Corporate Hubris

It is with deep satisfaction that I've been watching the evil fuckers at Sony Music get spanked and spanked hard. They released millions of music CDs that when inserted into a Windows PC, install software that hides itself on your system. The intent of the software is to prevent you from copying the music you paid for, even legally. The real effect of this malware is to slow down your computer, make it unstable and open a gaping security hole through which viruses can take over your whole system.

Sony is taking a well-deserved beating in the press.

Wikipedia: 2005 Sony CD copy protection controversy
CNET: Security Watch: To be "0wned" by Sony
The New York Times: Who has the right to control your PC?

Even Microsoft, hardly the bastion of corporate ethics, has pronounced the Sony software to be malware.

Over half a million name servers on the Internet show evidence of Sony's rootkit trying to phone home. Here's a map showing the spread of the Sony spyware infection in just a few short months. (Click the map for a larger view.)



As usual, Macintosh and Linux users are entitled to feel smug about their systems not being affected by this crap.

Sony claims they had no bad intent. Bull-fucking-shit! This was an act of spectacular arrogance and they will pay the price. Two viruses that exploit the Sony malware have already emerged. And two class action lawsuits have already been filed. More are likely. The public outcry forced Sony to recall all the affected CDs. In a supreme irony, Sony is offering customers the chance to download MP3s of the copy-protected music they bought ... the very thing the rootkit was supposed to prevent in the first place.

It has now emerged that the Sony software is itself a copyright violation. Sony used open-source software that it did not create without complying with the license for that software. In other words, they stole someone else's software in a lame attempt to prevent the stealing of music. Hypocrites.

But their arrogance doesn't stop there.

At first Sony refused to say what CDs had their nasty little invader on them. But then they acquiesced and published this list. Before they'd give you the malware uninstaller they demanded you surrender your email address, a further invasion of privacy. And their first uninstaller actually installed more software that couldn't be unistalled.

After their uninstaller was denounced, Sony withdrew it to rewrite it. So at the moment, their is no uninstaller available from Sony. They promise to release one here eventually.

So you need a third-party, anti-spyware program to get Sony's claws out of your system.

And those assholes at the RIAA defend Sony saying they did nothing wrong. Unbelievable! Well ... actually ... totally believable. It's just more of their usual stuff.

The fabulous Electronic Frontier Foundation is leading the charge against Sony.

The Sony Music Execs should be strung up by their huge balls.

It's stuff like this that drives honest people to piracy.

As so many villains have said in so many films ...

I will enjoy watching you die.