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November 3, 2005

Windows Hell - Sony's Sneaky Copy Protection

by Ferdinand T Cat

This story has been floating around the blogosphere for a couple of days, but it's important enough to bear repeating. Basically, the copy protection scheme on some Sony/BMG music CDs installs hidden applications on your PC.

Sony's copy protector actually hooks into kernel routines to fool Windows into thinking the files don't exist. This is the sort of behavior expected from spyware and viruses, so it's likely future virus protection schemes will look for it. The Sony software, however, is not installed properly and attempts to remove it can make Windows inoperable.

So, if you buy a Sony CD that tells you it has copy protection, don't play it on your PC unless you don't mind the hidden software.

Respectfully submitted,

Ferdinand T. Cat


# At Thu 6:38 PM | Permalink | Trackback URI | Comments (0) | More Windows Hell

Trackback Pings

» Sony's DRM Hits A Sour Note from Cutting Edge Of Ecstasy
If you're thinking of buying a CD from Sony BMG, be warned - you may be better off stealing the music. 'Sony BMG is currently using a rootkit-based DRM system on some CD records sold in USA. As far as... [Read More]

Tracked on November 4, 2005 4:51 AM

» Another Reason to Dislike the Sony/BMG Copy Protection Hack from Conservative Cat
A while back we reported on Sony's Sneaky Copy Protection scheme. If you play a copy-protected Sony CD on your Windows PC, it will install an invisible software package that prevents you from making more than three copies of songs... [Read More]

Tracked on November 13, 2005 11:54 PM

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