Absinthe 1900 first made me aware of this...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9973890/

I read about that elsewhere. Someone suggested that you play the cd and do a direct feed out and make a copy of that to avoid their stupidity. Also the Sony "cds" are not real cds (they don't have the compact disc logo) because they play by their own rules.

But sony sucks for their overpriced, quick-to-shit-the-bed, piss poor quality other products (yes, I know it is to boost their sales).

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004144.php

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a list of the known Sony/BMG CDs with copy protection that includes a rootkit.

They are:

Trey Anastasio, Shine (Columbia)
Celine Dion, On ne Change Pas (Epic)
Neil Diamond, 12 Songs (Columbia)
Our Lady Peace, Healthy in Paranoid Times (Columbia)
Chris Botti, To Love Again (Columbia)
Van Zant, Get Right with the Man (Columbia)
Switchfoot, Nothing is Sound (Columbia)
The Coral, The Invisible Invasion (Columbia)
Acceptance, Phantoms (Columbia)
Susie Suh, Susie Suh (Epic)
Amerie, Touch (Columbia)
Life of Agony, Broken Valley (Epic)
Horace Silver Quintet, Silver's Blue (Epic Legacy)
Gerry Mulligan, Jeru (Columbia Legacy)
Dexter Gordon, Manhattan Symphonie (Columbia Legacy)
The Bad Plus, Suspicious Activity (Columbia)
The Dead 60s, The Dead 60s (Epic)
Dion, The Essential Dion (Columbia Legacy)
Natasha Bedingfield, Unwritten (Epic)
Ricky Martin, Life (Columbia) (labeled as XCP, but, oddly, our disc had no protection)

The item also lists a few other Sony/BMG titles that use a different kind of copy protection. It also shows you where to look on a CD to determine whether copy protection is present.

Several other Sony-BMG CDs are protected with a different copy-protection technology, sourced from SunnComm, including:

My Morning Jacket, Z
Santana, All That I Am
Sarah McLachlan, Bloom Remix Album

This is not a complete list. So how do you recognize other XCP-laden CDs in the wild?

Tip-off #1: on the front of the CD, at the left-most edge, in the transparent "spine", you'll see "CONTENT PROTECTED" along with the IFPI copy-protection logo. A few photos make this clearer.




If you haven't been infected yet, to protect yourself from XCP in the future, disable "autorun" on your Windows PC. Once you have done so, however, these CDs may not be accessible under Windows unless you have specialized ripping software installed; these CDs are encoded in a way that intentionally confuses standard Windows CD drivers. For a smarter audio grabber for Windows, you may want to consider using Exact Audio Copy, which reportedly can read these CDs if you have turned off autorun and avoided infection by XCP.

Thanks again for that 1900. Of that list I only own 1 CD:

Ricky Ma... nevermind.

Yet another reason for me to never buy CDs. I think I've bought less than a half dozen in my life. I don't understand why anyone buys them with sort of bs going on.

Looks like Sony stirred up the sleeping giant.


November 12, 2005
Microsoft to remove Sony/BMG rootkit
Microsoft's going to add to its Antispyware program the ability to detect and remove the Sony/BMG rootkit.

The rootkit also will be added to the Malicious Software Removal tool, which is updated each month via Windows Update, according to Jason Garms of Microsoft's anti-malware group:

We use a set of objective criteria for both Windows Defender and the Malicious Software Removal Tool to determine what software will be classified for detection and removal by our anti-malware technology. We have analyzed this software, and have determined that in order to help protect our customers we will add a detection and removal signature for the rootkit component of the XCP software to the Windows AntiSpyware beta, which is currently used by millions of users. This signature will be available to current beta users through the normal Windows AntiSpyware beta signature update process, which has been providing weekly signature updates for almost a year now. Detection and removal of this rootkit component will also appear in Windows Defender when its first public beta is available. We also plan to include this signature in the December monthly update to the Malicious Software Removal Tool. It will also be included in the signature set for the online scanner on Windows Live Safety Center.

I never thought I'd say this, but "Yay for microsoft!"

I'm going to go buy some popcorn so I can sit back and enjoy watching the ensuing war of the behemoths.

Here's the easiest solution to the problem (if you actually wanted to buy any of those piece of shit titles listed above): iTunes music store.

Just download the song, it's cheaper than a CD store, and it won't put software on your CPU that breaks your CD-Rom drive if you remove it.

I just got Louchie on iTunes.
He hissed, snarled and resisted.
Now he insists on playing songs for me on the phone.

He's built a little labyrinth of speaker wire.

He's ripped about 300 discs and can't stop purchasing music downloads.

There goes the porn industry.

...

That's OK. Just tell him about the Video iPod and the porn industry will be revived.

you deserve leprosy for buying any of those titles.

and yes, pork, sony shit sucks ass.

years ago i paid $75 more for a sony discman, thinking that 'they invented that shit, theirs must be the best'

what a piece of utter shit.

that was the first inanimate object since i was a teen that i had thrown in anger, hoping to break it. i think it was about 2 weeks old.

Actually I threw the remote for my sony DVD player 2 days ago. Then I picked it up, and just to make sure it was broken, snapped it in half. The fucker kept hanging up when it would switch layers on a DVD. Guess I'll be getting one of those universal remotes...

I find it amusing that in the video game world you will only be able to use the Nintendo wi-fi connection dongle on windows xp (until someone makes the software for linux and OS X), as windows, created by Micrsoft, creator of the XBox/360, is their competitor.

I have not been too fond of microsuck ever (I grew up using apple computers), and grew to hate Sony after buying a few of their products, and after watching friends of mine have disc read errors on their PS2s months after buying them...I know, Nintendo is not much better. But I love them, like a neglectful, crackhead mother, ya know. They won't even allow the homebrew community to do their stuff in peace on the DS, which may lead to new commercial titles. But they have created wonderful time wasters for 20 years, and who can resist mario and samus?

Mini-Porn Could Be Mega-Business

They discussed the two on the news here last night.

http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?N...age=1&pagePos=4


Sony BMG heads for a tough weekend
By Jonny Evans

Sony BMG's 'rootkit' copy protection technology may affect Macs - and the software can also be exploited by malicious hackers, reports claim.
MacInTouch reports claims by a reader who recently purchased a Sony BMG CD. The reader found that the CD installs a Mac application, "Start.app" which itself installs two files: PhoenixNub1.kext and PhoenixNub12.kext.

This is not the same software that is causing such a furor against Sony BMG at present. The Register claims: "It's a Mac version of SunnComm's DRM software, MediaMax, which Sony BMG uses to copy-protect a range of CDs."

Who the fuck is RYGd? Did my son join the Lounge?

No.

That's Rye Dog.

Um... you take away the D add the V and then use a silent H somewhere...

He's what you call...

'new'.

grate.

when i see his/her name, all i keep seeing is

Roy G Biv

when I see my name all I see is stupidness...

And I am a year and a half new.