Sony + XCP = neck deep in the shit.

Post by **bio** » Mon Nov 07, 2005 11:27 am

Sony is in full damage control mode after it was discovered that 20 of it's new CD titles had what bassicly turns out to be a rootkit on them.

The fallout is fairly intense, and on a number of blogs and such, a boycot of Sony/BMG music is being called for.

At least Amazon lists the CD as CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD (and the user comments are teh funneh!)

Oh... and apparently you can't call these things CD's. Philips, who defined the CD standard and then made it widely available, has been very clear that these music delivery systems do not count as Compact Discs and cannot use the CD logo.

Seriously though... if I buy a CD... then I'm obviously someone who friggin' buys CD's. Don't tell me what I can do with what I paid you money for.

damaged_one · Post by **damaged_one** » Mon Nov 07, 2005 12:09 pm

Hmmm. I used to like Sony but now they've turned to the darkside. It makes me wonder what kind of crap we can expect to see in the PS3.

Post by **bio** » Mon Nov 07, 2005 12:13 pm

It gets better.

If your PC doesn't have all the latest patches, just putting one of these jems in your CD-ROM could break your OS.

I'm smelling class action lawsuit.

I do, however, feel bad for the artists that Sony/BMG has used to pedal this poison to the masses. There's a very good chance that sales of their music will fall flat over this.

Seriously... I refuse to by anything from Sony/BMG until they stop this crap.

Post by **miftah** » Mon Nov 07, 2005 1:09 pm

Anybody seen a full list of the titles that include the rootkit? I have a couple Dual Discs that Sony made, and one in particular I suspect of having the offending element. Mainly because the CD side won't play on anything but my Sony Discman.

You gotta love the thinking here: Our biggest problem is that people aren't buying our products, but downloading them. How do we fix this? I KNOW! Let's punish the people who ARE buying them!

Post by **bio** » Mon Nov 07, 2005 1:29 pm

miftah wrote:Anybody seen a full list of the titles that include the rootkit?

They aren't saying how many titles are tainted with this little dob of love.

But a google search of Amazon (since they mark the CD as protected in it's description) does bring up a few hits.

Post by **miftah** » Mon Nov 07, 2005 3:30 pm

Sony better come clean in a big way, so that people know to go looking for it. In the meantime, if anyone wants me to copy a Sony CD with my Sony Dual Layer DVD Burner, please let me know. I say its open season on Sony piracy.

Post by **bio** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 6:03 am

This is one of the benefits of having a few linux boxes at my place.

I am curious, however, if the old "hold down the shift key" trick (stops auto-run) will work on these marvelous wonders of technical goodness (I'd assume it would... but then again, the last guy who publicly suggested this method of bypassing something like the was hauled into court. He won).

Post by **miftah** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 9:54 am

Yeah, the mac is also quite handy in these situations.

If I recall from last week, when I first read about this, it asks you if it can install something on first insert. Thereafter, if its already been installed, then it has no need.

Encap · Post by **Encap** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 12:35 pm

Post by **bio** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 1:35 pm

Exactly.

bugfreezer · Post by **bugfreezer** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 3:36 pm

ditto.

That is why I am considering dropping M$ altogether. And I am getting very irritated at the Entertainment Industry: We think we need them too much - they think so as well, hence they think they can get away with this load of bollocks.

Almost as bad as the "Freedom to take information" act referred to in another thread.

Encap · Post by **Encap** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 12:43 pm

Cory Doctorow: EFF has released a list of CDs known to have Sony's deadly rootkit DRM technology. If you were unfortunate enough to buy one of these CDs and you've since put it in your PC, Sony may have corrupted your computer already. In the future, think twice before buying any Sony music -- what's worth more, your computer, or a CD?

Trey Anastasio, Shine (Columbia)
Celine Dion, On ne Change Pas (Epic)
Neil Diamond, 12 Songs (Columbia)
Our Lady Peace, Healthy in Paranoid Times (Columbia)
Chris Botti, To Love Again (Columbia)
Van Zant, Get Right with the Man (Columbia)
Switchfoot, Nothing is Sound (Columbia)
The Coral, The Invisible Invasion (Columbia)
Acceptance, Phantoms (Columbia)
Susie Suh, Susie Suh (Epic)
Amerie, Touch (Columbia)
Life of Agony, Broken Valley (Epic)
Horace Silver Quintet, Silver's Blue (Epic Legacy)
Gerry Mulligan, Jeru (Columbia Legacy)
Dexter Gordon, Manhattan Symphonie (Columbia Legacy)
The Bad Plus, Suspicious Activity (Columbia)
The Dead 60s, The Dead 60s (Epic)
Dion, The Essential Dion (Columbia Legacy)
Natasha Bedingfield, Unwritten (Epic)
Ricky Martin, Life (Columbia) (labeled as XCP, but, oddly, our disc had no protection)

Post by **miftah** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 2:00 pm

You think the Horace Silver Quartet, Dexter Gordon, or Dion have a big problem with people burning copies of their music for friends? Do Trey Anastasio's fans even own computers (or soap)?

Post by **bio** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 2:12 pm

To be honest... I don't own any CD's by any of those artists.

I've never even heard of most of them.

I guess I'm not missing out on much then by not buying the music. I wouldn't download any of that either.

Encap... do you have the source for that list?

Encap · Post by **Encap** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 2:54 pm

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004144.php

Der EFF - Electronic Frontier Foundation - The Internet Good Guys.