Has Sony Killed the CD?
The internet was abuzz this past week with news
that new DRM (Digital Rights Management) software on Sony music CDs contained a
rootkit, a piece of software that modifies the kernel of the OS running on the
computer to disallow certain operations normally allowed, like copying. The
problem with this, aside from the arrogance and customer unfriendliness of
surreptitiously modifying the customer's property, is that the rootkit opens a
machine infected with it to attacks by virus writers. The rootkit makes it
possible to place files on the hard disk that are invisible to the user and
therefore not removable. And, in fact, the first exploitation of the Sony
rootkit has already happened in the
wild.
Compounding the injury Sony
perpetrated on its customers is the insult that Sony maintained for 10 days a
public attitude that this was no big deal. Some people who attempted to remove
the rootkit with some removal tools provided by Sony discovered that their CD
players were no longer accessible, and the only cure for that was to reformat
the disk and reinstall the OS. While Windows users are used to having to do
that, I can't believe that they would look kindly at any company that forces
them to have to do so.
Since I'm a Mac
user, I figured I didn't have to worry too much about this. The other reason I
don't have to worry is that I don't buy CDs any more. But it turns out Mac users
do have to worry about this. So, if you buy a CD, insert it into your Mac, and
get a window requesting your password so new software can be installed,
beware!
My son also uses a Mac. He
called to ask me about the rootkit story. After I filled him in, he said he
would never buy another CD. Any CD, regardless of whether it was a Sony disk or
not.
It's perilous to extrapolate from
a sample of one or two, but I have to wonder: will other people have this same
reaction? CD sales have been dwindling, due to a number of factors. Will this be
the final straw that forces enough people to find other ways to buy (or at least
obtain) music. Are CDs dead?
Time will
tell.
Posted: Fri - November 11, 2005 at 07:46 PM