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Sony to Suspend Antipiracy CDs

Submitted by lworthington on 15 November, 2005 - 2:05pm. Movies & Music Blog

Sony to Suspend Antipiracy CDs - In the face of mounting criticism, Sony promises to stop making CDs with XCP antipiracy technology that can leave computers vulnerable to hackers. Security researchers have described Sony's technology as 'spyware.' [Movies & Music]

This article discusses Sony's recent attempt to curtail piracy of their products by including what amounts to spyware in their CDs. Though I don't suggest any cosmic intervention, I believe Sony certainly got what was coming to them when this technology backfired.

The software's antipiracy capabilities are described as such, "The antipiracy technology, which works only on Windows computers, prevents customers from making more than a few copies of the CD and prevents them from loading the CD's songs onto Apple Computer's popular iPod portable music players." The most significant problem with that functionality is the inability to load songs onto iPods. I was near incredulous when I read this. Today iPods consitute a vital part of most music consumption. For Sony to engineer its product in a way that says "You can't use your iPod," seems like marketing suicide.

In addition to preventing consumers from using music they have purchased, Sony's technology also opened a new avenue for hackers. Since the antipiracy software is designed to make certain files and functions 'invisible' on computers, hackers simply created their files in such a way as to be cloaked by Sony's software. Sony's software also behaves in a manner suspiciously equivalent to spyware, even without the machinations of outside hackers. The software is difficult to remove, entrenching itself in users' computers and transmits data from the host computer back to Sony. As long as antipiracy measures are mated to violations of privacy in this manner I don't believe they can be effective, technologically or legally. Sony recently agreed to suspend manufacture of CDs with this 'protection' in the face of its significant problems.

If Sony and other music companies are serious about curbing the spread of "illegal" music, they will have to find a way to do it without placing such a burden on end users.

-L. Worthington

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Of course!!!

Submitted by JamesonD on 15 November, 2005 - 2:45pm.

I’m not too certain why Sony would want to limit the connections of their own software and the hardware of top competing companies, but I do think it’s wrong. Not everyone wants a Sony mp3 player; believe it or not ipods aren't even the mp3 player choice for every person. You could call this a marketing strategy to try and cripple Apple, but that would be too blatant. Sony is only trying to maintain the integrity of copyright that is promised to the artists who sign up on their label. Quite Interestingly, Illegal cd use somehow seems to be Sony's number one priority these days. Sony is actually trying to put a code on every game for its new PS3 system where the game will only work on the first system the cd is inserted into. I believe in copyright, but Sony is definitely going to far trying to stop us from buying any new hardware, since it won't be compatible with older media. Shame on you Sony, I don't even like Alicia Keyes that much!!!

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