Sony BMG Attacking Our Computers

Sony BMG has teamed up with First 4 Internet, a UK anti-piracy corporation, to put a rootkit on selected compact discs. The rootkit is commonly called XCP and could potentially destroy your computer.

A rootkit is a virus, spyware, or trojan that hides deep in the Window's operating system from antivirus programs and blockers.

Antivirus companies said the infection opens up to a "back door", which could be used to steal personal information, launch attacks on other computers, and send spam.

However, this rootkit only affects Window users. Mac and Linux users are safe.

The biggest complaint is that iPod users do not have any ways of transferring tracks from selected Sony discs to their iPod because Apple has not licensed its FairPlay Digital Rights Management (DRM) for use on copy-protected discs.

This has not stopped people from buying Sony albums, though. Neil Diamond is one of the reported computer discs with XCP and he was on Amazon's top twelve through November and December.

Sony has reported that copy-protection software is a "necessary speed bump" to limit the number of times a disc is copied. XCP only allows the original disc to be copied three times and none of the copies can be duplicated.

There currently are three lawsuits against Sony BMG because of XCP.

Los Angeles attorney Alan Himmelfarb wants to stop Sony from selling anymore CD's protected by XCP and is seeking damages for Californians that have bought any albums that are protected.

New York lawyer Scott Kamber is planning a class-action lawsuit for any Americans affected.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation gathering stories from the consumers that have been affected by XCP before they decide if it is "sufficiently serious enough to merit a lawsuit."

Sony has recently entered a settlement agreement in court. If the settlement is allowed Sony will award anyone who can prove that they have been effected by XCP with the choice of either $7.50 and a free album download or three free album downloads.

Sony BMG finally issued a patch that would allegedly save your computer from the rootkit. The patch received many complaints.

First, Sony asks for personal information and sends an e-mail that gives the Sony consumer a case number.

Then there is an inconvenient wait before they actually send you a patch.

One person complained to Sony saying that the patch deleted their CD drive off of their computer so they could never play any CD's on their computer, regardless of if they were Sony or not. The biggest complaint is that the patch made the rootkit visable under the name "MediaJam" and when you went to delete it a system error occurs making it impossible to delete.

The best thing you could do if yu believe your computer is infected is download a Rootkit Revealer. Various sites provide them for free and it is very rare that a Revealer does not pick up on a Rootkit.