The Creeping DRM Crisis

I would guess most of my tech savvy friends are aware of this situation, but most of the folks who visit this blog are probably not aware of the latest attempt by big media to turn us all into criminals. So I depart from the usual diet of photographs to present this public service. The bottom line is this: if you have played recent music CDs by Sony/BMG on your computer, you may have seriously damaged your system through the installation of a rootkit. Not only is the software installed when you play the music, it installs without notification to the user. Better still, it reports back to Sony what you have played and when you played it. Even better still, it cannot be uninstalled, and attempts to do so may disable your CD/ROM drive. Just more proof from big media that they really don't want you to buy their product; they can make more money by suing you for obtaining it illegally. For more information on the Sony rootkit, click here. For an article by the gentleman who discovered the rootkit and developer of a utility than can detect rootkits, click here.