It appears that the negative publicity surrounding this invasive DRM software, which employs methods more commonly used by virus writers, has driven Sony to offer a patch returning your computer to a non-crippled state.
Sony’s official statement is that there is no inherent security threat in an operating-system level redirecting of function calls to hide any file with the prefix $sys$.
I’m a level-headed chap, but that is an absurd assertion. Now any virus that puts $sys$ in front of its file-name has free OS level cloaking from Sony. It won’t show up anywhere, ever.
The patch from Sony doesn’t even remove the DRM, it just makes it so you can see it invading your privacy. Removing the DRM still disables your CD-ROM drives.
Sony, there’s a line drawn separating what you can do to people’s computers and what you can’t; a line between what’s annoying and what’s illegal. You’ve crossed it.
As of the time I viewed it, this entry was apparently posted “-1 years, 12 months ago”. How’s life on the other side of that spacetime singularity?
Apparently there’s a bug somewhere in this PHP code, perhaps I should call it a black hole. By the by, life in the future is swell, but I need 1.21 gigawatts for my flux capacitor. A note, don’t get too attached to Kelly Clarkson’s music. Or Bill Shatner’s
Everybody’s blogging this (me too) and we ALL should! Anything to get the word out there! And here’s another idea: boycott Sony!