Sony DRM hacking into your PC (rootkit and all apparently) Merged threads

[directhex]

Yes it does, (have the CD logo on it), as most CD-ROM drives do.

i meant the disc, not the drive.

a drive with the CDDA logo on it is guaranteed only to play valid CDDA - if the disc doesn't have the logo, then you have no guarantees of anything.

Since when has it been illegal to make a backup of your own CD, for your own use?

1988.

I understood that was perfectly legal, as it is the right to listen to the music you have purchased not the CD itself.

nope, not the way it works in this country. you're being confised by lax policing, and an internet filled with people well versed on (american-only) fair-use provision. here in the uk, "backing up" an audio cd to cd or another format is illegal, end of story.

[directhex]

poor artists

http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/06/14/love/

[5lab]

regardless of the laws surrounding rights, i've a good mind to buy such a cd, install teh software, then pay a very well paid computer tech to put my pc back to its origonal state - presumably sony are responsible for the costs?

[Mutley]

oh.

However, the CD in question DID have the proper CD logo on it. This is why I got very cross about this (this was about 2 years ago). After doing some digging around, found that this meant the CD should play on any CD player. There was some chap in Australia suing EMI over DRM (my CD came from EMI).

The worst thing was that there (and others) DRM software is SO shoddy. The player that came on this CD was terrible, and only allowed you to listen to very poorly encoded versions of the songs.

[directhex]

oh.

However, the CD in question DID have the proper CD logo on it. This is why I got very cross about this (this was about 2 years ago). After doing some digging around, found that this meant the CD should play on any CD player. There was some chap in Australia suing EMI over DRM (my CD came from EMI).

The worst thing was that there (and others) DRM software is SO shoddy. The player that came on this CD was terrible, and only allowed you to listen to very poorly encoded versions of the songs.

if it has the CDDA logo on the disc/case/sleeve, but isn't CDDA, then at the very least you can return it for a full refund - though I'd suggest sending a copy of any evidence to Philips' legal HQ, since they're furious about the bastardisation of the CD format

[Mutley]

Yeah so I read. I complain to Play.com about it, and they just sent a boiler-plate response about sending it back for a refund. They ignored my point about mis-advertising CDs that weren't technically CDs. Thats when I went the Mac route...

So, if its illegal to make a backup, how come its OK to rip your CD to MP3, or whatever format, as sooooooooo many people do? Or is that illegal?

[directhex]

So, if its illegal to make a backup, how come its OK to rip your CD to MP3, or whatever format, as sooooooooo many people do? Or is that illegal?

without the written consent of the copyright holder, it's illegal.

[Agent]

http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/06/14/love/

Great link !

[Rave]

http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/06/14/love/

Great link.

[directhex]

5 years old, and more relevant today than when it was written

i might not like courtney love, but it's a great article

[Matt1eD]

Interesting. SysInternals is a great site, always in my toolbar bookmarks.

[Steve]

DRM copy protection on certain new Sony CD's uses a horrifying method to install DRM software onto your PC. Upon inserting the disk, your system is rootkitted. That is, the software is installed in such a way that it is invisible; cloaked from view. The directories in which the files are cannot be seen and the processes that are running cannot be seen either.

Scarier still, the DRM software uses CPU a lot of the time, will even boot in safe mode and is next to impossible to remove without breaking something. In essence, at the level the rootkit works, if there's a conflict, or a bug, or something, you might end up with seemingly broken devices or a Windows installation that won't boot.

I studied the driver’s initialization function, confirmed that it patches several functions via the system call table and saw that its cloaking code hides any file, directory, Registry key or process whose name begins with “$sys$”. To verify that I made a copy of Notepad.exe named $sys$notepad.exe and it disappeared from view. Besides being indiscriminate about the objects it cloaks, other parts of the Aries code show a lack of sophistication on the part of the programmer. It’s never safe to unload a driver that patches the system call table since some thread might be just about to execute the first instruction of a hooked function when the driver unloads; if that happens the thread will jump into invalid memory. There’s no way for a driver to protect against this occurrence, but the Aries driver supports unloading and tries to keep track of whether any threads are executing its code.

Mark Russinovich's blog has more details on this frankly shocking DRM implementation.

[badass]

Should the company you bought it off not bring to your attention that this software will be permanently installed on your system you have every right to pay someone a reasnoble amount to remove it and bill the store for its removal. Its the same as a cowboy builder wrecking your house and you getting someone else to fix it and charging them for it.
What they are doing is both immoral (IMHO) and illegal.
This is why I have no problem with people obtaining pirated music and movies at all. They are simply doing to the Labels and studios what the lables and studios do to them. They cant claim moral high ground when they are just as guilty of braking the law.

[chrestomanci]

This is allready being disucssed in - SNIP Bob C- this - SNIP Bob C- thread.

============
This was the pointer - http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.p...847#post619430

[jamena]

just to criss-cross a link over from the other thread on this...

http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/20...ove/index.html

an interesting read indeed...

[Moby-Dick]

just merged the threads