From PC World:

The fallout continues over Sony BMG Music Entertainment’s controversial XCP copy protection software, with an Italian digital rights organization now taking the first step toward possible criminal charges in the matter. Separately, security vendor Computer Associates International said today it is now classifying Sony’s software as spyware and will begin searching for and removing XCP with its antispyware software, starting on November 12.
More info here and here. Find out how to disable Auto-Run on your PC here.

there was just seven sunflowers.

Birth of the Sun!

From CNET’s Molly Wood in this ‘DRM This!’ article:

But let me start at the beginning. On Monday, October 31, alert users discovered that Sony BMG is using copy-protected CDs to surreptitiously install its digital rights management technology onto PCs. You don’t have to be ripping the CD, either–just playing it from your CD-ROM drive triggers the installation. The software installs itself as a root kit, which is a set of tools commonly used to make certain files and processes undetectable, and they’re the favored tool of crackers who are, as Wikipedia puts it, attempting to “maintain access to a system for malicious purposes.” In fact, root kits are often classified alongside Trojan horses. And Mark Russinovich, who created a root-kit detection utility and was one of the first to blog about the Sony intrusion, discovered another little gem when he tried to remove the DRM drivers. It broke his computer–disabling his CD drive.

After a few days of back-straining and skin-peeling work, the plot is about done!

Ready for the Sun!