Search - Elkland :: Golden

CD contains DRM software that opens your system to viruses

Phillip Roncoroni | Manhattan, New York | 11/12/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"As many people may know by now, Sony was recently caught with egg on their face when a security specialist found out that a recently purchased CD (Van Zant: Get Right With The Man) from Sony music not only installed DRM software (digital rights management, to limit and outright prevent copying music to certain devices), but it did so in such a sneaky way that it hid itself entirely from Windows, and opened the system up to security issues such as viruses.



This CD has the same copyright protection, called XCP. When installed, Sony hijacks your computer and installs custom software which:



1) Hides itself entirely from Windows by installing as a rootkit

2) Hides itself in such a manner that any files begining with $sys$ are also hidden. For example, if you install the XCP copy protection software on your machine, and rename "document.doc" to "$sys$document.doc" it then becomes invivisble to you forever.

3) Installs its own custom CD-Rom drivers to hijack your system. It also sneakily names these drivers "Plug and Play Device Manager" to seem as if it's a part of Windows. Trying to delete these drivers manually will disable your CD-Rom drive entirely.

4) Offers no uninstall option until you manually contact Sony



As of my writing this review, Sony has "apologized" for this incident, and claims they will "re-evaluate" this copyright protection software on their CDs in the future.



In the meantime, a virus is currently running wild, which names itself begining with $sys$ in an attempt to hide from the user and virus scanners.



Several class action lawsuits are also pending against Sony right now.



In summary, as you can tell from above, Sony's actions here are absolutely horrible. This is your music. You purchased it, and they should not have any right to dictate how you can use it, let alone install software which compromises your system security.



This is one of the CDs with Sony's XCP copyright protection software on it, and as a result, you should not buy it to send a message to Sony that this will NOT be tolerated in the future."

Don't play this on your PC!

Someone with an opinion | 11/07/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Sony's copy protection scheme installs harmful rootkit software on Windows machines. This software can crash your machine, and make it easier for viruses to infect you. It also causes a small but constant drain on your processing power - even when you're not listening to music. By design, it is impossible to uninstall without advanced technical skills.



Sony recently released a patch to mitigate these concerns. However, the patch only addresses the issue of potential virus infection. Uninstalling the software is still nearly impossible, and if attempted incorrectly can render your CD drive unusable.



For more information, search for "sony rootkit" on the sysinternals web site."

80s heaven

C. Whelpley | Los Angeles, CA USA | 11/07/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I can't believe anyone would compare any of these songs to the legends of the 80s such as New Order, Echo and the Bunnymen, the Cure, etc. I've been in to 80s music since it was the 80s.



Elkland is more an innocent synthpop boy band. I would compare them more to Haircut 100, General Public, or an early Depeche Mode. I love these guys because they capture the fun and innocence of the 80s. These other bands' music was usually much darker and more complicated, capturing the somewhat darker side of the new wave movement.



Elkland definitely has the potential to develop in to a great band, but in the mean time I'm perfectly happy listening to them as they are."