when you put a CD in to play it, a prospect that is both disturbing and scary at the same time.
If you thought the record companies were not evil enough, this should be yet another cold splash of water in your face.
According to Mark Russinovich of Sysinternals, he was testing out his new rootkit scanner when he found one on his machine. A detailed version of the hunt is here, and it is well worth the read.
The parts that worry me are that they are putting uninstallable software that could have serious adverse effects on your system without notice or consent. They are doing this in the name of protecting their content, but for some reason I seem to be the last person on earth who seems to think their tendrils should not extend to places where my rights lie.
This is a very serious thing, if it happens to hose your machine when you try to get rid of it, tough luck. It is undocumented, and can cause problems, as it did to Mark, when you try to free yourself of it, and there is no tech support available that I could find. Oh yeah, it doesn't go away when you take the CD out either, it is there for the duration.
To make matters worse, to play your songs, you simply drop your legally purchased CD in your legally purchased computer, and you are infected with DRM, no choice in the matter. Imagine if you happen to do something as criminal as taking your legally purchased CD to work, where it conflicts with a piece of software. Who is responsible for the cleanup costs?
With any luck, and I can't believe I am saying this, an ambulance chasing scumbag lawyer will take this up and sue Sony into the ground for stupidity on this level. There has to be some letter of the law that was violated as arrogantly as purchaser's rights are.
So, it has finally come down to this, you don't have a choice about DRM, your rights are removed and there is no recourse. All of this to protect the profit margins of Sony Corp, at your expense. If there was ever a good argument for piracy, to me, this is it. No, better yet people, just say no and don't buy this crap, it is the higher ground. µ
Mark Russinovich, of SysInternals.com, has discovered a so-called "" which is installed by Sony's new -protected music compact disks (CDs).  A rootkit is a common name for malicious software that is used by computer criminals to hide their presence on a compromised computer.  Rootkits frequently contain hidden files and are designed to be difficult for the user to detect and remove.

Russinovich classifies Sony's rootkit as  because it is alleged to introduce several serious security holes, one of which can be exploited to hide files and prevent the user from removing them.  In particular, all executable files which begin with '$sys$' are hidden when the software is installed.  He points out that these security holes could be exploited by hackers, or other malware producers besides Sony.

Russinovich explains that naively removing the files will result in a crippling of the operating system on the user's computer.  He provides an explanation of the difficult step required to remove Sony's malware.

Playing the same CDs on computers not running the Windows operating system, or on a non-computer based CD player remains safe.  As removing Sony's malware would violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's anti-circumvention provisions,  the CDs on computers running a non-Windows operating system may be the best legal and technically safe option for those who wish to listen to them under Windows.

The software is automatically installed when a Sony CD is played on a computer, and is not mentioned in their .  The rootkit has been commercially developed by  First 4 Internet and licensed to Sony.

Other rights management techniques used by music publishers recently include breaking the  compact disc standard format. This technique causes many CD players to not be able to play the new CDs, but also protects against casual ripping.  's recent album release in the United States uses such technology.