Shame On You, Sony BMG

"Sony's music arm has been accused of using the tactics of virus writers to stop its CDs being illegally copied.

One copy protection system analysed by coder Mark Russinovich uses cloaked files to hide deep inside Windows.

The difficult uninstallation process left Mr Russinovich saying that Sony's anti-piracy efforts had gone "too far".

In response to criticism, Sony BMG said it would provide tools to users and security firms that would reveal the hidden files."

This is unbelievable. Riding on the anti-piracy wave of idiocy, Sony BMG has gone off the deep end on this one. Sony's always been the pusher of their sometimes ridiculous proprietary software/hardware (beta, memory stick, etc) and this cloaked software is no exception to their terrible track record in this regard.

Here is an update on Mr. Russinovich's findings after going to Sony BMG's website for the "patch" to uninstall the rootkit:

"My posting Monday on Sony’s use of a rootkit as part of their Digital Rights Management (DRM) generated an outcry that’s reached the mainstream media. As of this morning the story is being covered in newspapers and media sites around the world including USA Today and the BBC. This is the case of the blogosphere having an impact, at least for the moment. But, there’s more to the story, like how Sony’s patch can lead to a crashed system and data loss and how Sony is still making users jump through hoops to get an uninstaller. At the core of this story, however, is the issue of what disclosure should be required of software End User License Agreements (EULAs) and how the requirements can be made Federal law."

This is a disturbing and eye-opening read on an extremely poorly implemented anti-piracy scheme. Please read the rest of Mr. Russinovich's article here.

I seriously discourage anyone buying any Sony BMG cd's until Sony straightens up.