More proof how of far out of touch the record labels, especially Sony, are from their customers. And you just know the software engineer whose job it was to write this knew it was bad idea all along. They were probably ordered to "make it so" by management.

Too little too late, Sony... You've burned what few bridges that remain. No one trusts you now nor will many trust you and your brother big music and big movie conglomerates in the future.

When you're looking back at the Flotsam and Jetsam that was the Movie and Music industry (and your "careers") years in the future, you'll point to this point in time, when both industries "jumped the shark" and customers realised that both industries were chock filled with no-talent leech hacks that enriched themselves through the efforts of others.

There is a better way through via methods that nutures artists.

You had a sweet deal going... You couldn't leave well enough alone... You got greedy and turned your customers against you.

You did it to yourselves. Smell you later!

-- Hano

That's interesting. I had been reading that Sony's rootkit only installed itself on Windows, mainly because it was tied to DRMed Windows Media versions of the songs on the CD. Windows users could use these WMP DRM versions of the songs, but couldn't rip their own from the CD Audio songs. Macs, from what was reading, could rip the CD Audio files as usual.

So, they actually had a version of this rootkit that worked on Mac OS X? Was it not enabled on the current CDs because our Windows Media Player is behind the Windows version or something?

EDIT: Aha... Read the November 11th link and understand a bit more. Of course, clicking to install something (if it was indeed mentioned in all that fine print ) is a little different from loading something on the system with no notice at all. I'd be interested in knowing more about what the Mac version actually does, though, since it can't force us to use WMP song versions if we can't play them... I'll search around later today.

the mac version, unlike the windows version, reportedly asks for permission to be installed.

Yes, but what does it do?

Just a week ago, I bought a Dave Matthews CD and could not wait to play it on my Laptop. 2 hours later I was in rage because I could not use my own Media Player to play it! Everytime I loaded the CD, I would see Sony's Media Player. This is not what I wanted. They give you directions to play with Microsoft's Media Player but guess what, it didn't work.

I think Sony/BMG finally kicked themselves in the ASS. I will never buy from them again after this stunt.

Bryan Sambrook
President
Acez Software
http://www.acez.com
Download free screen savers

No I don't think there is a Mac version. The Windows version is completely dependent on the low level details of the internals of the Windows NT kernel. There are enough people around in the Windows world that, together with all of the resources online, could cobble together something that was functional enough to pass off as this product. I seriously doubt the dumb asses at First 4 Internet had the resources to create a Mac version.

And while yes we can blame Sony for choosing to put the DRM crap on their CD's, I wouldn't get too mad at them about the technical details of this particular DRM system. I can pretty much gurantee nobody at Sony understood the low level detais of how this thing works or what the implications were. Blame First 4 Internet for pawning their shitty software off on unsuspecting companies. And thank sysinternals for starting this whole thing. All the bad PR should pretty much gurantee that First 4 won't be doing much DRM business in the future.

Actually now I see reports of Mac DRM too. But it looks like Sony licensed it from a different company.

makes the DRM that someone (Sony maybe?) uses (Used?) for the Mac. What's unclear is how it interacted with iTunes and the ability to import. (http://www.sunncomm.com/Brochure/)

It seems that you may not HAVE to install the DRM to use the CD if you're on a Mac. Read the entry from Buzz (Nov 11, 3:53 pm) in the comp.sys.mac.advocacy where he asks SunnComm about importing into iTunes. It seems that if you're using windows and iTunes they recommend that you burn a new CD (presumably without DRM) before you import! You can read the thread via google here:
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.mac.advocacy/browse_thread/thread/e99c3dc91088e7e1/195b63bcab82492d

It degenerates into a he said/she said about whether this constitutes malware for the Mac. (ho-hum).

Does anyone really believe that if an individual had done what Sony BMG did that they wouldn't now be facing criminal charges? Sony BMG should either make CDs that meet the Red Book standards or not make CDs at all. Consumers never asked for and don't want corrupt Compact Disc Digital Audio.

I'm a long-time reader of TMO, and a Mac-using geek lawyer in Minneapolis. I would very much like to speak (phone, email....) with anyone who has played one of the Sony DRM'd music disks (hey, not Red Book, not a CD!) on either a personal computer or office machine and had the DRM installed. There have been numerous postings on many boards complaining about Sony's actions (which I agree are terrible), but unless we take action to address what they chose to do, this is all a lot of talk. If you or someone you know has had a problem (probably on a Windows box, but potentially under OSX), I'd like to talk about what we can do. Thanks!

Too bad there isn't a DRM that can keep lawyers from playing...

Quote

sandberglaw wrote:
I'm a long-time reader of TMO, and a Mac-using geek lawyer in Minneapolis. I would very much like to speak (phone, email....) with anyone who has played one of the Sony DRM'd music disks (hey, not Red Book, not a CD!) on either a personal computer or office machine and had the DRM installed. There have been numerous postings on many boards complaining about Sony's actions (which I agree are terrible), but unless we take action to address what they chose to do, this is all a lot of talk. If you or someone you know has had a problem (probably on a Windows box, but potentially under OSX), I'd like to talk about what we can do. Thanks!

Quote

sandberglaw wrote:
I'm a long-time reader of TMO, and a Mac-using geek lawyer in Minneapolis. I would very much like to speak (phone, email....) with anyone who has played one of the Sony DRM'd music disks (hey, not Red Book, not a CD!) on either a personal computer or office machine and had the DRM installed. There have been numerous postings on many boards complaining about Sony's actions (which I agree are terrible), but unless we take action to address what they chose to do, this is all a lot of talk. If you or someone you know has had a problem (probably on a Windows box, but potentially under OSX), I'd like to talk about what we can do. Thanks!

Aw, come on sandberglaw, you want to climb on the "class action lawsuit gravy train" too? I think that particular train has already left the station in this case- lawsuits have already been filed. I'm afraid you'll have to get in line...[/quote]

Only if he can elbow the rest of the shysters out of the way

OK, I apologize for trying to do the right thing. I respectfully suggest that (1) it is useful to have at least ONE attorney in the Sony DRM fight that actually knows something about the technology, including the Mac side of it, and (2) it would be a Very Good Thing for users with f*cked-up computers who live somewhere other than New York and California to have some say in what happens in court. Sorry to intrude - I had hoped the generally thoughtful nature of these discussions would prevail.

cksandberg@locklaw.com

I probably shouldn't be, but I'm kind of surprised that Windows is such a complete and total disaster of coding, that a copy-protection scheme actually opens it up for virus exploits.

It's beautifually fitting, though.

Hey now lets be fair. Somebody wrote a shitty ass device driver for Windows and its that device driver that allowed for these exploits. Not that Windows needed any help in that area. But don't blame Windows for this one. If you extend the kernel you can make it do almost anything. And when shitty software engineers write a shitty kernel extension... well thats what we've got here.

Why does it have to be one or the other? I blame both.

this isn't the first time Sony has added some bad DRM to their CD's.
the last time, just holding down the shift key disabled it - and from the same company!

i'm not convinced that copyrights were even what they were protecting from the sounds of this person's experience ... http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2005/10/drm_crippled_cd.html

"... Variety writes that "the new copy protection scheme — which makes it difficult to rip CDs and listen to them with an iPod — is designed to put pressure on Apple to open the iPod to other music services, rather than making it dependent on the iTunes Music Store for downloads." DRM is now being used as a competitive economic weapon -- not as an anti-piracy tool."