We are aware that a computer virus is circulating that may affect computers with XCP content protection software. The XCP software is included on a limited number of Sony BMG content protected titles. This potential problem has no effect on the use of these discs in conventional, non-computer-based, CD and DVD players.
Sony reports that over the past eight months it shipped more than 4.7 million CDs with the XCP copy protection. More than 2.1 million of those discs have been sold.
The content protection feature was created by British company First 4 Internet. When a listener puts the disc into a computer's CD drive, it displays a license agreement. If the listener accepts, it installs the copy protection rootkit onto the hard drive. A rootkit is a piece of software that takes control of a computer at a basic level. It establishes root access instead of traditional access that a regular user sees. The rootkit can prevent the user from being able to use certain functions of the CD. As a side effect, the rootkit allows certain computer viruses to take advantage of the access to infect a computer.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a list of CDs that it knows are affected by the XCP function. (This is not a complete list and Sony-BMG continues to refuse to make such a list available to consumers. Consumers can spot CDs with XCP by inspecting a CD closely, checking the left transparent spine on the front of the case for a label that says "CONTENT PROTECTED." The back of these CDs also mention XCP in fine print.)
Trey Anastasio, Shine (Columbia)
Celine Dion, On ne Change Pas (Epic)
Neil Diamond, 12 Songs (Columbia)
Our Lady Peace, Healthy in Paranoid Times (Columbia)
Chris Botti, To Love Again (Columbia)
Van Zant, Get Right with the Man (Columbia)
Switchfoot, Nothing is Sound (Columbia)
The Coral, The Invisible Invasion (Columbia)
Acceptance, Phantoms (Columbia)
Susie Suh, Susie Suh (Epic)
Amerie, Touch (Columbia)
Life of Agony, Broken Valley (Epic)
Horace Silver Quintet, Silver's Blue (Epic Legacy)
Gerry Mulligan, Jeru (Columbia Legacy)
Dexter Gordon, Manhattan Symphonie (Columbia Legacy)
The Bad Plus, Suspicious Activity (Columbia)
The Dead 60s, The Dead 60s (Epic)
Dion, The Essential Dion (Columbia Legacy)
Natasha Bedingfield, Unwritten (Epic)
(Sources: Radio, CNET, and The Electronic Frontier Foundation)
COMMENTARY: We all agree this is annoying and stupid on the part of Sony. When will this company learn that being so closely guarded hurts itself. Sony is too big, too broad and tries to protect too much. That’s the reason Sony isn’t leading the MP3 wave. It was too busy trying to protect it’s record label’s profits that it failed to enter the MP3 player market with anything customer usable. Perhaps Sony will fare better with Blu-ray. But if it loses out to HD-DVD, I hope the company has learned to jump on board and go with the new media.
3 comments:
Sony sucks.
If I can't import my audio cd to itunes, then I don't need to buy the music. I don't use cds any more in anything BUT a computer. Screw them.
If it came down to it, I'd buy Sirius or XM Radio before I started buying more than 3 or 4 cds a year. CDs just don't work for me.--at
I love CDs because, in a way, they are like books. The good ones contain a story in musical form. And that's worth something.
That said, it's rare for me to go out and buy CDs. Most of them aren't worth it. And I have so much music to listen to already.
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