Sony’s Compact Discs & Their Secret Software
Posted on October 31, 2005 by Tito
For years, I’ve used the PC utilities at SysInternals.com. I’ve found them to be useful, dependable, lightweight and all the other things that make well-written software great. In a recent blog entry, Mark Russinovich chronicles his the anger & frustration that accomponied the discovery of poorly written, digingenuous & undocumented malware installed on his PC as part of the media player that shipped as part of a DRM-ed audio compact disc from Sony.
At that point I knew conclusively that the rootkit and its associated files were related to the First 4 Internet DRM software Sony ships on its CDs. Not happy having underhanded and sloppily written software on my system I looked for a way to uninstall it. However, I didn’t find any reference to it in the Control Panel’s Add or Remove Programs list, nor did I find any uninstall utility or directions on the CD or on First 4 Internet’s site. I checked the EULA and saw no mention of the fact that I was agreeing to have software put on my system that I couldn’t uninstall. Now I was mad.
After going into some more technical details, he concludes:
The entire experience was frustrating and irritating. Not only had Sony put software on my system that uses techniques commonly used by malware to mask its presence, the software is poorly written and provides no means for uninstall. Worse, most users that stumble across the cloaked files with a RKR scan will cripple their computer if they attempt the obvious step of deleting the cloaked files.
While I believe in the media industry’s right to use copy protection mechanisms to prevent illegal copying, I don’t think that we’ve found the right balance of fair use and copy protection, yet. This is a clear case of Sony taking DRM too far.
Considering Mark is as knowledgeable as a PC user can likely be, it certainly doesn’t bode well for the typical user who unwittingly installed the same crap-ware from Sony.
» Filed Under Music, Robot Brains, The Man Stickin It To Us
