[ale] more on sony rootkit, it uses LAME mp3 encoder code

[Michael H. Warfield]

On Tue, 2005-11-15 at 13:12 -0500, tfreeman at intel.digichem.net wrote:
> If Sony can keep up the great work, they may be creating a geek soap 
> opera.

> "Tune in tomorrow to find out if Sony can get their hand out of the cookie 
> jar with all those cookies in their fist..." or something like that only 
> more interesting.

	It's only getting worse.  Their initial (Active X control) uninstall
tool is WORSE that the original problem.  It leaves your system
vulnerable to malicious web sites which could exploit it to run code on
your system.  They've now pulled that too.  Other problems, directly
attributable to the DRM software itself are also surfacing.

	Plus, their OTHER DRM sofware from SunnComm is also coming under fire
for installing components even if you click NO to their agreement (plus
the same-ole same-old spyware arguments).

	Folks...  Nobody could make this crap up.  Nobody would believe that
anybody (no matter HOW greedy) could possibly be THAT stupid...  Now we
know...  The vultures and sharks are increasingly tasting a blood bath
coming, as evidenced by two lawsuits already filed in the US, and the
feeding frenzy is only just beginning.

	It's been suggested to reward Sony by boycotting their products, ALL
THEIR PRODUCTS, over the holiday season just to show how much we really
care and appreciate their consideration of us as customers.  That sounds
perfectly reasonable.  I would suggested including EMI (and all
subsidiaries of each) in that plan, since they have also included DRM in
some of their CDs even if it doesn't include such inane security
holes...  I would also suggest picking out a few titles from their
competitors and going out and spending some of that hard earned cash you
saved by boycotting these cretins.  We may not like the music mafia in
generally but sending a strong negative message to those to do crap like
this coupled with a strong positive message to those who don't, might
just hit them where they hurt the most.  Vote with your wallets...

	Mike

> On Tue, 15 Nov 2005, Geoffrey wrote:
> 
> > This is getting very interesting, from /.:
> > 
> > "So apparently Sony violates your privacy to create a backdoor onto your 
> > machine using code that violates an Open Source license."
> > 
> > http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/15/1250229&tid=117&tid=188&tid=17

	Even Microsoft is now labeling the Sony DRM package as malware and will
wipe it off a system.  Though...  I'm not sure if they mean the DRM
software itself or just the rootkit...  Smells like a conflict of
interest in the competition department there...  More to come on that
front, I fear.

	Mike
-- 
 Michael H. Warfield    |  (770) 985-6132   |  mhw at WittsEnd.com  
  /\/\|=mhw=|\/\/       |  (678) 463-0932   |  http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/
  NIC whois:  MHW9      |  An optimist believes we live in the best of all
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