Illegal to copy even your own personal CD's

[ohliz]

Re: Illegal to copy even your own personal CD's

I submit to you a HUGE number of musicians that GIVE their music away (at least their live performances revcorded by the audience...not their studio recordings). There are 5-6 bands in here that I really like much more than anything that Sony is selling.

http://www.archive.org/audio/etree.php

..I haven't bought a cd in years, nor have I copied a copyrighted cd. No need with all this great music being free for the downloading, or you can stream right online.

Take THAT, Sony!

[Dr.Dudd]

Re: Illegal to copy even your own personal CD's

Sony to Suspend Making Antipiracy CDs
By TED BRIDIS (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
November 11, 2005 7:46 PM EST
WASHINGTON - Stung by continuing criticism, the world's second-largest music label, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, promised Friday to temporarily suspend making music CDs with antipiracy technology that can leave computers vulnerable to hackers.

Sony defended its right to prevent customers from illegally copying music but said it will halt manufacturing CDs with the "XCP" technology as a precautionary measure. "We also intend to re-examine all aspects of our content protection initiative to be sure that it continues to meet our goals of security and ease of consumer use," the company said in a statement.

The antipiracy technology, which works only on Windows computers, prevents customers from making more than a few copies of the CD and prevents them from loading the CD's songs onto Apple Computer's popular iPod portable music players. Some other music players, which recognize Microsoft's proprietary music format, would work.

Sony's announcement came one day after leading security companies disclosed that hackers were distributing malicious programs over the Internet that exploited the antipiracy technology's ability to avoid detection. Hackers discovered they can effectively render their programs invisible by using names for computer files similar to ones cloaked by the Sony technology.

A senior Homeland Security official cautioned entertainment companies against discouraging piracy in ways that also make computers vulnerable. Stewart Baker, assistant secretary for policy at DHS, did not cite Sony by name in his remarks Thursday but described industry efforts to install hidden files on consumers' computers.

"It's very important to remember that it's your intellectual property, it's not your computer," Baker said at a trade conference on piracy. "And in the pursuit of protection of intellectual property, it's important not to defeat or undermine the security measures that people need to adopt in these days."

Sony's program is included on about 20 popular music titles, including releases by Van Zant and The Bad Plus.

"This is a step they should have taken immediately," said Mark Russinovich, chief software architect at Winternals Software who discovered the hidden copy-protection technology Oct. 31 and posted his findings on his Web log. He said Sony did not admit any wrongdoing, nor did it promise not to use similar techniques in the future.

Security researchers have described Sony's technology as "spyware," saying it is difficult to remove, transmits without warning details about what music is playing, and that Sony's notice to consumers about the technology was inadequate. Sony executives have rejected the description of their technology as spyware.

Some leading antivirus companies updated their protective software this week to detect Sony's antipiracy program, disable it and prevent it from reinstalling.

After Russinovich criticized Sony, it made available a software patch that removed the technology's ability to avoid detection. It also made more broadly available its instructions on how to remove the software permanently. Customers who remove the software are unable to listen to the music CD on their computer.

---

On the Web:

Sony's XCP Page: http://cp.sonybmg.com/xcp

Russinovich's Blog: http://www.sysinternals.com/Blog

Symantec warning:

http://securityresponse.symantec.com...tyrisk.aries.h tml

Computer Associates warning:

http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/newsinfo/collateral.aspx?cid76345

[Dr.Dudd]

Re: Illegal to copy even your own personal CD's

Microsoft will wipe Sony's 'rootkit'
By Joris Evers
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Published: November 13, 2005, 12:15 AM PST
TalkBack E-mail Print TrackBack
Microsoft will update its security tools to detect and remove part of the copy protection tools installed on PCs when some music CDs are played.

The Redmond, Wash., software maker has determined that the "rootkit" piece of the XCP software on some Sony BMG Music Entertainment CDs can pose a security risk to Windows PCs, according to a posting Saturday to a Microsoft corporate Web log.

The Sony BMG software installs itself deeply inside a hard drive when a CD is played on a PC. The technology uses rootkit techniques to hide itself. Experts blasted the cloaking mechanism, saying it could be abused by virus writers. The first remote-control Trojan horses that take advantage of the veil provided by Sony BMG have surfaced.

To protect Windows users, Microsoft plans to update Windows AntiSpyware and the Malicious Software Removal Tool as well as the online scanner on Windows Live Safety Center to detect and remove the Sony BMG software, the software maker said in its blog.

Windows AntiSpyware is Microsoft's spyware-fighting software that is currently available as a test version and used by millions of people worldwide. Microsoft provides weekly updates for Windows AntiSpyware. The Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool is updated monthly and is part of Microsoft's monthly patch releases.






Previous Next Detection and removal of the rootkit component will also be in Windows Defender, the forthcoming update to Windows AntiSpyware that will also be part of Windows XP successor Windows Vista, Microsoft said.

In its move to detect and remove the Sony BMG rootkit, Microsoft follows other makers of security software. Symantec and Computer Associates are among those that offer at minimum detection capabilities in their products. Sony BMG itself has also provided a patch to fix the security problem and still allow CDs to be played on PCs.

On Friday, Sony said it had halted production of CDs with the controversial technology, which is designed to limit the number of copies that can be made of the CD and to prevent a computer user from making unprotected MP3s of the music. Sony does still produce CDs that use a different copy protection scheme.

TalkBack E-mail Print TrackBack