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| Thread ID: 63463 | 2005-11-10 18:11:00 | Sony hit by lawsuits over root kit | Strommer (42) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 403412 | 2005-11-10 18:11:00 | OK, admit it, you have a smirky smile now, right? Read article here: www.theregister.co.uk Excerpt: Sony BMG is facing a class action suit from Californian consumers who claim the music giant's rootkit DRM technology damaged their computers and breaks three separate Californian laws. The suit asks the court to stop Sony selling any more CDs containing the rootkit and seeks compensation for damage already done. Some Sony audio CDs include software which will secretly load itself if the CD is played on a computer. The suit was filed 1 November in the Los Angeles Superior Court by attorney Alan Himmelfarb, according to Reuters. A second case has been started in New York on behalf of anyone who's bought one of the CDs. Sony is also facing possible action from the Electronic Frontier Foundation in Italy - the lobby group has filed papers with the Italian authorities alleging Sony is guilty of "illicit acts". |
Strommer (42) | ||
| 403413 | 2005-11-10 18:56:00 | And now this (www.kaspersky.com) | CYaBro (73) | ||
| 403414 | 2005-11-10 19:55:00 | hahahahaha............GOOD sony sucked the lemon getting too smart and too big for their boots........this'll throw a spanner in the works of DRM....it's getting to the ridiculous stage when they think they've got the 'right' to install software 'secretly' into a persons pc to control it......... One highly unfortunate effect of Sony's decision to use this rootkit was the possibility that malicious programs might implement the same technology. Kaspersky Lab virus analysts can confirm that this has now happened. LMFAO... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ooops sony is in the Sh*t lol Arrogant idiots.... |
drcspy (146) | ||
| 403415 | 2005-11-10 22:28:00 | this'll throw a spanner in the works of DRM. I doubt it. DRM is too well entrenched in current software and the minds of the software and media companies, but your average user, if they know, doesn't give a fig about it. |
Murray P (44) | ||
| 403416 | 2005-11-10 23:18:00 | Here (www.eff.org) is a list of CD's that use the rootkit software. | CYaBro (73) | ||
| 403417 | 2005-11-10 23:28:00 | UK security firm Sophos plans to release a tool which will detect the existence of Sony's DRM copy-protection rootkit on Windows computers, disable it, and prevent it from re-installing . The move follows the discovery of the first malware (a Trojan called Breplibot) that takes advantage of Sony-BMG's use of rootkit technology in DRM software bundled with its music CDs to mask its presence on infected systems . "Sophos is acting on customers' concern that the software on Sony's CDs is introducing a vulnerability which hackers and virus writers are able to exploit," explained Cluley . "We will give customers the ability to determine if their computers suffer from the vulnerability and remove it if necessary . " The free download should be available today . Sony-BMG's rootkit DRM technology masks files whose filenames start with "$sys$" . A newly-discovered variant of of the Breplibot Trojan takes advantage of this to drop the file "$sys$drv . exe" in the Windows system directory . Once loaded in this way the malware will be invisible to anti-virus scanners . Only rootkit scanners, such as the free utility RootkitRevealer ( . sysinternals . com/Utilities/RootkitRevealer . html" target="_blank">www . sysinternals . com) , can unmask the malware . Sophos's tool will remove this cloaking behaviour but will not remove the software components installed by Sony-BMG, the deletion of which might cause system instability . But this very cloaking means it may not be obvious to users that they need the tool . Around 20 CDs from Sony-BMG which have shipped an estimated 2m copies around the world feature the controversial DRM technology, developed by UK security developer First4Internet . Sophos obtained advice from First4Internet in developing its tool . |
SurferJoe46 (51) | ||
| 403418 | 2005-11-10 23:54:00 | These are some of the legal (yes they are!) stipulations in the 3,000 + word EULA from SONY: Among the stipulations: If your house gets burgled, you have to delete all your music from your laptop when you get home . That's because the EULA says that your rights to any copies terminate as soon as you no longer possess the original CD . If you move out of the country, you have to delete all your music . The EULA specifically forbids "export" outside the country where you reside . and my personal favorite: If you file for bankruptcy, you have to delete all the music on your computer . Seriously . :dogeye: Did these guys inhale in lawyers' school? |
SurferJoe46 (51) | ||
| 403419 | 2005-11-11 01:08:00 | Foud this on www.sysinternals.com/blog "I urge Sony to make a real uninstaller readily available for download and to make both the de-cloaking and uninstaller unload the driver safely. In the meantime users can perform a safe decloaking by opening the Run dialog from the Start menu, entering “sc delete $sys$aries”, and then rebooting. This sequence deletes the driver from the Windows Registry so that even though its image is still present on disk, the I/O system will not load it during subsequent boots." Havn't tried it though cos I refuse to buy Sony cds :angry |
Barnzy (6015) | ||
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