Sony helps virus writers
Sony, the electronics and media giant, has taken to putting software on the music CDs it releases that controls how you can play and copy the CD. Sounds reasonable? Well, perhaps it is, in principle – musicians have a right to earn a living from their art (although the pittance they receive begs the question of who truly benefits). However, in practice, this Digital Rights Management (DRM as it is called) has taken a sinister turn. Sony’s version, called XCP, installs itself onto your Windows PC, then subverts the system in two crucial ways. First, it diverts all attempts to read the CD through itself. Second, it cloaks itself (borrowing the techniques of writers of viruses and other malware) so that the user cannot see the files or running processes.
The combination of these two things means that the software appears to be malware itself. It can be used to cloak other malware (the first example of a trojan in the wild was recently reported – which means it could be on your PC now) so that they can hide from the user. And trying to uninstall Sony’s DRM is very likely to leave you with a PC that cannot use its CD drive at all! Leaving you having to spend a day or two reinstalling your operating system and all your software, merely because you tried to remove something that you never asked to be installed in the first place. (Sony’s DRM installs itself without asking you or telling you what’s really happening.) And, what’s worse, what happens when another company uses software that tries something similar? Two programs trying to grab control of reading your CD drive almost guarantees that your PC will be trashed and unable to boot – merely because you tried to listen to a CD that you bought legitimately in a shop.
Not good.
And, in case you think you don’t listen to that sort of music (whatever “that sort” is), there’s a list of the titles known to carry this insidious threat here.
pax et bonum
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