Sony’s DRM saga continues with Pest Patrol now classifying Sony’s XCP DRM software as: XCP.Sony.Rootkit, Music Player, XCP.Sony.Rootkit.Patch and XCP.Sony.SP2:
XCP.Sony.Rootkit Extended Copy Protection(XCP) is Digital Rights Management (DRM) software manufactured by First4Internet, a UK company. This particular variant of XCP is licensed and bundled by Sony BMG, and is reportedly distributed on more than 2 million Sony BMG Audio CDs. This software is intended to stop casual CD piracy. Toward this end, the software is designed to prevent protected CDs being played with anything other than an included Media Player, Music Player.
Additionally, Pest Patrol says later this week they have a solution.
Computer Associates, maker of security software, has announced their anti-spyware program PestPatrol will detect and remove Sony’s rootkit-enabled DRM software. I spoke to Samuel Curry, Vice President, Product Management of Computer Associates, yesterday and he confirmed that four pests from Sony have been added to PestPatrol’s new definitions slated to be released this week.
Additionally, the EFF has posted a list of some CDs with the XCP DRM software that contains the rootkit as well as explaining to users how they can identify which CDs contain the software. Now Sony has a black eye in at least one adware/spyware vendor’s database.
Probably the most damning part of this spyware definition are the following sentences: “Includes mechanisms to thwart removal by security or anti-spyware products. Cannot be uninstalled by Windows Add/Remove Programs and no uninstaller is provided with application”
Nice to see that EMI, another of the world’s largest recording companies, is taking the Sony DRM fiasco to point out that they don’t do this to their customers. This has become a PR disaster.
“The content-protection software that we’re using can be easily uninstalled with a standard uninstaller that comes on the disc. EMI is not using any software that hides traces of the program. There is no ‘rootkit’ behavior, and there are no processes left running in the background,” said an EMI spokesman in a statement.
EMI also distanced themselves from First 4, the technology company that Sony used to create their DRM strategy saying they recently evaluated three differnt firms and First 4 wasn’t one of them. How about that? Burn!
Journey released a new album last month called Generations. I saw it while browsing through CDs at Best Buy. Here’s something that would be cool to have, and maybe it’s already out there (?) and I just don’t know where: an RSS feed that could be subscribed to for new album releases by selected artists. I don’t want band news or other information mixed in with the music release, just new album releases via RSS which can be customized by user.
Here’s one more free idea: if something like LAUNCHcast could tool up this function and provide me the feature to receive new album information for any artist I have labeled with 4 or 5 stars that would be a sweet feature. Users could get notified (RSS alerts) of new music by the artists they like.
As for Journey’s new album? Check out the lyrics here. BTW, the navigation menu is hosed in Firefox and Opera so don’t even don’t even think of visiting their website without IE, or you’ll miss a bunch. Bad webmaster, baaaad.
I didn’t buy the CD, instead I tracked it down through my son’s Napster account and have been listening there while he’s at school. A couple songs after the first songs are bubbling to the top: Beyond The Clouds (ballad) and The Place In Your Heart. I would put this album on par with Trial By Fire and perhaps not as good as Arrival. Their last album was an EP called Red 13. Nothing on a few listens really jumps out and compares to the best from to their Infinity to Frontiers era though it’s worth mentioning that each member of the band gets a chance to sing lead on Generations which makes the album sound a bit different.
Steve Augeri doesn’t sound as much like Perry on this album. Is he trying to get out of Perry’s shadow? Whatever the case, Augeri has a great voice and deserves a chance to explore some new musical journeys. Can’t help thinking though that Journey won’t be making any real inroads commercially until they get Steve Perry back. And for some, Journey was never that significant even with Journey. One of the last times I mentioned Journey, it was in reference to Journey bashing.
They had some of the best love songs and anthems in the 80’s with albums like Escape (note title tie-in), Frontiers and the less impressive but commercially successful Raised on Radio era where American Idol judge Randy Jackson played bass.
Journey isn’t with Sony any more, perhaps after the commercial dissapointment of their Arrival album with Augeri, but they are in good hands with Sanctuary which has been showing the love to many 80’s bands. God bless ya, Sanctuary. Journey has been rocking for 30 years now and while they are certainly showing their age, Generations does show they still have something left to say musically. Grade: C+
Mark Russinovich, the guy who broke the disturbing story of Sony somewhat covertly installing a rootkit (see Fascinating tale of DRM hell) as part of their DRM strategy, received a response from First 4. And then he offers a detailed counterpoint essentially echoing other experts that it was too little, too late:
Instead of admitting fault for installing a rootkit and installing it without proper disclosure, both Sony and First 4 Internet claim innocence. By not coming clean they are making clear to any potential customers that they are a not only technically incompetent, but also dishonest.
I see predatory fins circling. Sony better get out of this bloody water in a hurry. Already this rootkit has been exploited by World of Warcraft gamers for cheating. But apparently if you bury this type of sleazy activity in a long winded EULA, it could be legal, so maybe the Jaws Dream Team in a three piece suits will have to keep feasting on plankton.
Last night I was looking at digital cameras as we have been looking to get a new one. I saw one that looked cool, had good features and the price was right. Unfortunately it was from Sony and I’m not in the buy something from Sony mood lately. Yeah, I’m pissed at you, Sony over this total BS. You taunt me with that uber sexy PSP and then do screwed up stuff like this DRM rootkit mess which makes me nervous about hooking anything from you into our network. A blessing and a curse. Medusa. Damn you.
Last time this came up, A fellow blogger, Adam wondered in the comments area: “Isn’t it getting time to boycott Sony?”
I’m sure feeling that way, Adam. Guess one positive thing here (for online music fans) is Sony is making the online music scene look safer than buying their CDs.
Update 11/9/2005: A class action lawsuit against Sony has already been filed in California, and this Washington Post piece indicates another one is likely in New York.
Sony has released a patch to stop the hiding of expose their hidden rootkit which virus vendors raised concerns that malicious code could be buried using this copy protection scheme.
One part that seemed a bit odd because of the sequence of event were the comments by First 4 internet, Sony’s Technology Partner:
“We want to make sure we allay any unnecessary concerns,” said Mathew Gilliat-Smith, CEO of First 4 Internet. “We think this is a pro-active step and common sense.”
While it is true they are being proactive about the virus concerns, they are being reactive after the sleuthing of Mark Russinovich and the concerns that irritated music fans: why would they hide anything on our computers to begin with?
November 2, 2005 - This Service Pack removes the cloaking technology component that has been recently discussed in a number of articles published regarding the XCP Technology used on SONY BMG content protected CDs. This component is not malicious and does not compromise security. However to alleviate any concerns that users may have about the program posing potential security vulnerabilities, this update has been released to enable users to remove this component from their computers.
Guess it’s hard to get over the hellish references now that Halloween is over, but I just read through this scary DRM tale from Mark’s Sysinternals blog, which unfortunately appears to be all too true:
The entire experience was frustrating and irritating. Not only had Sony put software on my system that uses techniques commonly used by malware to mask its presence, the software is poorly written and provides no means for uninstall. Worse, most users that stumble across the cloaked files with a RKR scan will cripple their computer if they attempt the obvious step of deleting the cloaked files.
All this just to protect a CD from being copied, Sony? This is really not the path to go down. Simply cannot keep treating your customers like thieves if you want to stay in business. If I drop 15 bones on a CD then I not only desire but expect the ability to play it on any machine I have up to and including my computers, portable device, CD player or heck maybe on the DVD player. Why don’t you just handcuff me to the jewel case and require DNA samples to unlock the disc for each play?
Furthermore I should be able to make an archival copy so that the original will not get damaged and force me to buy another copy in a couple years. Meanwhile, I’m paying to listen to the music over the radio on the internet too … how many hands are they putting in my pockets?!
More proof that the real thieves aren’t music fans.
Here’s treat #1 for you today: go check out Yahoo’s LAUNCHcast radio.
Wait, internet radio haters, put away the reaper blades and give it a serious listen. Really. That means while you are working or playing today if you were lucky enough to get Satan’s holiday off, put it on in the background and rate the songs it serves. On a dark today like this, don’t you need some hardcore rock and roll in your lives?
To partake, you don’t have to download or install anything from their site (like their more bloated Y! Music client), although you are required to use Internet Explorer.
Need something to start out listening to? You can start by listening to my constantly evolving, terrifying station: MakeYouGoHmmdotcom LAUNCHcast station
Note: that station link will open and launch a window with the player so you can start listening. I don’t expect readers will like my music tastes, but if you like rock, particularly classic rock, hard rock, 70s-80s, then my feed should get you off to a solid rocking start.
Rock the office!
BTW, I wonder if the The Metal Show is doing anything Halloweenish tonight? Matt? Metal podcasters unite! United, United … United we stand …
I spent a lot of time listening to LAUNCHcast over last weekend and even chipped in for the subscription because I got tired of listening to ads every five songs, so my opinion that follows is not based on thirty minutes worth of listening, it’s based on many hours over several days of listening (yes, it’s playing now). It’s not required to pay for a subscription, but if you do then there’s a few more bennies.
Why internet radio does NOT suck
Time. To me, it’s all about time. Finding good music offline and/or online and organizing takes time. We’ve subscribed to/paid for online music subscriptions — my son has one to Napster right now in fact — and I’ve done the whole search through the database of a million plus songs and built playlist things but the problem again? Time. Time.
Time.
I would rather let the music play in the background and tell some system guess what I like, don’t like, and what I never ever want to hear again. Let it serve up songs I do like mixed with songs the system thinks I might like and learn from my ratings.
That’s exactly what LAUNCHcast does. The DJ that never sleeps. The musical delivery bot. Musicinator.
I almost never listen to music on traditional radio any more, what about you? Talk radio, yes, I do that frequently, but FM radio I pretty much have left for dead. In the car, it’s talk radio or MP3/CDs. While at the computer I like to listen to something besides silence, especially when I’m coding. A random mix of a huge playlist is good sometimes but those lists get stale, even with a large list (we have hundreds of CDs ripped and mixed into iTunes and Windows Media). The staleness is only replaced by new music coming in from somewhere, some place and I don’t want to invest the time to find it. Yeah, I’m a lazy music fan. I’d rather use that time exploring and/or coding new programs, products and services. Oh, and of course blogging and podcasting along the way!
What about being exposed to new music?
A random mix of music I’ve already purchased and ripped to MP3 doesn’t provide the serendipity factor that only radio mixed and provided by someone or something else can provide. Fellow music fans know that lucky, giddy feeling when a cool song comes on the radio we haven’t heard before. It’s like: hey, who is that by? We want to hear more!
With LAUNCHcast I’ve found their programming was scary good at figuring out what kind of music turns my crank. The more I rate, the better it seems to get.
Yeah, there’s the occasional trash that I have to send to never play again hell, but most of their selections are pretty accurate. I discovered a couple bands this weekend that I put on the CD wish list.
And rated songs I have (see screenshot above of my page showing nearly 1,000 ratings). I made those ratings while doing other things. LAUNCHcast put levels on the number of ratings made like Newbie, Listener, Enthusiast, Trendsetter, Fanatic and more. Whomever racks up 10,000 music ratings deserves to be coined a Rating Master. That dude/dudette must be in a rating frenzy.
My rating system is pretty straightforward:
It’s ok (1 star) - I can tolerate, barely, don’t really like them that much I like it (2 stars) - wouldn’t mind hearing this song/artist/album once in awhile I love it (3 stars) - play this a couple times a week in the song rotation, I’m grooving on it Can’t get enough (4 stars) - please play this NOW, it totally jams!
Remember if a song comes on that you don’t like, just tell it never to play again and hit the skip button. You’ll be building your own musicinator.
What is LAUNCHcast missing?
A few things that would take this service from being cool to being extraordinarily mindbendingly cool are: an OPML export feed listing all my music ratings and an API to plug into. Listeners spent time generating the data, and what if they want to take that data with them, use on their website, etc? Yahoo should let at least their paid Plus subscribers take that info with them and/or be able to tap into that with an API. If this functionality exists already, please somebody drop me a pointer in the comments/trackback area. I realize Yahoo has an API for Y! Music but nothing seems to exist for LAUNCHcast. I hope this Y! Music bias is not an indication that LAUNCHcast’s days are numbered(?).
So give LAUNCHcast a try (or another try if you’ve done so before) and then see if it treats you to some music you like that you haven’t heard before today.
A couple days ago I was at a local retail store perusing CDs and came across a couple CDs I was curious about. One of them was Return of the Champions by Queen. The live concert with Bad Company frontman Paul Rodgers. I was curious how he did singing the late, legendary Freddy Mercury’s vocals. The price of the CD, $22.95, made me pause, so I didn’t make the purchase. My secondary plan? Find it at the legal online stores and listen there first.
Turns out that was easier said than done. As of this writing here are the online music services I checked and results:
iTunes - not available yet. MSN Music - not available yet. Napster (we are currently subscribed to their monthly plan) - not available yet. MusicNow - not available yet Wal-Mart Music Downloads - not available for download, but I could buy the CD from Walmart.com for $19.88. Amazon sells the Return of the Champions Queen DVD (affiliate) of the concert for $14.99 and the Return of the Champions CD (affiliate) for $20.99. Interesting Queen tidbit (affiliate, emphasis mine below) from Amazon Top 50 reviewer, Darth Kommissar:
This album was released not long ago (at the time I write this review), so availability should be no issue if you want to purchase it. I was dissatisfied with the packaging, though - rather than a jewel case, the band did one of those cardboard packaging jobs. Because of the way it is constructed, the liner notes can fall out rather easily. Take my advice - get the album at Best Buy, because you get an exclusive DVD if you buy the album there.
That’s something, one of Amazon’s top 50 reviewers is saying not to buy it online at Amazon, buy it at Best Buy instead!
MusicMatch - required account creation with credit card to search song database? Forget it. puretracks - not availablet yet. passalong.com - not available yet. Yahoo Music Engine - not available yet. Yahoo Launchcast - yes. I gave the album five stars and Yahoo Launchcast started playing within three or four songs the song The Show Must Go On.
I stopped searching at this point. Seemed like Launchcast was the best choice to be able to demo the album (full songs) in any capacity. The free version of Launchcast is more like a radio in that you can’t put in the exact order of songs and you have to deal with audio ads every couple songs. Upgrading to Launchcast Plus ($3.95/month) gives you unlimited skipping. There is a 7 day free trial.
Still, to actually buy the CD, I’m being pointed by online back to the retail store (Best Buy). Sure, this is only one recent example of a prospective customer’s adventure interested in a CD, wanting to sample the CD and possibly buy for download, and finding the online music scene inadequate. Yahoo Launchcast was closest to the mark, but all the other music services, including iTunes and Napster which we are already paying a monthly subscriber for, didn’t have the specific CD I was interested in.
The online music scene needs to have everything the retail stores has and more. 1.5+ million songs doesn’t help if the one new CD you see in the store isn’t available buy/download online. If I have to order the CD, why not just buy it in the store and be able to take it home right away and rip/burn it?
I realize iTunes is all the rage online, selling tons of songs, but I still haven’t bought even one song from them. They had a chance today and the result?
Just saw a number of hits coming from MacDailyNews — welcome fellow Macheads — and they are all over the prophetic talents of Steve Jobs. Back in May of this year, Jobs and company were betting that it would be five months before Yahoo music raised their introductory pricing. PC Mag is reporting that now — surprise, surprise — five months later, Yahoo Music is raising their prices.
The Sunnyvale, Calif., firm forwarded an e-mail to its Yahoo Music Unlimited subscribers late Thursday telling customers that it plans to double the fee it charges for the so-called unlimited service from $4.99 per month to $9.99 per month, for people who buy the service on an annual basis.
Month to month subscribers will see an increase from $6.99 to $11.99 a month. This just made Y! Music less enticing. My son prefers Napster which is $9.99 a month for the regular service and $14.99 for the service that you can use with Napster To Go.
The article also points out the bigger brewing issue that could have catastrophic impact on the growing online music market: 2006 online music pricing. Lest we forget that Warner Music CEO, Edgar Bronfman wants a price hike for online music which Jobs thinks would be a step backwards. If the price goes up, will consumers just roll over and pay?
Besides Jobs making the five month prediction, this isn’t that surprising. Yahoo had always maintained that it was introductory pricing. The strategy seems to have been to come in, low ball the competition, make a dent in market share (at a loss) and then raise the prices and hope to keep a healthy percentage of subscribers. iTunes doesn’t seem to have lost any thunder, so the question is how much of a dent did Y! Music have in Napster and the other subscription music service?
My son, a huge music fan, preferred the Napster service over Y! Music, so back to them we went last month. According to Apple’s figures, iTunes hasn’t suffered so Y! Music was battling with the other guys.
As for Steve Jobs going all Miss Cleo? Will we see iTunes doing a subscription music service in the next five months? There are people who actually like the idea of renting the music library for online playback. Come on, Mr. Jobs, give us a hint into your crystal ball. What’s coming next?
The one thing that I haven’t quite figured out yet. Why would anyone pay $1.99/ea for music videos with copy protection built in? What makes a video worth $1.00 more than a song - and why would you want to keep it forever? Compare this to MSN Video’s model of short commercials before free music videos, and I think I like that model a lot better. I don’t need to have music videos in my pocket if they’re going to cost that much. And seriously - what’s Apple’s fascination with U2?
You know, I wouldn’t be too surprised if a bunch of people do buy these videos from Apple. When Steve Jobs said the average iTunes subscriber purchased 60 songs, I did a double take. I’ve purchased zero, nadda, not even one iTunes song.
In fact, I’ve purchased a small handful of online tracks from all music services combined. And no, I’m not going the illegal route, I just prefer to buy the CDs and burn my own unprotected MP3. When in front of the computer listening to the radio or subscriptions appeals more to me than shopping the iTunes store. I have subscribed to various services on/off like Rhapsody, Napster and Y! Music which I think is a far better way to listen to music on the computer. You can listen to a library of one million plus songs, and growing, and not clutter up your own hard drive.
So what kinds of video might make me reach for the plastic? Perhaps older, out of date videos that aren’t available on DVD, because this is the only legal way to get them, isn’t it?
Buying TV shows sans commercials the next day from ABC only doesn’t interest me that much because I’m not that into ABC’s current programming. Now if/when we are talking FOX (The Simpsons) or NBC (Las Vegas), I could become more interested. Also, we can already PVR the shows on the main network in HD and watch them back that way, so where is the incentive?
Those without TV, those who want to transfer — legally — the videos unreleased on DVD to their new video iPods. Those who love ABC programming and want to take the next day’s show with them to work or play. Those who have more disposable income fit the Apple prime demographic.
There’s the target market, I guess. But then again, Apple has a long standing reputation, with a small few exceptions, of being more expensive.
I see why they went with $2 a video though because when the season comes out on DVD in a year or so, 24 or so episodes will sell for around $30-60 retail. I’m sure the movie studio arrogance is also at work here. If you take $2 x 24 = $48 USD, or right in the ballpark for that valuation.
No bonus content, unfortunately
Contrary to the DVD set, what is missing with these $2 videos is any sort of bonus material. If one version of the TV show could air on TV and the next morning’s version would show up in iTunes store with some bonus content then again my interest — and many others perhaps too — in possibly purchasing one would be increased. How tough would it have been to have gotten some extra content to pack in with each show? They managed to get commercial-free content from ABC. How about some outtakes, bloopers, director/actor commentary?
Overall, I’m not their target video customer anyway. I’ll just PVR or wait and buy the video and get the whole season, with all the extras and goodies. My wallet fetching can wait. Apple is betting on people like me not being their primary customer base, they want people who cannot wait and don’t mind the missing bonus features, I’m sure. People who must take their video powered iPod in public and watch last night’s TV show or listen/watch their favorite artists videos.
(affiliate) of the concert for $14.99 and the 
