound card. There are a sound card passthru drivers that allow you to simply intercept that stream and send it to your hard disk too. Its not a complicated spoof and will defeat any software of this type. Even an analog dub with a decent capture card is still of CD quality - you loose very little in one D-A and A-D conversion as long as the A-D is of good quality.
The point is that with digital media, you CAN'T prevent people from copying it. Its stupid to try, but Sony's little foray into this area is seriously unethical. A more promising strategy is watermarking the signal and try to trace the original sale back to a perpertrator, but even that can be undone if its spotted (and it would be the moment people start comparing files), or ovbiously if someone pays cash for the original media. It also doesn't hold up well to mass production - mass production CD's are pressed from a master just like records.
Honestly, this shifts the economics away from recorded media back to live performances, and that gives opportunities to many more musicians - recording becomes a promotion tool for performacnes, not vice versa, and bands stop accepting underpaid gigs in the hope of making it big some day. I can't say that this is a bad trend.
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Author: ariel3
Date: 2005-11-15 16:42
For what it's worth, you might want to check in on "Ed Bott's Windows Expertise" Blogline. He (and others) warn us NOT to use Sony's uninstall kit to remove the "gift from Sony" I will not go into any further detail - he explains it quite well - and it is SCARY.
Gene
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Author: noahbob
Date: 2005-11-16 21:36
Sony is now recalling all the CD's with copy protection
See this article http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10069563
Bob
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