It looks like Sony’s copy protection installs a “rootkit” on PCs. Quick explanation: rootkits are baaaaad.
The Inquirer says:
With any luck, and I can’t believe I am saying this, an ambulance chasing scumbag lawyer will take this up and sue Sony into the ground for stupidity on this level. There has to be some letter of the law that was violated as arrogantly as purchaser’s rights are.
So, it has finally come down to this, you don’t have a choice about DRM, your rights are removed and there is no recourse. All of this to protect the profit margins of Sony Corp, at your expense. If there was ever a good argument for piracy, to me, this is it. No, better yet people, just say no and don’t buy this crap, it is the higher ground
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0 responses to “More DRM stupidity”
Wow.
I was just looking at the logo on my old Sony monitor, and remembering how, when I was a wee bit younger, Sony was to technology what Apple is now. I had a Sony TV, VCR, hi-fi, Walkman, even clock radio. Wanted a Vaio when they came out. Now, nothing they make is cool, and they do stupid stuff like this.
Oh well. Add it to the “reasons to own a Mac” list.
It’s an interesting story. I’ve just been looking at the F-Secure (security firm) blog and they’re backing it up. Seems Sony really was dumb enough to use a rootkit-based DRM system.
Is it dumb, though? The number of people who are going to complain about this are a tiny, tiny proportion of Sony’s market, half of whom would already refuse to buy anything with DRM on it anyway. So what have they lost?
It’s bad PR (and will encourage even more hatred of the music firms), and it’d be interesting to see how it fits with laws such as the Computer Misuse Act and whatever the US equivalent is. Removing the rootkit seems to trash Windows, which isn’t very clever.
This is also quite interesting: seems Sony is trying to use DRM to spark a consumer backlash against Apple:
The Big Picture
I’ve just looked up “My Morning Jacket” on Amazon.co.uk, and it says nothing about DRM. Is this because it isn’t copy-protected in the UK, or is it because Amazon only gives this info in the US?
Not sure. I suspect it’s DRM-free here at the moment.
That’s a great link, Stephen. Thanks for that.
No problem. I did unearth a forum discussion on the DRM of that particular CD; one of the posters from the UK had no problems, so maybe I’ll buy it. It certainly sounds very intriguing…
There do seem to be different DRM approaches in different countries. For a while the UK was the guinea pig and no mainstream US CDs were crippled, but over the last few months it seems to have flipped and it’s the US editions that seem to have the copy protection.
The trick is to check the CD case if you can: if a CD is DRM-ed then typically it won’t have the Compact Disc logo on it, or it may have system requirements written in small print. Naturally if I see either I won’t buy it.
There’s a database of known crippled CDs at the UK campaign for digital rights site – http://ukcdr.org/issues/cd/bad/ – but it looks out of date to me.
This comment (left on Engadget) demonstrates what I mean by the PR side of things:
“One more reason downloading is better than buying, because when you buy you get fucked.”
On a related note, Hollywood wants laws to ban analogue recording:
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=27385
Good luck with enforcing that one.
It’ll be via hardware, if they get what they want. The upshot is that people who buy stuff legally and don’t tinker with it will lose functionality; for people who don’t give a stuff, it’ll be business as usual. Bar a few people sued to make an example of them.