Here's a roundup of the Sony Music DRM news that's come in over the past few hours. Sony is in hot water for tricking hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of its customers into infecting their PCs with a rootkit program that leaves their PCs vulnerable to all kinds of attacks, as part of a scheme to restrict the usage of music that comes on Sony BMG's CDs. A firestorm has ensued, with new revelations coming to light practically every hour:
- Sony promises that 100% of its CDs will have rootkit installers by 2005. Before Sony caved and announced that it was suspending its rootkit program, a spokesman emailed this blogger to say "By the end of fiscal 2005, 100% of Sony BMG titles released will contain this content protection technology. Please assume every one of our CDs are protected in this fashion." Link
- Canadian mainstream business reporter damns Sony. You don't get more sober-sided thatn the Globe and Mail's stalwart business reporter, Mathew Ingram. EFF attorney Fred von Lohmann broke the news about the abusiveness of Sony's EULA. In this article, Ingram says, "Sony's EULA is like having a man appear at your door to sell you natural gas, and having him install a gas meter in your basement that unlocks your front door whenever the right code is entered — either by the gas company or anyone else who knows how — and fills your house with foul-smelling blue smoke if you try to remove it." Link
- Sony tries to cool out the big retailers. An anonymous industry insider tipster who goes by "Big Moe" wrote with the news that Sony has been doing vigorous damage control with music retailers, begging them to get the word out that the rootkit isn't so bad, and that if you don't like it, there's always their uninstaller. Retailers aren't buying it — they know that the uninstaller leaves vulnerabilities that are even more grave than created by the rootkit itself. Link
And in other news:
- I'm verifying notes regarding several large institutions (universities, government agencies) that have forbidden the use of Sony music on their computers due to the security risks
- Sony and several other electronics companies have been caught sticking a 15% surcharge on their wholesale pricing to online retailers, so that they won't be able to undercut the brick and mortar dinosaurs whose prices have to include the cost of their storefronts and displays
(Thanks, Big Moe, Dave, Doctor What and innumerable tipsters!)