QuadCEM/QuadBlog

So if you haven’t at least heard about the latest record company debacle then you must be living in China or North Korea. In their feeble attempt to stop piracy, Sony came up with the idea of using the popular “computer fraud” method to help protect their empire. On their latest CDs with DRM, the disks contain highly dangerous software (a rootkit) that is installed without the user’s knowledge.

For those of us who play with computers recreationally, we know how gorgeous a rootkit is on someone’s computer (especially if we don’t like the person). If the rootkit is put onto a system with system-level permissions it can run as a kernel-mode rootkit, which has the power to do absolutely anything that it wants — including almost completely hiding itself from sight. If someone can grab ahold of the reigns on this rootkit, they can have complete control over your computer without you even knowing it.

For those who are less familiar with computers, I think Sony BMG president (Thomas Hesse) said it best when he retorted, “Most people don’t even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?” Thank you, sir! I needed some new quotes to go with my good Bill Gates ones =).

After Sony got caught in the act they seemed not to really care; at least they offered replacements and pulled the disks. They also released a patch for the rootkit, but it just made everything worse and could potentially crash Windows. Much, much later they eventually released an uninstaller to the general public.

Apparently Sony thinks they can break laws and no one will care; they’re the poor victims of copyright infringement, right? If Sony had any respect left for them before, they pretty much lost it after they tried to sneak their little rootkits into their disks. Sony is probably the biggest group of hypocritical, imbecilic old-timers that exists in today’s world; their unprofitable, outdated business model is going to be the death of them in coming years if they can’t learn to adapt to the changing digital world.

For some reason they think it is a good idea to spend millions of dollars developing Digital Rights Management schemes that can be quickly circumvented by preteens. It’s physically impossible to stop people from ripping disks and sharing them, especially when there’s something out there called Linux.

I personally think it would be the most enjoyable faux pas of the new millennium to see Sony spend itself into bankruptcy trying to protect their music. They don’t seem to be very bright, so I think it’s very possible … let’s just wait and see.

[update: 2006-01-04] Stewart Baker, assistant secretary for policy at the Department of Homeland Security, bashes Sony BMG: “It’s very important to remember that it’s your intellectual property — it’s not your computer. And in the pursuit of protection of intellectual property, it’s important not to defeat or undermine the security measures that people need to adopt in these days.”

Also, I thought it would be funny to mention that Sony BMG is not only facing numerous lawsuits in the US, but also in Italy and Canada. Italy is currently undergoing an investigation to charge Sony BMG with criminal offenses, as well.