Id read recently that Sony BMG had lost a law suit over its copyright protection on Compact Discs
those who purchased an XCP CD will be paid $7.50 per purchased recording and given the opportunity to download a free album, or be able to download three additional albums from a limited list of recordings if they give up their cash incentive. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald entered an order tentatively approving the settlement on January 6, 2006.
I didn't realise the extent of the problem Sony BMG was causing to computers until I came across Jark's blog, and read the word rootkit, And further more that Sony was installing them on PC's when people were using there XCP Compact discs.
For all of you out there scratching your heads wondering what a rootkit is
"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"
"A rootkit typically hides logins, processes, files, and logs and may include software to intercept data from terminals, network connections, and the keyboard. In many instances, rootkits are counted as trojan horses."
Sound healthy to you? Only more reason for me to dislike Sony as a corporation, some good news is that Microsoft plan on wiping Sony's rootkit in Decembers 'malicious software removal tool' updates.
Windows users can use 'Blacklight Beta' or 'Rootkit Revealer' to see if there system is corrupted
Unix based OS users can use 'chkrootkit' or 'Rootkit Hunter' to see if there system is corrupted
If you bought and played / copied a Sony BMG CD on your computer between 2003 and late 2005 you probably want to check your PC as this is the time XCP CD's have been about, and lets face it, Sony are not big enough to say how many PC's are rooted, what albums are doing it (whether its all or more popular artists, I have a strange suspicion KoRn's latest album probably roots your PC)
