The news about Sony’s horrible rootkit DRM has been around for several weeks, but I obviously haven’t gotten around to posting about it. Rather than try and summarize all of the news, I’ll refer you to Boing Boing, which has done an excellent job of keeping up with all of the developments in its Roundups: Part I, Part II, and Part III.
What I find most disturbing is that many spyware and antivirus companies apparently knowingly excluded this rootkit from their scans, allowing systems to become infected by it. That’s right, I said it, infected. It is complete bullshit that this was allowed to happen, not only because of Sony’s obliviousness in ignoring the seriousness of including such DRM in the first place, but also that the security software industry turned a blind eye to the code because of Sony’s industry clout. Several class-action suits have been filed against Sony BMG, and I hope to see more.
I am glad to see that this fiasco has opened the eyes of some music artists and executives, discrediting the asinine practice of including DRM on paying consumers’ CDs in the first place:
Some of the top Sony BMG artists who had XCP placed on their CDs are complaining directly to the label heads, furious that it will hurt their relationship to their fans and their sales as they go into the massively important Christmas season. Add that to rising number of anti-DRM voices within in the company who have been against DRM as only hurting “the people that are doing the right thing and buying our music.” This all means that some of the label heads are finally starting to believe that DRM is just bad for business.
Now they are starting to stand up to the corporate leaders who are pushing DRM as the solution to their sliding revenue, particularly Thomas Hesse who notoriously said “Most people don’t even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?”
Some people just don’t get it.
