From the people who brought you Betamax, the Mini-Disc and Blu-ray (the erstwhile successor to the DVD format), now comes a more dubious innovation – copy protection software that leaves your computer at risk.
Exploiting a feature of Windows called “rootkit,” Sony Music Corporation has been surreptitiously installing software on PC users’ computers when music is played from certain compact discs. The software was supposed to prevent people from making too many copies of the same CD, as well as prevent people from copying the music to anything other than Microsoft’s proprietary format (sorry, iPod users, no Sony music for you).
But by installing software without asking users, Sony’s “rootkit” exploit was inviting disaster. This past weekend the first trojan horses (viruses) have surfaced that piggyback on Sony’s secretive software to potentially gain control of an affected user’s computer. Sony has since been forced to halt production of its copy-protected CDs and has offered a fix on its Web site.
Instead of going out their way to punish legal purchasers of music on CD, companies should focus on providing quality offerings that make buying music worthwhile – online and off.