Oh what fun! The recording industry complains about the consumers doing illegal activity but the Sony story just gets bigger.
Not only does Sony put code on you computer to limit you use of recordings that you purchased for your own personal use, but it opens wide doors for malware. And these installed files from Sony are invisible to the user so they are very hard to find. Of course this has already been exploited. And it is hard to remove. To top that, the Sony provided “fix” makes even bigger security holes from what I hear.
BTW, “Any consumer who fails to keep up-to-date with the hidden software is in breach of the [end user license] agreement.”
To top it off, some of the code used in this software seems to be suspiciously like the LGPL licensed code for LAME. It looks like some one may be in violation of copyright and licensing?
“The issue that has been lurking for a long time is how invasive can content companies be as to monitoring your computer,” said Jason Schultz, a staff attorney for the EFF. “I think that Sony has gone too far here and violated the personal property rights of computer users.”
Some of the MANY references:
- Research about Sony’s XCP DRM system
- Is Sony in violation of the LGPL? – Part II
- Sony stops making anti-piracy CDs
- Sony rootkit DRM: how many infected titles?
- Sony BMG Recalling Hidden-Software Music CDs
My suggestion, just don’t buy Sony for a while.
