rootkit
Major Music Labels Move Away from DRM for all the Wrong Reasons: The Apple Implications
08:38 AM / 05 Jan 2008 Filed in: randomness
| technology
As reported by Business Week yesterday,
Sony BMG Music Entertainment is finalizing
plans to sell songs without the copyright
protection software that has long restricted
the use of music downloaded from the Internet.
Since their whole rootkit thing
when so well for them, I guess it was only a
matter of time before they jumped on the DRM
free bus.
Sony BMG would become the last of the top four music labels to drop DRM, following Warner Music Group, which in late December said it would sell DRM-free songs through Amazon.com's digital music store. EMI and Vivendi's Universal Music Group announced their plans for DRM-free downloads earlier in 2007.
The irony behind this move by all the major labels to step away from DRM has very little to do with accommodating the needs of their customers, but a feeble attempt to supplement distribution channels. Apple is a primary reason behind the labels shift to DRM free, but the labels newfound interest has little to do with customer benefit or even a business ploy that will affect Apple's digital music leadership position. Let me explain... Read More...
Sony BMG would become the last of the top four music labels to drop DRM, following Warner Music Group, which in late December said it would sell DRM-free songs through Amazon.com's digital music store. EMI and Vivendi's Universal Music Group announced their plans for DRM-free downloads earlier in 2007.
The irony behind this move by all the major labels to step away from DRM has very little to do with accommodating the needs of their customers, but a feeble attempt to supplement distribution channels. Apple is a primary reason behind the labels shift to DRM free, but the labels newfound interest has little to do with customer benefit or even a business ploy that will affect Apple's digital music leadership position. Let me explain... Read More...
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EFF Open Letter to SunnComm (aka The Clowns That Created the Sony Rootkit)
08:27 PM / 09 Dec 2005 Filed in: technology
Mr. Kevin M. Clement
President and Chief Executive Officer
MediaMax Technologies, Inc.
Mr. Clement:
As you know, we have already discovered one security concern arising from the MediaMax software, resulting in the patch issued on Tuesday and the revised patch issued yesterday.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) remains concerned that additional security flaws will be discovered in MediaMax software, in both version 5 and version 3. EFF isn't alone in this concern. Indeed, as Professor Ed Felten has noted, "Experience teaches that where there is one bug, there are probably others. That’s doubly true where the basic design of the product is risky. I’d be surprised if there aren’t more security bugs lurking in MediaMax." See http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=944.
While Sony BMG has taken some steps to address the security vulnerabilities in the MediaMax software, we are very concerned about consumers who purchase "MediaMax'd" CDs from labels other than Sony BMG, such as Cuban Link's "Chain Reaction" by Men of Business Records, Peter Cetera’s “You Just Gotta Love Christmas" by Viastar Records or MediaMax'd releases on KOCH Records. Many of these consumers have not been notified of this security issue, and indeed may be unaware that they even have a security vulnerability.
Read More...
President and Chief Executive Officer
MediaMax Technologies, Inc.
Mr. Clement:
As you know, we have already discovered one security concern arising from the MediaMax software, resulting in the patch issued on Tuesday and the revised patch issued yesterday.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) remains concerned that additional security flaws will be discovered in MediaMax software, in both version 5 and version 3. EFF isn't alone in this concern. Indeed, as Professor Ed Felten has noted, "Experience teaches that where there is one bug, there are probably others. That’s doubly true where the basic design of the product is risky. I’d be surprised if there aren’t more security bugs lurking in MediaMax." See http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=944.
While Sony BMG has taken some steps to address the security vulnerabilities in the MediaMax software, we are very concerned about consumers who purchase "MediaMax'd" CDs from labels other than Sony BMG, such as Cuban Link's "Chain Reaction" by Men of Business Records, Peter Cetera’s “You Just Gotta Love Christmas" by Viastar Records or MediaMax'd releases on KOCH Records. Many of these consumers have not been notified of this security issue, and indeed may be unaware that they even have a security vulnerability.
Read More...
Ding, Dong the (Sony Rootkit) Witch is Dead
06:58 AM / 20 Jan 2005 Filed in: technology
I missed this one Friday, but it appears that the
suits at Sony realized what a PR foobar they have
on their hands. Thus effective immediately,
Sony BMG is recalling 4.7 million CDs.
Consumers can mail their CDs to the company, and they would receive a new unprotected CD in return.
Read More...
Consumers can mail their CDs to the company, and they would receive a new unprotected CD in return.
Read More...
Sony's Stupidity Continues
08:52 PM / 19 Jan 2005 Filed in: technology
The class action lawsuit that Sony is about to
have handed to them would even make a big tobacco
exec blink.
Oh I wish I can up with that line, but I didn't. That's the best way to describe the beginning of a very bad new year for Sony. And the stupidity keeps getting worse. Now, according to Reuters, Sony has.... um... "liberated" some open source code in their DRM software without acknowledgement or attribution. Way to go Sony. How deep are you in your in your grave diggin' ?
(Source: Reuters via ZDNet News Did Sony 'rootkit' pluck from open source?) Read More...
Oh I wish I can up with that line, but I didn't. That's the best way to describe the beginning of a very bad new year for Sony. And the stupidity keeps getting worse. Now, according to Reuters, Sony has.... um... "liberated" some open source code in their DRM software without acknowledgement or attribution. Way to go Sony. How deep are you in your in your grave diggin' ?
(Source: Reuters via ZDNet News Did Sony 'rootkit' pluck from open source?) Read More...
Sony BMG Has Gone Way Overboard on DRM
07:46 AM / 12 Jan 2005 Filed in: technology
Sony BMG has effectively resorted to installing
destructive (if you consider your CD/DVD drive no
longer working) OS level software on your PC if you
stick one of their latest music CDs into you
computer. Yup, they are installing "copy
protection" software within the deepest bowels of
your computer. And if you can even figure out how
to remove it, it most probably will screw up the
drivers for your CD/DVD drive rendering it useless.
Molly Wood at CNET has done a great job of summarizing all of this stupidity.
I know that a class action lawsuit has already been issued in California. I heard on Buzz Out Loud that the country of Italy has already started their own class action lawsuite too.
Read More...
Molly Wood at CNET has done a great job of summarizing all of this stupidity.
I know that a class action lawsuit has already been issued in California. I heard on Buzz Out Loud that the country of Italy has already started their own class action lawsuite too.
Read More...