More on the Sony DRM fiasco
So, Sony have seen the light and pulled their nasty malware-ridden CDs and replaced them with real CDs that don’t mess up your PC. Apparently, there are at least half a million servers out there reporting that they’ve got Sony’s malware installed – which means a lot more PCs than that, because AOL (for example) would only register a single server for all its users.
Only, it’s not as simple (hah!) as it appeared. Even Sony’s uninstaller program, which is supposed to rid your Windows PC of their nasty software, has a hideous security hole in it, which is being exploited by certain nefarious websites.
The message seems to be that, for an ordinary human being who’s bought a Sony CD with this software on, the best thing to do is use Sony’s website to get a replacement CD without this software and then to reinstall Windows to get rid of it. No, seriously – that’s the only way to get rid of the software properly. Even an expert would be hard pressed to return an infected system to its proper condition.
Something has gone wrong with the balance of power and rights between producers and listeners, when a major music label can cause such havoc for innocent people whose only crime was to buy Sony’s music!
Update
If we thought things couldn’t get more stupid with this story, it now turns out that Sony’s DRM software “apparently contains pirated code” – that is, the company who wrote it allegedly ripped off someone else’s code. And, in a bizarre twist, the person whose code seems to have been stolen is “DVD Jon”, the media industry’s villain of the decade, who also wrote the code that lets people who don’t use Windows watch their DVDs!
pax et bonum
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