What Sony are doing to YOUR PC

[The Great Cornholio]

Don't know how many people outside of the geek world know about this but it is thought provoking stuff. I will post an article on it at the end of this post but, in summary, if you have bought a music CD from Sony in the last year or two which has "enhanced features" and you have played it on your PC, you will now have a rootkit installed on your PC. This is a piece of software that hides itself from view - even from the operating system. The intention of this one was to stop you copying music to and from your PC and to send details of your listening habits back to Sony - all without your knowledge!.

Anyway, here is the article :-


New digital rights management technology shipping on music CDs by Sony Corp. of America/Bertelsmann AG artists employs stealthy, rootkit-style techniques to hide from users, according to a security expert.

The new technology, which Sony has dubbed "sterile burning," manipulates the Windows core processing center, or "kernel," to make the DRM almost totally undetectable on Windows systems.
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These DRM files are almost impossible to remove without fouling Windows systems and could be used by malicious hackers to hide their own programs, according to Mark Russinovich, chief software architect at Winternals Software Inc., a company that makes administrative software tools.

Sony BMG acknowledged that the rootkit-style features are part of DRM technology that began shipping with CDs in 2005, but referred technical questions about the technology to First 4 Internet Ltd., the Banbury, England, firm that developed it.

Russinovich said he discovered the Sony rootkit technology after scanning his own computer with a tool called RootkitRevealer that he developed.

Russinovich, who is an authority on rootkits, said he was shocked by the discovery.

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"Given the fact that I'm careful in my surfing habits and only install software from reputable sources, I had no idea how I'd picked up a real rootkit," he wrote on his blog.

After discovering the program, Russinovich began a detailed analysis of it that turned up the name of First 4 Internet, a UK firm that developed the software for Sony.

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Russinovich said he believes that the software was installed on his system by a copy-protected CD of music by Sony BMG artists The Van Zant Brothers that he recently purchased from Amazon.com.

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Through a detailed analysis of communication between the media player installed from the Sony CD and the rootkit files, Russinovich was able to determine that the rootkit files were installed with the media player and communicated with it.

Russinovich was reluctant to discuss the details of how the DRM software works, citing fear of prosecution under the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act). However, he said the rootkit features help enforce the sterile burning limits on copying Sony music files.



/sits back and waits for geek abuse

 

[Bluejuice]

Just have to download all your music then. Avoid this sting

 

[The Great Cornholio]

Just have to download all your music then. Avoid this sting

That is the perceived wisdom. With this and the whole DRM saga, I think the end for CD's and DVD's is nigh. If they have their way, buying an album will only mean you are renting it.

Watch out for a mass exodouss to Linux when Microsoft release Longhorn (Or Vista or whatever they are calling it now) as they are right in bed with the music and film companies. You won't be able to do anything or your PC unless Microsoft say it is alright.

 

[Cian]

They're also making my laptop an unstable (hardware-wise, not software) heap of crap

Rip CD's on anything but Windows, and you're sorted.

Indeed, outside of Windows you even get extremely good rippers like cdparanoia which can get around most damaged audio, including the older Sony BMG copy protection scheme; but its best for ripping audio for scratched CD's.

 

[Wardy]

I am no legal expert, but if they change my PC software without my knowledge or consent, then it must be illegal?

 

[The Great Cornholio]

I am no legal expert, but if they change my PC software without my knowledge or consent, then it must be illegal?

I think to get the enhanced content, you have to agree to something or other. But Italian police are currently investigating Sony for this. :-

Computer Associates said that new anticopying software Sony is using to discourage pirating of its music also secretly collects information from any computer that plays the discs including hundreds of people in Australia who buy BMG Sony music. One of the world's largest software and information technology companies, Computer Associates is the latest to wade into the growing controversy over Sony's efforts to curb theft and illegal pirating of its music.In Europe Police have been called in to investigate Sony's actions.

An Italian digital rights organisation has taken the first steps to possible criminal charges over the XCP software which, it was recently discovered cloaks itself on users' computers and communicates with Sony servers over the Internet.

The group, calling itself the ALCEI-EFI (Association for Freedom in Electronic Interactive Communications - Electronic Frontiers Italy), filed a complaint about Sony's software with the head of Italy's cyber-crime investigation unit, Colonel Umberto Rapetto of the Guardia di Finanza.

The complaint alleges that XCP violates a number of Italy's computer security laws by causing damage to users' systems and by acting in the same way as malicious software, according to Andrea Monti, chair of the ALCEI-EFI. "What Sony did qualifies as a criminal offense under Italian law," he said.

Should police determine that a crime has been committed, prosecutors will be required to begin criminal proceedings against Sony, Monti said.

The software works only on computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system. It limits listeners' ability to copy the music onto their computers, and locks copied files so they cannot be freely distributed over the Internet.

But Computer Associates said the antipirating software also secretly communicates with Sony over the Internet when listeners play the discs on computers that have an Internet connection. The software uses this connection to transmit the name of the CD being played to an office of Sony's music division in Cary, N.C. The software also transmits the IP address of the listener's computer, Computer Associates said, but not the name of the listener. But Sony can still use the data to create a profile of a listener's music collection, according to Computer Associates.

''This is in effect 'phone home' technology, whether its intent is to capture such data or not," said Sam Curry, vice president of Computer Associates' eTrust Security Management unit. ''If you choose to let people know what you're listening to, that's your business. If they do it without your permission, it's an invasion of privacy."

Sony and the British firm that wrote the antipirating code for the music company flatly denied the software snoops on listeners. ''We don't receive any spyware information, any consumer information," said Mathew Gilliat-Smith, chief executive of First 4 Internet Ltd., which makes the software for Sony BMG Music Entertainment.

So far, Sony BMG has installed the software on about 20 titles in its music catalog, including works by jazzman Dexter Gordon, singer Vivian Green, and the new issue by country rockers Van Zant, ''Get Right with the Man." It was the Van Zant disc that led to the controversy over Sony's new software. In late October, a well-known Windows computer engineer, Mark Russinovich, stumbled across the Sony software on one of his personal computers while running a security scan. Russinovich had used the computer to play the Van Zant CD, not realizing that it had installed the anticopying program. When he tried to remove it, Russinovich found that the program lacked the ''uninstall" feature found in most Windows software. Indeed, key components of the software hid themselves deep in his computer by applying the same techniques used by data thieves to conceal their activities. Even a skilled user who identifies the correct files can't safely remove them, said Russinovich.

''Most users that stumble across the cloaked files . . . will cripple their computer if they attempt the obvious step of deleting the cloaked files," he wrote on his technology website, SysInternals. Computer Associates yesterday concurred with Russinovich's assessment. Curry said Sony has made it so difficult for listeners to uninstall its software that some could lose all their data in the process.

''It can damage the operating system and the operating system's integrity, so it can't reboot at all," Curry said. ''As an expert in security, I can say this is bad behavior." Indeed, Computer Associates has added the software to its list of spyware programs that collect personal information from computer users without their permission. Russinovich also said that a patch Sony and First 4 released Friday to stop the software from hiding inside computers malfunctions and can cause an irreparable loss of computer data. Gilliat-Smith of First 4 said he knows of no case in which this has happened. Sony offers a website where users can obtain a program that uninstalls its software. He said both efforts should prove that Computer Associates and Russinovich's complaints are unfounded.

 

[beorhthelm]

Just have to download all your music then. Avoid this sting

And write a email to Sony, Warner, and all others telling them of your course of action and why.

the wosrt part of this latest (known) drm is that the software creates a hidden directory that virus can and will use to hide themselves.

the best, or funniest, part is that if you disable Autorun on your cdrom or hold the shift key when loading the cd, it doesnt install. Or get a Mac/Linux/Amiga/OS2/BeOS and these problems disappear.

 

[Hatterlovesbrighton]

I am no legal expert, but if they change my PC software without my knowledge or consent, then it must be illegal?

It's only happened abroad at the moment. If they did it to cds bought in the UK they would have to include something in the t+cs when you first attempt to copy the tracks

 

[Harold]

Am I right in thinking then that the only people inconvenienced (albeit surreptitiously) in this way are those that buy legitimate copies?

I'm guessing that anyone buying a hacked media copies would not suffer from this as those copies had already been 'cracked'.

Great. The law-abiding suffer once again.

 

[Faldo]

So far, Sony BMG has installed the software on about 20 titles in its music catalog, including works by jazzman Dexter Gordon, singer Vivian Green, and the new issue by country rockers Van Zant, ''Get Right with the Man."

Is there a list of the titles carrying this software? Just in case, like (even if UK releases are unaffected, many online sellers import their stuff (CD Wow always used to).

 

[Grendel]

This might sound like a crazy idea but...how about playing CDs on a Cd Player, rather than a PC?
"Enhanced" features are always a load of crap anyway, so you won't be missing much.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

This might sound like a crazy idea but...how about playing CDs on a Cd Player, rather than a PC?

because I am sitting at my PC ?

 

[Richard Whiteley]

sorry to go off thread topic but do TGC or MYOB or anyone for that matter, know how to recover data on an old CD that's just been used a few too many times. Is it possible?

My cd drive won't recognise it

 

[Easy 10]

This might sound like a crazy idea but...how about playing CDs on a Cd Player, rather than a PC?
"Enhanced" features are always a load of crap anyway, so you won't be missing much.

Sounds like they can do the same with DVD'S as well though - and thats something I do sometimes use my laptop for.

 

[beorhthelm]

It's only happened abroad at the moment. If they did it to cds bought in the UK they would have to include something in the t+cs when you first attempt to copy the tracks

sorry, they are here and on the shelfs. in fact if youve bought a cd in the last 4-5 years there's a chance there's some form of protection on it. They *should* be recognisable by the "Compact Disc Digital Audio" being different as technically they dont conform to the CD standard. but you have to know what to look out for and some early ones are completely unmarked (before Philips told them to get into line).

As to the question are they legal, the answer is clearly no, but it'd require someone to take it to court to demonstrate that.

Faldo, they are sites that list DRM-infected CDs. try this to start

 

[adrian29uk]

Im already using Linux im sick oF MIcrosoft and other shit companies telling me what I can and what I cant do on a PC. Eventually Microsoft will be sent information on what times you boot your PC up.

 

[Cian]

sorry to go off thread topic but do TGC or MYOB or anyone for that matter, know how to recover data on an old CD that's just been used a few too many times. Is it possible?

My cd drive won't recognise it

CD or CD-R/CD-RW?

Audio or data?

Its probably recoverable, but you'll need to get your hands on a very good quality CD drive to read it in as a first start.

 

[Richard Whiteley]

CD or CD-R/CD-RW?

Audio or data?

Its probably recoverable, but you'll need to get your hands on a very good quality CD drive to read it in as a first start.

It's a data cd. When I first got this laptop in the summer I had some success with it and managed to save some of the stuff to hard drive but recently it won't read it at all.

 

[Beach Hut]

Seems like Sony are going to cease this practice from now on.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4430608.stm

 

[¤DãŃn¥ §êãGüLL¤]

Sounds like they can do the same with DVD'S as well though - and thats something I do sometimes use my laptop for.

Do you take it into the toilet with you?