Fergie's Tech Blog

Sony, Rootkits and Digital Rights Management Gone Too Far

Update2:

Just wanted to explicity point out the EULA (End User Licensing Agreement), which can be found here.


Update:

Just wanted to add this link to a fine commentary by Charlie Demerjian in The Inquirer on the subject.


Earlier:

This is a story that NEEDS to be told, and I'm glad that SysInternals and F-Secure have gone public with it.

This is, indeed, DRM (Digital Rights Management, or Digital Restrictions Management, depending on how you look at it) gone way, way too far.

Mark Russinovich writes in the the SysInternals blog:

Last week when I was testing the latest version of RootkitRevealer (RKR) I ran a scan on one of my systems and was shocked to see evidence of a rootkit. Rootkits are cloaking technologies that hide files, Registry keys, and other system objects from diagnostic and security software, and they are usually employed by malware attempting to keep their implementation hidden.

Even more shocking, Mark came to find out that the "rootkit" in question was installed by a music CD DRM player/installer.

As Mikko writes in the F-Secure "News from tha Lab" blog:

There's been some recent developments in digital rights management systems (DRM) that have security implications. Some DRM systems have started to use rootkit technology. Rootkits are normally associated with malware but in this case a rootkit is used to enforce the copy control policies of audio CDs!

See also F-Secure's encyclopedic entry for XCP DRM Software.

I think a message needs to be sent to Sony, and any other company that uses stealth software installed on a user's system without their knowledge, to STOP! In my mind, this verges on the criminal.

posted by Fergie @ 11/01/2005 11:30:00 AM