Sony

Wolfgangsvault.com vs. Sony and Warners

Hans Werksman — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 09:05:00 GMT

Wolfgang's Vault strikes back at Sony BMG and the Warner Music Group. The website streams a great selection of late sixties and seventies concerts.

Far from being about bootlegging, consumer confusion or infringement of any sort, this case is actually a blatant attempt by two of the largest record labels in the world -- using artists as a front -- to secure new income streams and destroy a legitimate business," the suit says.
It also alleges that the two record companies unsuccessfully sought to negotiate licenses to the concert footage, and when that was not possible, "conspired with each other to concoct fictitious legal claims in an effort to appropriate for themselves the use of musical recordings through an abuse of this judicial process.

» More
» concerts.wolfgangsvault.com

Sony and the Open Source angle

Hans Werksman — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 20:35:00 GMT

Now it seems the company that wrote the XCP rootkit, First4Internet, used some open source code in the mix, specifically code from LAME, an MP3 encoder.

» More
» First4Internet
» LAME

Sony recalls copy-protected music CDs

Hans Werksman — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 20:14:00 GMT

Music company Sony BMG, yielding to consumer concern, said on Wednesday it was recalling music CDs containing copy-protection software that acts like virus software and hides deep inside a computer.

Sony initially refused to identify the complete list, but now says that it will post the list on its Web site soon. Meanwhile, you can tell if your CD has the rootkit protection by looking at the back. If you see a black and white table called "Compatible With," it's copy-protected; if the Web address at the bottom of table ends with XCP, it's protected using the rootkit method.

Sony BMG CDs with XCP (damned rootkit that will fuck up computers running on Windows) software:

Trey Anastasio, Shine (Columbia)
Celine Dion, On ne Change Pas (Epic)
Neil Diamond, 12 Songs (Columbia)
Our Lady Peace, Healthy in Paranoid Times (Columbia)
Chris Botti, To Love Again (Columbia)
Van Zant, Get Right with the Man (Columbia)
Switchfoot, Nothing is Sound (Columbia)
The Coral, The Invisible Invasion (Columbia)
Acceptance, Phantoms (Columbia)
Susie Suh, Susie Suh (Epic)
Amerie, Touch (Columbia)
Life of Agony, Broken Valley (Epic)
Horace Silver Quintet, Silver's Blue (Epic Legacy)
Gerry Mulligan, Jeru (Columbia Legacy)
Dexter Gordon, Manhattan Symphonie (Columbia Legacy)
The Bad Plus, Suspicious Activity (Columbia)
The Dead 60s, The Dead 60s (Epic)
Dion, The Essential Dion (Columbia Legacy)
Natasha Bedingfield, Unwritten (Epic)
Ricky Martin, Life (Columbia)

» www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10069563/

Why Sony still sucks

Hans Werksman — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 21:33:00 GMT

Sony pledges not to use its fangs, but its corporate claws are in full swing.

After weeks of criticism, Sony has finally agreed to temporarily stand down on an abusive and likely illegal copy-restriction practice. Hold the applause.

» More

The uninstaller posted by Sony creates a larged security hole.

Princeton's Ed Felten and Alex Halderman have published new research into a grave security vulnerability opened up if you run the "uninstaller" that Sony supplies to rid your PC of its malicious rootkit software, which it installs when you insert an audio CD into your PC, as a means of restricting your use of the music on the CD.
The new vulnerability is as grave as a security vulnerability can be. If you run the uninstaller, your computer can be utterly compromised by an attacker who can reach it via the Web. Your computer can be made to run any code and surrender your data. It can be enlisted to act as a "zombie" for sending spam or attacking sites that are being shaken down in protection rackets.

» Security hole

Sony: rootkit removal patch (and other ways to screw you)

Hans Werksman — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 16:37:00 GMT

The stupid jerks who are better known as the Sony company have posted a patch on their website to remove their dreaded rootkit which tries to copy-protect their cd's (hah!) but fucks up windows pc's in a big way (hah!).

This Service Pack removes the cloaking technology component that has been recently discussed in a number of articles published regarding the XCP Technology used on SONY BMG content protected CDs. This component is not malicious and does not compromise security. However to alleviate any concerns that users may have about the program posing potential security vulnerabilities, this update has been released to enable users to remove this component from their computers.

» Get the patch

So, we are okay then. No, baby, we are not. Sony is still using backdoors to invade you computer's privacy. Read the indepth article by J. Alex Halderman:

» Sony Shipping Spyware from SunnComm, Too

Sony and the rootkit of all evil

Hans Werksman — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 13:16:00 GMT

Do you buy copy-protected cd's made by Sony? You do? Well, that's not such good idea.

» Know your rights and workarounds