Be VERY careful with those Sony audio CD's...

[Fat Dog]

http://www.sysinternals.com/Blog/

Nasty stuff.

[Memetic]

Yep nasty, and breaking trade description law, they are sold as CDs but are not. Adding DRM to prevent playing stops them meeting the standards required for them to be called a CD.

Stil too much money involved for that to be acted on...

[BTDT]

RECORDING giant Sony BMG has admitted that it has installed cloaked spyware in people's computers in a bid to protect CD content.

The outfit has issued a "Service Pack" to uninstall the Rootkit only a few days after it was revealed by the INQ.

The service pack, which can be found here (http://cp.sonybmg.com/xcp/english/updates.html), removes the cloaking technology component of the XCP Technology used on SONY BMG content protected CDs.

Sony denies that the component is malicious and compromises user security. So why release a service pack if it is OK and not a breach of security? Sony spinsters say that it is only to alleviate any concerns of users. It has nothing to do with a fear of writs.

[SoftTop]

Also article on the "problem" here (http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2145413/sony-rapped-rootkit-music-cd)

ST

[four_two]

The more you read about this the more it stinks.
Reading the article in the first link and others it seems that both Sony and First4Internet have been fairly economical with the truth. However this has now taken on a life of its own-just google Mark Russinovich and Sony- and watch it grow.

Here is the second of two articles on the BBC site (http://news.bbc.uk/1/hi/technology/4406178.stm)
It would be nice to think that the furore over the choice of copy protection system will change the way Sony and other record companies think about their customers, and that they might start treating us as honest fans who will behave fairly if we are offered a good product at a decent price.

But I fear that they are far more likely to look at the way that Microsoft has cosied up to the Hollywood studios in designing Vista, the new version of Windows, and ask for similar privileges.

Microsoft has told technology companies that if they want to develop system-level software that lets Vista play movies then they have to get the approval of at least three of the major studios before it will be included in Windows.

I suspect that Sony would be very interested indeed in a version of Windows that controlled music playback without the need for any extra software from them.

And I fear that the fuss over XCP will prompt them to get in touch with their friends at Microsoft, and then all Windows users will find that they lose the ability to copy music CDs.

Mac users out there cannot look smug about this, since once Apple move to the Intel chipset for the Mac they have said they are going to start using trusted computing features in the hardware that will allow them to exert similar levels of control within Mac OS.

And of course once there is a "technological protection mechanism" in place then it is against the law - both in Europe and the US - to get round it, so open source players for Linux platforms will be illegal. All in all, it is not looking good for those of us who like to buy and listen to music.
If you are someone who legitimately buys a CD beware of Sony hidden software on your PC phoning home.