Sony BMG DRM on Macs
p2p news / p2pnet: In a follow-up to the discovery that “Sony was playing a dirty trick on its customers, secretly installing a malware-style ‘root kit” on their computers via audio CDs,’ Apple user Darren Dittrich says Macs aren’t immune to Sony BMG DRM, either.
And guess who made the Apple Mac brand of Digital Restriction Management?
SunnComm which, like Sony BMG, is suffering from DRM backlash.
“I recently purchased Imogen Heap’s new CD (Speak for Yourself), an RCA Victor release, but with distribution credited to Sony/BMG,” says Dittrich on MacInTouch.
“Reading recent reports of a Sony rootkit, I decided to poke around. In addition to the standard volume for AIFF files, there’s a smaller extra partition for ‘enhanced’ content. I was surprised to find a ‘Start.app’ Mac application in addition to the expected Windows-related files. Running this app brings up a long legal agreement, clicking Continue prompts you for your username/password (uh-oh!), and then promptly exits. Digging around a bit, I find that Start.app actually installs 2 files: PhoenixNub1.kext and PhoenixNub12.kext.”
Dittrich says he’s not cool about anyone installing kernel extensions on his Mac but:
“In Sony’s defense, upon closer reading of the EULA, they essentially tell you that they will be installing software.
“Also, this is apparently not the same technology used in the recent Windows rootkits (made by XCP), but rather a DRM codebase developed by SunnComm, who promotes their Mac-aware DRM technology on their site.”
Definitely stay tuned.
(Thanks, Astrid)
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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win
- Mohandas Gandhi
Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local political representatives. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance.
See:-
DRM backlash – SunnComm spoof: reactions, November 11, 2005
MacInTouch – Playing a dirty trick, November 10, 2005
