Sony Commits Harakiri for IP
Sony has gotten itself into a heap of trouble for committing a series of anti-customer blunders that are confounding in their stupidity. I have personally been victimized by their policies and have sworn off their product for the forseeable future.
For me, as with the other victims, it all started when I bought a new CD released by Sony BMG, The Dead 60's in my case. It came loaded with Digital Rights Management (DRM) software on it. The DRM was designed to prevent me from importing the music I had purchased into the player of my choice, iTunes. I couldn't even play the CD. Reluctantly I installed Sony's software, agreed to a license agreement (just to listen to music!) and up popped Sony's craptastic player, chock full of ads and fancy graphics I didn't need.
I immediately closed it, removed the CD and tossed it into the trash.
Little did I know that Sony had slipped a bunch of secret spyware onto my machine without my consent. The very next day my computer suffered what Windows described as a "Serious" crash caused by a First4Internet driver. I searched for the driver or program to remove it, but couldn't. I was forced to install an "update" in order to get my computer working again.
Then about two weeks ago, Mark Russinovich over at sysinternals.com figured out that Sony had been installing blackhat rootkit spyware built by First4Internet on unsuspecting customers of their music CDs. And it got worse. The software could not be removed. The install process did not get consent. The software exposed serious system vulnerabilities which could be exploited by hackers, trojans, spyware and virus writers.
After about 10 days, Sony relented and released an uninstaller, which I reluctantly decided to use. But the uninstaller was only available after I provided Sony with my name, e-mail address and other info. Then a link was e-mailed to me. Then, the uninstall process required that I actually install an active-x component so that I could install the uninstall... Yes, I'm dizzy too.
Now, it turns out that the active-x component was so poorly written that it too has exposed my computer to more vulnerabilities which can easily be exploited by hackers, trojans etc, etc, etc...
And here's the kicker. Sony, the company, did all of this to protect their copyrights. They wanted to protect their intellectual property. But it appears that they actually used a Freeware product called LAME, modified it and released it as their own, in effect disregarding another company's intellectual property. How ironic is that?
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has gotten involved and has written an open letter to Sony which outlines Sony's missteps and what must be done to correct them. It makes for great reading. I for one am glad that somebody is pressuring Sony. They broke my computer, twice, exposed me to hackers and viruses, and have refused to come clean... just for a Dead 60's CD. No thanks.
Link to Sony anti-customer technology roundup and timeline on BoingBoing.
Comments
For me, as with the other victims, it all started when I bought a new CD released by Sony BMG, The Dead 60's in my case. It came loaded with Digital Rights Management (DRM) software on it. The DRM was designed to prevent me from importing the music I had purchased into the player of my choice, iTunes. I couldn't even play the CD. Reluctantly I installed Sony's software, agreed to a license agreement (just to listen to music!) and up popped Sony's craptastic player, chock full of ads and fancy graphics I didn't need.
I immediately closed it, removed the CD and tossed it into the trash.
Little did I know that Sony had slipped a bunch of secret spyware onto my machine without my consent. The very next day my computer suffered what Windows described as a "Serious" crash caused by a First4Internet driver. I searched for the driver or program to remove it, but couldn't. I was forced to install an "update" in order to get my computer working again.
Then about two weeks ago, Mark Russinovich over at sysinternals.com figured out that Sony had been installing blackhat rootkit spyware built by First4Internet on unsuspecting customers of their music CDs. And it got worse. The software could not be removed. The install process did not get consent. The software exposed serious system vulnerabilities which could be exploited by hackers, trojans, spyware and virus writers.
After about 10 days, Sony relented and released an uninstaller, which I reluctantly decided to use. But the uninstaller was only available after I provided Sony with my name, e-mail address and other info. Then a link was e-mailed to me. Then, the uninstall process required that I actually install an active-x component so that I could install the uninstall... Yes, I'm dizzy too.
Now, it turns out that the active-x component was so poorly written that it too has exposed my computer to more vulnerabilities which can easily be exploited by hackers, trojans etc, etc, etc...
And here's the kicker. Sony, the company, did all of this to protect their copyrights. They wanted to protect their intellectual property. But it appears that they actually used a Freeware product called LAME, modified it and released it as their own, in effect disregarding another company's intellectual property. How ironic is that?
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has gotten involved and has written an open letter to Sony which outlines Sony's missteps and what must be done to correct them. It makes for great reading. I for one am glad that somebody is pressuring Sony. They broke my computer, twice, exposed me to hackers and viruses, and have refused to come clean... just for a Dead 60's CD. No thanks.
Link to Sony anti-customer technology roundup and timeline on BoingBoing.
Comments
3 Comments:
Aw, I had no idea it was that bad. Very enlightening post.
Well, pretty much everyone on the net has been buzzing about this latest Sony gaffe. Some are organizing a Sony boycott etc. I still can't believe they thought they could get away with it.
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Bidera
would you like me to post this story to our site www.company-reviews.com?
Brad
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