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What is on the Sony CDs?
The CDs involved are loaded with a relatively new kind of content protection created by British company First 4 Internet. When a listener puts the album into a computer's CD drive, it pops up a license agreement. If the listener accepts, it installs the copy protection rootkit onto the hard drive.
The rootkit element of the software is used to hide virtually all traces of the copy protection software's presence on a PC, so that an ordinary computer user would have no way to find it. The software acts to limit the number of copies that can be made of the CD and prevents a computer user from making unprotected MP3s from the music.
What is a rootkit? Isn't that something that virus writers use?
A rootkit is a powerful piece of software that takes over control of a computer at the most fundamental level. In computer terms, it establishes "root" access, which is similar to administrative access, instead of access for just an ordinary user. It can potentially prevent a computer user from detecting its presence or from performing certain tasks on their own PC.
Like most computing tools, this is not intrinsically a bad thing, but can be abused. Virus writers use these tools to help take over computers and hide the presence of their work.
What is on the Sony CDs?
The CDs involved are loaded with a relatively new kind of content protection created by British company First 4 Internet. When a listener puts the album into a computer's CD drive, it pops up a license agreement. If the listener accepts, it installs the copy protection rootkit onto the hard drive.
The rootkit element of the software is used to hide virtually all traces of the copy protection software's presence on a PC, so that an ordinary computer user would have no way to find it. The software acts to limit the number of copies that can be made of the CD and prevents a computer user from making unprotected MP3s from the music.
What is a rootkit? Isn't that something that virus writers use?
A rootkit is a powerful piece of software that takes over control of a computer at the most fundamental level. In computer terms, it establishes "root" access, which is similar to administrative access, instead of access for just an ordinary user. It can potentially prevent a computer user from detecting its presence or from performing certain tasks on their own PC.
Like most computing tools, this is not intrinsically a bad thing, but can be abused. Virus writers use these tools to help take over computers and hide the presence of their work.
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