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Sony Gives Out Workaround to it’s Own DRM?

So, this guy emails the makers of the Sony DRM to complain about the inability to use his legally purchased music on his iPod. The reply he gets first tells him to “complain to apple to open up their DRM to third parties” but then goes on to explain how to work around the DRM completely!

Using the obvious technique of ripping the DRM laden tracks using Windows Media Player (as allowed and explained in the DRM’s instructions), you can then simply burn the entire album to a new CD… sans DRM. Then you can rip the new CD as normal as many times as you’d like.

As a consumer, I’m just appalled at this. Why have DRM if you give out instructions on how to beat it? Is Sony only doing this to get people to lobby Apple for them???

Sigh.

Sony DRM spelled backwards is EVIL

Actually, it would be MRDS, which didn’t really spell anything… Anyhoo…

For those of you who haven’t heard, Sony has released it’s new digital rights management software into the wild… and you may already have it on your computer. The CDs, when inserted, install what is known in the hacker world as a “rootkit” which is a special piece of software that runs in the background on your machine without letting you know about it. Even more alarming, is that this software is incredibly difficult to remove as it hides itself from even administrator level permissions.

Currently, the following CDs have been detected to have installed the rootkit software.

• Trey Anastasio, Shine (Columbia)
• Celine Dion, On ne Change Pas (Epic)
• Neil Diamond, 12 Songs (Columbia)
• Our Lady Peace, Healthy in Paranoid Times (Columbia)
• Chris Botti, To Love Again (Columbia)
• Van Zant, Get Right with the Man (Columbia)
• Switchfoot, Nothing is Sound (Columbia)
• The Coral, The Invisible Invasion (Columbia)
• Acceptance, Phantoms (Columbia)
• Susie Suh, Susie Suh (Epic)
• Amerie, Touch (Columbia)
• Life of Agony, Broken Valley (Epic)
• Horace Silver Quintet, Silver’s Blue (Epic Legacy)
• Gerry Mulligan, Jeru (Columbia Legacy)
• Dexter Gordon, Manhattan Symphonie (Columbia Legacy)
• The Bad Plus, Suspicious Activity (Columbia)
• The Dead 60s, The Dead 60s (Epic)
• Dion, The Essential Dion (Columbia Legacy)
• Natasha Bedingfield, Unwritten (Epic)

If you have put one of these CDs in your computer recently, it would be wise to consult Google for removal instructions. But beware! Early pioneers in this field of work have mentioned that sometimes it will cause your CD player to CEASE WORKING!

Now, I understand that DRM is a necessary evil in our day and age, but this seems to be crossing lines of a different sort. In an effort to reduce theft of Sony’s copyrighted content, Sony sees no problem with potentially damaging its customer’s computers. Early reports have been made already of viruses that can piggyback on Sony’s rootkit software and use them to cripple computer systems and enjoy the rootkit’s property of being difficult to remove.

Let’s just say that I won’t be buying another Sony CD until this garbage has been removed.

PS – Is it just me, or are more than half of these CDs targeted at the wrong demographic for countering file sharing?