Sony to Help Remove its DRM Rootkit *

When Mark Russinovich was testing his company’s security software last week, he came across a disturbing find: a Sony BMG CD he purchased from Amazon had secretly installed DRM software on his PC and used “rootkit” cloaking methods to hide it. With the story sweeping across the Net, Sony is attempting to clean up its mess.

The patch will be made available for download from Sony BMG’s Web site, with another offered directly to antivirus vendors. The DRM software will not be removed, however, only uncovered; that means users will still be unable to delete it without risk of rendering their CD drive inoperable. Customers must contact Sony BMG support for removal instructions.

BetaNews

* Rather than come clean, Sony minimises the problem, blames the user, and refuses to help you out. If you have CDs infected with this rootkit and DRM, Sony has to replace them. They are, flat out, a danger to computing. Don’t believe me? Look at that Washington Post article again. The head of F-Secure says that the Sony malware, when running on Windows Vista “breaks the operating system spectacularly”. Nope, that can’t be right, just ask Sony, because it said so in the FAQ. It won’t fix the problem, they won’t let you work around it legally and still listen to the music you paid for, and won’t help you.

the Inquirer – Sony DRM is worse than you might think