A British company seems to be doing rather well out of supplying spyware and cloaked code to Sony that is crashing and crippling computers in the United States. Over half a million traces of this infection have been found so far, according to Dan Kaminsky
First4Internet have the dubious honour of being the suppliers of Sony’s disastrous rootkit code that installs itself onto Windows PCs that run a DRM-protected music CD from Sony. It is astonishing in this day and age that a company like F4i can actually make money by producing retrograde, intrusive and dangerous tools like the XCP system, which is to blame for this fiasco
In addition to crippling their customers computers, Sony’s End User License Agreement goes further, according to the EFF, by insisting that users delete any copies of music they have bought from Sony if, for example, they move to another country. Also, their right to listen to the music they have bought from Sony is revoked if the customer does not install any updates released by Sony … presumably like the rootkit code. Worst of all, Sony limits its liability for problems caused by it’s software to $5 – significantly less than the cost of the CD, let alone any computers it might damage
Rather sensibly, some Windows users are pledging to avoid the risk associated with Sony products altogether until they can be sure the company will not try similar tricks again. The fact that one Sony’s executive responded to the issue by saying “Most people, I think, don’t even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?” does not exactly inspire confidence
Do Sony really think that this kind of retrogressive step will hold back the tide of reform in the digital entertainment industry
UPDATE MacWorld is reporting that Sony have now agreed to pull the XCP-infected CDs from the shelves, saying they “share the concerns of consumers regarding discs with the XCP software, and … are instituting a program that will allow customers to exchange any CD with XCP software for the same CD without copy protection.” Good news, but I am sure it will be a long time before some people risk buying Sony BMG CDs again
No word yet on this from First4Internet, whose press page still trumpets their US “success” with Sony.