More Sony Root Kit Goodness
Nov. 22nd, 2005 01:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thewayneSo much crap, so little time to post. I wrote this for another board that I frequent, I'd meant to post this here also and just hadn't gotten around to doing it.
One of the stranger aspects of this case is that Sony commited a software license violation in using this root kit. Part of the root kit is based on software taken from an open source software project. This code is free for anyone to use, but if you modify the code at all, you have to post the modifications or you're in violation of the license. Sony did not post their changes.
The best part of this license violation, if I remember correctly, is that the code was written by DVD Jon, who is the (former) kid (now adult) from Finland or wherever who wrote the DVD cracking code DeCSS that made it possible for DVDs to be played on Linux machines and brought forth the first major law suits using the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) to hammer a magazine that had nothing to do with writing the code yet had the temerity to publish said code.
Another amazing things about this is that you agree to a EULA (End User License Agreement) when you install the player software that contains root kit, and the license has a provision that, in effect, says that if someone burgles your house you have to erase all the music from your hard drives. I think they're assuming that burglers break into your house for the sole purpose of booting your computers and copying all the music off of them.
One of the stranger aspects of this case is that Sony commited a software license violation in using this root kit. Part of the root kit is based on software taken from an open source software project. This code is free for anyone to use, but if you modify the code at all, you have to post the modifications or you're in violation of the license. Sony did not post their changes.
The best part of this license violation, if I remember correctly, is that the code was written by DVD Jon, who is the (former) kid (now adult) from Finland or wherever who wrote the DVD cracking code DeCSS that made it possible for DVDs to be played on Linux machines and brought forth the first major law suits using the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) to hammer a magazine that had nothing to do with writing the code yet had the temerity to publish said code.
Another amazing things about this is that you agree to a EULA (End User License Agreement) when you install the player software that contains root kit, and the license has a provision that, in effect, says that if someone burgles your house you have to erase all the music from your hard drives. I think they're assuming that burglers break into your house for the sole purpose of booting your computers and copying all the music off of them.
