Re: OT: And then they wonder why record sales are down!

Greek Shipping Magnets wrote this on Fri, 04 Nov 2005 15:40:21 +0000.
My reply is below.

> This is so Orweillian and underhanded (and typical) of the
> douchebags running the recording business. Installing secret malware
> onto your PC to keep you from copying their CDs? And then they
> actually expect their consumers to purchase their products legally?

> *** that ***!

Thanks, Dem. I am spam bombing my friends with the following missive:

My moral compass started malfunctioning some time ago, and I switched
to an outrage meter for navigating the media sea. Lately, that device
began reacting listlessly and lackadaisically, too, and I was forced
to turn toward the Internet for new and ever more powerful hits of
righteous indignation.

Has this happened to you? Are you truly moved to care whether CIA
spook Valerie Plame Wilson's husband/ambassador Joe was compensated
for incompetently doing her job and went on to set himself up as a
pundit on American warmongering? I don't think I am.

Well, buck up! Here's a story guaranteed to animate your animal
spirits and open your bile ducts.

You'll excuse me if you've encountered this one. I suppose Big Media
is not about to let this onto commercial newscasts, so, if you know
about it already, it must've been through the Internet; right?

Surprise! One of Sony's publishing tentacles (I mean arms.) has been
selling popular music CDs with copy protection. These things play
fine in a CD player. The hitch comes when you put one in a Windows
PC. Sony duly assumes you intend to copy it and is determined to
limit the number of copies you can make on each PC you own to three
per each. To enforce this, an autoplay program loads from the CD
(Larvala par 5).

This program presents an End-User License Agreement (EULA) for Sony's
digital-rights management (DRM) scheme. If you decline, you are being
a bad boy, but you probably can copy the CD illicitly using whatever
techniques you would normally use for violating other publishers'
copyrights. If you accept, you are a being a good boy, and you are
rewarded with a patch to your Windows OS that surely enough limits the
number of copies you can make of Sony CDs but that surreptitiously
opens security holes in Windows you can throw a cat through.

The Extended Copy Protection (XPC) technique used by Sony was
developed by First4Internet and introduced in consumer CDs in May 2005
(Hora par 1).

XPC cloaks files and Windows registry entries whose names begin with
$sys$ from being included in lists shown by Windows utility programs
such as Windows Explorer and Regedit. Thus, the casual user is
unlikely to notice that his PC has been patched since most of XPC
itself uses this naming convention. Likewise, the casual user would
be oblivious to any similarly named malicious software introduced to
his machine from whatever source (Roberts par 22).

Furthermore, there is code installed on each subsequent boot to
intercept OS procedures and otherwise monitor system use to prevent
future illicit copying of Sony products. XPC cannot be uninstalled
except with a download from Sony (Roberts par 28).

Here are steps you can take to protect your operating system from the
patch:

o Run Linux instead of Windows.

o If you must run Windows, avoid Sony products.

o If you must run Windows and play Sony CDs, be sure to disable the
Windows autoplay feature for your CD drive.

o If you must run with autoplay enabled, sooner or later you will get
patched, but you can derive some futile satisfaction from declining
EULAs.

OK, even if that doesn't get you worked up, you may still vicariously
sample the outwash of populist spleen on display in the comments to
Mark Russinovich's SYSINTERNALS blog.

=====

Works Cited

Hora, Ravdeep. "Sony Tests CD Protection Technology." CoolTechZone
N. seq. (31 May 2005): 5 pars. Online. Internet. 4 Nov. 2005.
Available
http://www.cooltechzone.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=1354.

Larvala, Samuli. "XCP DRM Software." F-Secure Virus Descriptions
N. seq. (1 Nov. 2005): 18 pars. Online. Internet. 4 Nov. 2005.
Available http://europe.f-secure.com/v-descs/xcp_drm.shtml.

Roberts, Paul F. "Sony DRM Uses Rootkit Techniques." eWeek.com
N. seq. (1 Nov. 2005): 31 pars. Online. Internet. 4 Nov. 2005.
Available http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1880551,00.asp.

Russinovich, Mark. "Sony, Rootkits and Digital Rights Management Gone
Too Far." Sysinternals N. seq. (31 Oct. 2005): 23 pars. Online.
Internet. 4 Nov. 2005. Available
http://www.sysinternals.com/blog/2005/10/sony-rootkits-and-digital-rights.html.

--
... Chuck Rhode, Sheboygan, WI
... 1979 Honda Goldwing GL1000 (Geraldine)
... 1978 Honda Goldwing GL1000 (Fenris)
... 55°F. Wind W 8 mph. Clear.

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