Sony's DRM Rootkit
DRM Stands for "Digital Rights Management" and it is a framework for protecting copyrighted material. A rootkit is software that installs itself in an extremely intrusive manner, to the point that it can send identifyable information about you, may expose your machine to access through backdoors, and is impossible or extremely difficult to remove from your system.
I used to be a fan of Sony products. The beginning of my change of heart was when I realize they would not stop trying to shove the "memory stick" down my throat. Nobody else uses this memory format, so it is inconvenient and unusable. Memory stick has built in architecture for DRM, which Sony is a big fan of. In my view, DRM technology is a also a detriment to the usability of the Internet and its information.
Even if you do not empathize with the "information should be free" camp. You may still find this quote interesting: (taken from the article in the link below)
"A Regmon trace of the ActiveX control’s activity when you press the submit button on the Web page reveals that the encrypted data is actually a signature that the control derives from the hardware configuration of your computer:"
Which means information about YOU is being sent back to Sony without your awareness. If you are not sure why a signature of your hardware is a big deal, it can be combined on the back end with other instances of that same signature to pin down individual computer usage. Sooner or later you will likely give up enough personal information to one of those sources to make you completely trackable.
OK, if that statement didn't have an impact, check out this one:
"Not only had Sony put software on my system that uses techniques commonly used by malware to mask its presence, the software is poorly written and provides no means for uninstall. Worse, most users that stumble across the cloaked files with a RKR[RootKit Revealer] scan will cripple their computer if they attempt the obvious step of deleting the cloaked files."
This is not new problem, as most Internet controversies aren't. many have heard the classic argument about police searches: "Constitutional or not, if I have nothing to hide I will have no problem letting them search the trunk of my car at any time and any place. If it helps curtail crime I am all for it." and the extention to this concept is "If you have a problem with the search, what are you hiding? You must be a criminal"
Most people double back on the idea that protecting your privacy rights necessarily implicates you as an evildoer. So the problem we are seeing with DRM is not novel or original.
So here is my question: If you will not give up your rights to the government or law enforcement, why is it OK to do so for large corporations?
That is why this issue is not about piracy. Its about the companies that are fighting so hard for their right to be above the constitution, which by the way they are as the constitution only applies to government authority. Are you OK with this? Think it over after reading this article:
November 9th entry of the sysinternals blog
and this is the more technical information:
http://www.sysinternals.com/blog/2005/10/sony-rootkits-and-digital-rights.html
I used to be a fan of Sony products. The beginning of my change of heart was when I realize they would not stop trying to shove the "memory stick" down my throat. Nobody else uses this memory format, so it is inconvenient and unusable. Memory stick has built in architecture for DRM, which Sony is a big fan of. In my view, DRM technology is a also a detriment to the usability of the Internet and its information.
Even if you do not empathize with the "information should be free" camp. You may still find this quote interesting: (taken from the article in the link below)
"A Regmon trace of the ActiveX control’s activity when you press the submit button on the Web page reveals that the encrypted data is actually a signature that the control derives from the hardware configuration of your computer:"
Which means information about YOU is being sent back to Sony without your awareness. If you are not sure why a signature of your hardware is a big deal, it can be combined on the back end with other instances of that same signature to pin down individual computer usage. Sooner or later you will likely give up enough personal information to one of those sources to make you completely trackable.
OK, if that statement didn't have an impact, check out this one:
"Not only had Sony put software on my system that uses techniques commonly used by malware to mask its presence, the software is poorly written and provides no means for uninstall. Worse, most users that stumble across the cloaked files with a RKR[RootKit Revealer] scan will cripple their computer if they attempt the obvious step of deleting the cloaked files."
This is not new problem, as most Internet controversies aren't. many have heard the classic argument about police searches: "Constitutional or not, if I have nothing to hide I will have no problem letting them search the trunk of my car at any time and any place. If it helps curtail crime I am all for it." and the extention to this concept is "If you have a problem with the search, what are you hiding? You must be a criminal"
Most people double back on the idea that protecting your privacy rights necessarily implicates you as an evildoer. So the problem we are seeing with DRM is not novel or original.
So here is my question: If you will not give up your rights to the government or law enforcement, why is it OK to do so for large corporations?
That is why this issue is not about piracy. Its about the companies that are fighting so hard for their right to be above the constitution, which by the way they are as the constitution only applies to government authority. Are you OK with this? Think it over after reading this article:
November 9th entry of the sysinternals blog
and this is the more technical information:
http://www.sysinternals.com/blog/2005/10/sony-rootkits-and-digital-rights.html
