A senior SonyBMG executive has hit back at the criticism surrounding
the company's use of a digital rights management (DRM) technology on a music CD.Thomas Hesse, the president of SonyBMG's global digital business division, said in a radio interview last week that its use of rootkits is not an issue to the everyday user."Most people don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?" he said in the interview with radio company NPR.
The copy-restriction software is hidden so that music pirates cannot find and remove it, according to Hesse. "This is purely about restricting the ability to burn MP3 files in an unprotected manner," he said.
Although Sony does not appear to understand why people are concerned about the use of rootkits, the EMI Group has tried to distance itself from the controversy by stating that it does not use rootkits on its own products.
"EMI is not using any software that hides traces of the program. There is no 'rootkit' behaviour and there are no processes left running in the background," an EMI spokesman said last week
Talkback
sounds like an arrogant little man who still has a bit to learn about PR. lets see if Sonybmg show him the door
Secretative self installing software has no place on a commercial music CD.
When will these exec's ever learn?
is it not a criminal offence to hack a computer system & install software that is hidden & difficult to remove & installed without the users express permission?
hmm if sony's website got hacked or there computer systems & if they found out who had done it they would put the full force of the law to them but what do sony get thrown at them for breaking the LAW
hmmmm NOTHING.
Lower the prices of all media & when it comes to music give the uers the option to have what individual tracks they want.
im stopping writing now because i could go on for sometime & its comments thats already been written on different occassions.
The only way to make this joker understand, is to hit his balance sheet. Do not buy Sony, period.
With that response Sony have just lost the right to have my money spent on any of their products.
What an ignorant, arrogant fool. Most people don't know what Ebola virus is, but if they had it, they'd care about it!
most people dont know what a trojan is, should they not care??
Well I've hit back already. We have just purchased 62 TFT monitors for my company. Sony SDM S75As models were my original option. I have instead ordered Fujitsu Seimens ones instead. So thats 10K in business that Sony are down already
Most people didn't know what viruses were when they first surfaced. That didn't make them OK. A somewhat naive comment by Sony I think.
Ironic really. Sony sell you CD/DVD R/RW Drives and then sell you CD's that stop you from using them. Where is the logic in that.
So, ignorance is bliss - an unconventional corporate attitude, that will end up with only the stupid or uninformed buying Sony products. I have switched my brand of blank disks, and abandonded plans to buy sSony DVD editing software.
> Ironic really. Sony sell you CD/DVD R/RW Drives and then sell you CD's that stop you from using them. Where is the logic in that..
Humm thats easy they dont care a toss about joe public it's all just money to them they sell period they aint interested in what happens after that they got their money out of you thanks see ya gone ....
I think i have just found a use for that domain own .. ..
give me a few days to set it up ..
Vicarious/Secondary liability for intrusions based on rootkit technology. That EULA will bow down when someone other than the PC owner inserted the CD. DMCA complaints *against* sony for circumventing the security of a computer holding copyrighted works and a trafficking charge in distributing the rootkit software with their CDs. A whole can of worms this is.
This is one of the most ignorant/arrogant responses from an exec I've ever seen. Something that opens your computer to attacks is not a serious problem? What a flippin moron. I hope they get a lawsuit that won't quit. A million for every infected computer for starters. This jerk needs to get fired.
Simple just don't buy SONY products anymore. If they inssist on putting this garbage on thier CDs they can just keep them all in some warehouse some where and use them for coasters. I copy my CDs to protect my investment,I keep the origenal in a safe place. I use the copy in the car or portable device until it gets damaged then I destroy it and make another one ,that protects my investment. Now if you see somebody selling copys, that's another problem, you should realy come down on them, a copy for your own use to protect your own investment is OK, but making copys to sell is a NO! NO! and should be punished.
Sony might wake up if consumers do three things:
(1) Don't buy ANY Sony products for the next three months.
(2) If they haven't committed themselves to protecting consumers, including a clear apology and promise to NEVER infringe on security or privacy again, continue to boycott Sony for another three months.
(3) Keep up the boycott as long as it takes Sony to get the message.
If they put malicious software on CDs, what do they put on their computers?
Since Sony doesn't mind rootkits how about we put a few on on their servers so we can see...
1. How many CD's they sell.
2. Who purchases their CD's.
3. How much revenue they generate.
4. How much revenue goes to the artists.
5. How much Sony executives make.
6. Where they live and who their family members are.
7. What's on their computers.
Sounds fine to me and of course the average executive idiot at Sony doesn't care!
Thomas Hesse doesn't know what customer trust in a brand is, so why should he care about it.
How can I ever trust another Sony owned label to not try installing some sort of garbage on my pc?
How can I trust that it will play in my car stereo system and not simply display ERROR instead?
Worse yet, how can I trust that said CD will not as has happened, not eject from my car stereo and leave me with no option but to take it to the dealership in the hopes they can get it to manually eject somehow?
In this great DRM game, we will eventually have each label installing some sort of CD Filter driver, the end result of which, we cannot get certain, or all CDs to operate because of the filter driver equivalent of Windows DLL Hell. My take on it? Buy from Napster, or Itunes if you want to play music on your home computer. Use independent labels, that's where the innovation is occuring in the music world anyway. And listen to online radio until they get stupid and outlaw it.
JUST SIMPLY QUIT PLAYING CDs IN YOUR COMPUTER AND YOUR CAR STEREO and as your need to buy them goes away from DRM using manufacturers, quit buying DRM CDs.
BTW, playing CDs has been banned at work as we cannot expend any time and effort troubleshooting operating system damage due to these stupid things. Also, we don't need the internet traffic and security risk for the phone home stuff. THANKS SONY!
And people laughed when I insisted that Sony is the new evil empire... Well, who's laughing now? That's right! The guy in the tin foil hat! Told you so! Told you so!