Search Results
Your search for “rootkit sony” produced “27” results
—> Jon saved up a bunch of PepsiStuff points and decided to redeem them for an item PepsiStuff is promoting on its website. That's how these point redemption programs usually work, you see. PepsiStuff.com apparently thinks otherwise—they'll let you redeem the points for a COBY player (ha ha ha ha), but the Sony alarm clock is just redemption bait. You're not supposed to actually pick that. More »
—> Remember Sony's cringe-inducing copy protection scheme a couple of years ago, where they secretly installed rootkits on millions of customers' PCs and then pretended it was no big deal? ("Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?" — Thomas Hesse, Sony BMG's President of Global Digital Business.) There's a new article (PDF) about to be published in the Berkely Technology Law Journal called "The Magnificence of the Disaster: Reconstructiong the Sony BMG Rootkit Incident." It's a very detailed and entertaining read that examines the conditions that led Sony BMG "toward a strategy that in retrospect appears obviously and fundamentally misguided." More »
—>The EFF is encouraging consumers to write their Senators about a new "spyware" bill that has been, in their words, "massaged by by lobbyists for the software and adware industries." Cory Doctorow of BoingBoing says the bill
"makes it impossible for consumer rights groups to sue DRM companies for putting spyware in their DRM (like Sony did last year, with its rootkit DRM). The irony is that spyware is already illegal, so all that this act does is immunize big media companies that sneak spyware onto your computer."Spyware is spyware, we think, even if it comes with a Sony/BMG logo. More »
U.S. regulators said Tuesday Sony BMG Music Entertainment agreed to reimburse consumers up to $150 for damage to their computers for selling CDs with hidden anti-piracy software. More »
UPDATE: The 807 comments that were on the Dancing Petey video, after the jump. More »
Twenty-five years ago today, Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play. One year ago today in The Consumerist, uh, we didn't exist yet. BUT several months ago, we had some cool posts. To pluck your heartstrings, here's some sepia tinted Consumerist. More »
—>Greg over at Perfect Porridge is one of the guys who bought a rootkit-infected album from Sony BMG. He's one of the guys who qualifies for free replacement albums and a small cash settlement for the trouble he's gone through trying to get Sony's sneaky piece of malware off his computer. More »
—>Somehow this escaped our attention, but on May 23, the judge approved the settlement on the Sony rootkit debacle, you remember, the one where they installed crippling programs on your computer to prevent you from copying their precious cds? More »
—>A couple weeks ago, we repoted that Universal Pictures was intending on selling its embarrassing remake of King Kong over the Internet to customers for the low, low price of thirty five dollars. "Jeezum Crow!" was the only properly incredulous reaction to the announcement. The price was absolutely ghastly for what was being offered — basically, one huge mpeg with none of the extras, packaging or company-expenses of DVDs that sell for half the price. More »
Just in case you purchased a Sony CD "protected" by the rootkit DRM and want to claim your $7.50 worth of mp3s, SonySuit.com has all the available details on registering to take part. We're still particularly interested in the precedent being set here by Sony: they have gone on record stating that $7.50 is the price of two full albums of digital music. And a few mp3s to have your computer's security compromised still seems like a pretty crappy deal. But it's better than nothing and every person taking part in the class action suit is helping send a message to companies trying to implement similarly sleazy DRM schemes. So go check it out, if you've still got that Celine Dion receipt in your wallet. More »
—>Man, the Canadians are just the superstars of taking on the RIAA. First, they sued the pants off of Sony BMG for the root-kit fiasco. And now, Nettwerk, a Canadian music label representing artists like Avril Lavigne, Barenaked Ladies, Dido, Sarah McLachlan and a lot of other hot Canadian girls are paying the legal fees of one of those typical kids who's being sued by the RIAA for downloading a song off of Kazaa: More »
Another malware scammer bites the dust:
Starting in August 2004, Ancheta turned to a new, more lucrative method to profit from his botnets, prosecutors said. Working with a juvenile in Boca Raton, Fla., whom prosecutors identified by his Internet nickname "SoBe," Ancheta infected more than 400,000 computers. More »
Our Northern Brethren are getting in on the act of suing the pants off of Sony BMG for their "DRM" rootkits: More »
