Sony Music Sued Over Anti-Piracy Software
 

About time something gets done about this! Take that, Sony! :evillaugh

It's good someone's doing this, on another forum people have been complaining about this, some have had problems with their computers because they played a sony CD in it, and were not aware that it could cause damage. Now they know, and they're furious and are compiling a list of sony CDs with this copy-protection software so that other people won't get caught out. I wouldn't be surprised if those CDs don't sell well once people become more aware of this :D There's even a page on the sony site where they say downloading something from them will clear it up, but all it does is detect the software, it's hard to get rid of.

This is awesome! :)

omfg, are you serious? its like sony has spyware implanted on their cds?! what is sony's reason for even having that on the cd??? hrm...thats insane. they deserve to be sued for doing something like that. o_0

I totally agree with you touchedstar! Ok, time to burn away all my SONY CDs (which thankfully are not valuable to me AT ALL)! It's no wonder my computer crashed ... yar, GREAT JOB! Sue them!! Haha, ok, I'm starting to sound like a maniac but yar, they absolutely TOTALLY deserved tat kick in the butt!

:yes
man, invasion of privacy man :(

If someone finds a list online where more of the Sony CDs that have this problem are named, please post a link!

There's a list being put together at another forum, I think this is what they have so far:


Nothing Is Sound. Switchfoot
Unwritten [ENHANCED] Natasha Bedingfield
Ride Shelly Fairchild
12 Songs Neil Diamond
Touch Amerie
Bloom Remix Album [ENHANCED] Sarah McLachlan
Kasabian Kasabian
The Essential Pete Seeger [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] Pete Seeger
Jeru [ENHANCED] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] Gerry Mulligan
Times Like These Buddy Jewell,
Bob Brookmeyer & Friends[ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] Bob Brookmeyer
Healthy In Paranoid Times [ENHANCED] Our Lady Peace
Cautivo [DUALDISC] Chayanne
The Invisible Invasion Coral, The Coral
Defined Amici Forever
Suspicious Activity [ENHANCED] The Bad Plus
Manhattan Symphonie [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] Dexter Gordon
Phantoms Acceptance
On Ne Change Pas Celine Dion
Get Right with the Man Van Zant
To Love Again [ENHANCED] Chris Botti
Life [DUALDISC] Ricky Martin
The Essential Dion [ENHANCED] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] Dion
Faso Latido A Static Lullaby
Change It All Goapele
Susie Suh Susie Suh
My Very Special Guests [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] George Jones
Broken Valley Life of Agony
Silver's Blue [ENHANCED] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] Horace Silver
Z [ENHANCED] My Morning Jacket
The 60s The Dead 60s
Life In Slow Motion David Gray
Elizabethtown [SOUNDTRACK] Various Artists
Golden Elkland
Aha Shake Heartbreak Kings of Leon
Unfabulous And More: Emma Roberts [ENHANCED] Emma Roberts
Vivian Vivian Green
Dreamin' My Dreams [ENHANCED] Patty Loveless
Mary Mary [ENHANCED] Mary Mary
Never Gone Backstreet Boys
Aha Shake Heartbreak Kings of Leon
Friendship [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] Ray Charles
Juego De Amor [Copy Protected CD] ~ Antony Santos
On Your Shore Charlotte Martin
Brown Sugar Various Artists
Blue Skies Diana DeGarmo
I'm a Hustla [EXPLICIT LYRICS] Cassidy
In Your Honor Foo Fighters
Hero Kirk Franklin
Cyndi Lauper - Body Acoustic
Foo Fighters- In Your Honor
All That I Am Santana


I'll check tomorrow to see if there's more added to it.

^yay, i don't have a single one of those!

I'm lucky, I don't have any of those.

Man... Sony is really sinking low in invading the privacy of their customers.

And giving people another reason to download a track rather than buy a CD that will harm their computer...

*is thankful she doesn't have any of those CDs*

That's just...disgusting. So far it only looks like it's on American CDs, thank goodness. I'd hate to see the mess if it was on CDs from all over.

ha, very good point.

New info:

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsAr...TECTION-DC.XML


Sony BMG pulls CD software

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Music publisher Sony BMG said on Friday it would stop making CDs that use a controversial technology to protect its music against illegal copying.
"As a precautionary measure, Sony BMG is temporarily suspending the manufacture of CDs containing XCP technology," it said in a statement.
The decision follows the discovery on Thursday of the first virus that uses Sony BMG's CD copy-protection software to hide on PCs and wreak havoc.
A hacker had mass-mailed e-mail with an attachment, which when clicked on installs malware. The malware hides by using Sony BMG software that is also hidden -- the software would have already been installed on a computer when consumers played Sony's copy-protected music CDs.
The malware, a trojan program which appears desirable but actually contains something harmful, tears down a computer's firewall and gives hackers access to a PC.
Sony BMG provided a patch to protect computers against the virus, which is available on its Web site.
"We also intend to re-examine all aspects of our content protection initiative to be sure that it continues to meet our goals of security and ease of consumer use," Sony BMG added.
The firm provided software to remove the "cloaking element," which enables the virus to hide inside the computer, but the patch does not disable the copy protection itself.
The music publishing venture of Japanese electronics conglomerate Sony and Germany's Bertelsmann AG is distributing the copy-protection software on a range of recent music compact disks (CDs) from artists such as Celine Dion and Sarah McLachlan, according to user groups on the Web.
Sony BMG did not say which CDs or how many CDs were equipped with its software. "The XCP software is included on a limited number of Sony BMG content-protected titles," it said.
The Sony copy-protection software does not install itself on Macintosh computers or ordinary CD and DVD players.
When the CD is played on a Windows personal computer, the software first installs itself and then limits the usage rights of a consumer. It only allows playback with Sony software.
The software last week sparked a class action lawsuit in California against Sony, which claimed that Sony had not informed consumers that it installs software directly into the "root" of their computer systems with rootkit software, which cloaks all associated files and is dangerous to remove.
British anti-virus company Sophos on Thursday offered a tool to disable the copy protection software. ZoneAlarm, a product of Check Point, also protects against the software.
Sony BMG said it stands by content protection technology "as an important tool to protect our intellectual property rights and those of our artists."

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I'm not surprised that they're not revealing what CDs have this; cause as much damage as possible... At least people are compiling a list of the CDs and posting them so people can avoid getting the CDs or using them in their computers.

Thanks for the update, HanabiChick, and for the list of titles. Thankfully I don't have any of the titles listed either, but there's a lot of very popular things in there, so the number of infected PCs must be pretty huge.

This was also posted at the other forum, you can look at the CD and see if it has that copy-protection on it:

http://img491.imageshack.us/img491/9...ge253ay.th.jpg
Just look for 'XCP' on it and it has this software.

Uhoh, I have Natasha Beddingfield's CD. I ripped the files with the little installer thing, but my computer seems to be running fine. I'm worried now. =/

My computer wouldn't let me rip my copy to my computer.. :|

I had to download the songs to get them onto my iPod.

I'm glad I don't buy anything from them I want to know what possessed them to do this dumb ****

I bought Acceptance's Phantoms a while ago. I knew something was up when I couldn't rip it and was forced to dl it to my Zen. Disappointed in Sony.

They're supposedly emailing instructions to remove the rootkit. I just filled out the form so I don't know yet. :no

From what I understand, instructions from sony will only help you expose the rootkit, following the instructions will not help you get rid of it. Read this article to see why:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051103/...y_protection_4

This is the part people need to be aware of:
The patches that reveal the hidden files are being made available to antivirus companies as well as customers who visit the Sony BMG site. They do not remove the copy protection software, however.

This is the part that concerns filling out the application for instructions on how to remove the rootkit:
McKay said customers can request a program to safely uninstall everything by visiting the Sony BMG Web site at http://cp.sonybmg.com. That site, however, requires a form to be filled out and submitted.
In a test of the form late Wednesday, an e-mail confirming receipt was quickly returned by Sony BMG customer service, but it included no instructions on how to remove the software. The message promised another reply "shortly."

loool! never buy CDs so no problem for me ^^
saw this somewhere on windows website I think there said a solution how to get rid of it too ^^

Update from Pitchfork:

Awesome! it was all a big attempt to screw with Apple anyway.

I agree with everybody that it is pretty stupid. We already have enough trouble with spyware as it is.
I tend not to play any real music cd's on my computer anyways, but I am glad sony is getting what they deserve!

oh my goodness, I have some of the CDs on that list. I belive in supporting the artist if I like the music, but now, I am very angry!!! I bought those albums specifically to support artists and their rights, but now my computer has just started crashing at random. It never did that beforem I didn't know what was going on. Now that I understand, I am furious.

Same with me for the Natasha CD, I tried everything to get it to copy and it wouldn't let me. Good thing tho...

Thats messed up. Good thing I rarely listen to any of Sony's music.

Thank goodness someone did something about the idiotic actions Sony has taken. :yes Sony's being totally stupid about this; if they don't want their customers to rip their music, they should do something else to solve it other than ripping the customers themselves. :grumpy

i read it in the papers