Robert J Turner

Well, Google maps have updated satalite photo’s of Downtown Victoria BC which is great, I saw where I used to live, where I work etc but was a little upset to see that my new house location is too far into the boonies by about 500 yards not to make it on the detailed map.

Sony’s CD rootkit infringes DVD Jon’s copyright
How did that happen?
By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco
Published Friday 18th November 2005 09:16 GMT
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Sony’s rootkit-style DRM software, XCP, designed to prevent copyright infringement, looks like it’s breaching the terms of a copyright agreement itself.

In fact it contains code written by the Motion Picture Ass. of America’s villain of the week for several years running, ‘DVD Jon’ Johansen, who was dragged through the Norwegian courts by the MPAA using a very dubious extension of US law, for circumventing the DRM on DVDs. Johansen eventually prevailed in having the spurious charges against him thrown out.

The irony of a company using code from someone who circumvented DRM to develop an even nastier form of DRM - without even saying “Thanks!” - will surely feature in geek trivia quizzes for years to come.

The British company that developed the DRM software for Sony, First4Internet Ltd, has included free software code covered by the Free Software Foundation’s LGPL, a cousin of the GPL, amateur sleuths have discovered.

The LGPL, or Lesser General Public License, was designed to protect author’s rights for chunks of code rather than finished programs.

It’s a complicated area, with subtle distinctions between rights over code that is compiled into, and distributed as part of the final binary program, or code that is only called at as the program is executed. But it is pretty clear cut that First4Internet has used code without observing the terms under which it’s distributed - terms backed up by the power of copyright (one of our greatest inventions).

And we all know what happens to people who don’t respect copyright.

Sebastian Porst discovered code from the LAME project, mpglib and VideoLAN in the XCP copy restriction, which has caused Sony so much grief. Jon Johansen is a contributor to the VideoLAN project.

“I just want to mention that the function that can be found at virtual offset 0×10089E00 in ECDPlayerControl.ocx is the function DoShuffle from a GPL-ed file called drms.c written by Jon Lech Johansen and Sam Hocevar (Google for it),” notes Sebastian.

A parallel, and even more exhaustive forensic examination of the XCP code was undertaken by ‘Muzzy’ - who published his findings here.

So why is First4Internet in such trouble? If you use LGPL code, the licence requires that you acknowledge the provenance of the code you’re using - with a clear notification and an assurance that you can provide your own source code on request. It’s designed to deter lazy programmers such as… well… the kind employed by First4Internet Ltd.

FSF attorney Eben Moglen told us this evening he couldn’t offer a statement on what the organization planned to do next. ®

Sony Discloses List of Rootkit CDs
By Nate Mook, BetaNews
November 18, 2005, 11:29 AM

The initial count of 20 CDs that bundled Sony BMG’s now infamous XCP copy-protection software has grown. The label has issued a list detailing 52 CDs dating back to early 2005 that include the controversial rootkit.

2.1 million copies of the discs made their way to consumers and, according to security expert Dan Kaminsky who analyzed DNS requests for Sony’s update servers used by the DRM software, they have infected more than 500,000 different PCs. Another 2.4 million CDs were being pulled from store shelves.

“We will shortly be releasing new versions of these titles without the XCP software. You therefore need to check this list for both the name of the album and the item number (which can be found on the spine of the CD),” Sony says regarding the new list.

Since its discovery in late October, news of the rootkit has spiraled out of control, with consumers and artists alike angry at the revelation. In an apology issued earlier this week, Sony said it “deeply regrets any inconvenience to our customers.”

But that hasn’t stopped lawsuits stemming from consumers’ outrage, nor accusations of collusion between security companies and Sony. No antivirus vendor has so far removed the copy-protection software itself, only the rootkit cloaking mechanism.

Questions regarding the security of Windows have also been raised in the aftermath. Jupiter Research senior analyst Joe Wilcox wonders why the problem went undetected for 7 months, even with Sony’s XCP software phoning home.

“My conclusion: Windows security isn’t enough, and the problem isn’t some inherent weakness in the operating system,” says Wilcox. “Here we see the failure of many different security products — whether their ability to detect or customers’ correct use of the software — to uproot a rootkit many months in distribution.”

There is, however, one silver lining in this whole mess: customers who purchased Ricky Martin’s comeback CD “Life” or The O.C. dad Peter Gallagher’s “7 Days in Memphis” were not exposed to the rootkit, despite the albums being marked as such.

Some interesting comments by BetaNews users follows:

By PC_Tool

edited Nov 18, 2005 - 2:18 PM

And the saga continues…

I really don’t think Sony knew about the copyright violations they themselves were committing, but F4I, sure as hell did.

F4I needs to be shut down. All assets frozen until a complete investigation can be made, hopefully forever ruining the financial stability of the owner(s).

SonyBMG needs to be fined heavily, and should not only re-imburse every customer, but should also be forced to either donate that same amount to charity, or to a consumer rights organization.

I will not purchase form Sony until these things, or something VERY simillar is done.

I would hope, beyond reason, of course, that SonyBMG might actually offer to do some of these things without being ordered by a court.

Yeah, that’s bloody likely.

(This does not include various civil suits that should be/are being brought against them by consumers and those who’s copyrights they violated)
Score: 0
By wincement

So Sony has been put on the hot seat as of late because they were found to be deceptively installing malicious software on user’s computer. Basically, when a new Sony-BMG audio CD is inserted into your computer, software is automatically installed which prevents you from copying the CD and sharing it with the world. Not that unreasonable, and shouldn’t be too much of a problem (Apple iTunes is a good example). Except in this case the software that gets installed takes on characteristics of a malicious rootkit virus. And if you want to hear the music on your computer, there’s no way for you to say you don’t want the software installed. And there’s no easy way for you to remove it once installed.

This is no joke, businesses are considering this to be a very serious security threat, and even the Bush Administration gave them a stern talking to. There’s also at least 3 class action lawsuits being filed against Sony for this. Given these developments, I wouldn’t be surprised if businesses started to enforce a blanket “Do Not Bring Any Music CD to Work” policy, especially if your business fits the profile of certain 3 letter government agencies. Not surprisingly, viruses are now starting to appear which takes advantage of this breach in security caused by Sony, and Microsoft recently responded by updating their own anti-spyware software to detect and remove Sony’s rootkit.

Their hardware is superb, but when it comes to digital media, Sony just doesn’t get it. Case in point, Sony’s portable “MP3 players” could not actually play MP3s until about a year ago. Now their newest Walkmans (which can play MP3s) are being touted as the next iPod killer. Here’s a hint, if you have to say your new widget is the next “whatever killer”, it probably isn’t. While highly unlikely, there’s now rumors swirling around that the Playstation 3 will contain technology which would prevent a game disc from being played on more than one PS3 console. Say goodbye to rentals, used sales, or even lending the disc to a friend to try. And don’t think this would be just limited to video games, these kind of restrictions may eventually creep into the next generation DVDs and music CDs.

Sigh, this is kind of stuff that happens when you start treating your customers like criminals. I try to get all my CDs and DVDs legally, since my tiny purchase is kind of like a vote of confidence that tells whoever produced the CD or DVD that I just bought that they should continue their efforts of producing good stuff. This is especially true for musicians, since a significant portion of their income comes from CD sales. But it is truly a sad state of affairs when it is actually safer to download a music album illegally than it is to buy a legal copy from a store.

Picard: Sigma Indri, that’s the star,
So, Data, please, how far? How far?

Data: Our ship can get there very fast
But still the trip will last and last
We’ll have two days til we arrive
But can the Indrans there survive?

Picard: LaForge, please give us factor nine.

LaForge: But, sir, the engines are offline!

Picard: Offline! But why? I want to go!
Please make it so, please make it so!

Riker: But sir, if Geordi says we can’t,
We can’t, we mustn’t, and we shan’t
The danger here is far too great!

Picard: But surely we must not be late!

Troi: I’m sensing anger and great ire.

Computer: Alert! Alert! The ship’s on fire!

Picard: The ship’s on fire? How could this be?
Who lit the fire?

Riker: Not me.

Worf: Not me.

Picard: Computer, how long til we die?

Computer: Eight minutes left to say goodbye.

Data: May I suggest a course to take?
We could, I think, quite safely make
Extinguishers from tractor beams
And stop the fire, or so it seems…

Geordi: Hurray! Hurray! You’ve saved the day!
Again I say, Hurray! Hurray!

Picard: Mr. Data, thank you much.
You’ve saved our lives, our ship, and such.

Troi: We still must save the Indran planet –

Data: Which (by the way) is made of granite…

Picard: Enough, you android. Please desist.
We understand — we get your gist.
But can we get our ship to go?
Please, make it so, PLEASE make it so.

Geordi: There’s sabotage among the wires
And that’s what started all the fires.

Riker: We have a saboteur? Oh, no!
We need to go! We need to go!

Troi: We must seek out the traitor spy
And lock him up and ask him why.

Worf: Ask him why? How sentimental.
I say we give him problems dental.

Troi: Are any Romulan ships around?
Have scanners said that they’ve been found?
Or is it Borg or some new threat
We haven’t even heard of yet?
I sense no malice in this crew.
Now what are we supposed to do?

Crusher: Captain, please, the Indrans need us.
They cry out, “Help us, clothe us, feed us!”
I can’t just sit and let them die!
A doctor MUST attempt — MUST try!

Picard: Doctor, please, we’ll get there soon.

Crusher: They may be dead by Tuesday noon.

*COMMERCIAL BREAK, COMMERCIAL BREAK
HOW LONG WILL THESE DUMB ADS TAKE?*

Worf: The saboteur is in the brig.
He’s very strong and very big.
I had my phaser set on stun –
A zzzip! A zzzap! Another one!
He would not budge, he would not fall,
He would not stun, no, not at all!
He changed into a stranger form
All soft and purple, round and warm.

Picard: Did you see this, Mr. Worf?
Did you see this creature morph?

Worf: I did and then I beat him fairly.
Hit him on the jaw — quite squarely.

Riker: My commendations, Klingon friend!
Our troubles now are at an end!

Crusher: Now let’s get our ship to fly
And orbit yonder Indran sky!

Picard: LaForge, please tell me we can go…?

Geordi: Yes, sir, we can.

Picard: Then make it so!

Ive noticed that cars with Alberta plates in Victoria are quite reckless, get this, I was on the bus today comming into work and this Honda Element, Green, Alberta Plates is going about 60k along side the bus, I was watching her and she had no hands on the wheel and was stirring a pot of yoghurt and watching the spoon and not the road, the car in front began to break and I saw a shocked look on this young girls face as she had to break hard…almost dropping her yoghurt.

All these dont drink and drive ads, we should run ads:

Dont Shave and drive!
Dont have sex and drive!
Dont Eat and drive!
Dont do anything else except drive!!

Watching her the other side of the glass window on the bus gave me a sick feeling in my stomach at I could of been in an accident because she hadnt had time to catch breakfast!

The house reno’s continue, need to put some photo’s here-in so everyone can see the ongoing mission to make a basement suite that the Mother-in-law will love, no east mission I can tell you.

I will get a picture of the house and some of the basement pictures and maybe even a walk around movie clip of the house so people can see our new place.

Life currently is very full, always something to do, somewhere to go, something to see, fix, design, negotiate, lift up, put down, move, write to, read, talk about, hear from etc…. its really a contant state of motion at present and my mind keeps on going, I do one thing, I put it to rest, sometimes not for good as things come back again, and I say to myself whats next and continue.

This is beginning to take its toll on me physically and somewhat mentally but not to the point where I dont like it or I cant handle it, you have to just keep going and make the best of each experience be it good bad or indifferent. Now some people dont handle this so well, the more they have to do the more it gets bundled up in a big lump of worry and stress and the more they get tied up in the emotions of it all that they get self absorbed, now if my wife read this she may well think I am talking about her and to a degree I am but also others I know.

The way I see it is in my current point in life I am so blessed, I have a loving wife, I have great pets, I have a nice home, I have good people around me, I work with good people helping other people and everything is good in my life and for this I am very thankful to be blessed in this way, providing I take stock in this fashion then life is always going to be good for me.

Why am I an optimist like this, well I have been through the whole growing process of not knowing who I am, being uncomfortable with myself even to the point of hating who I was, being depressed and utterly miserable to the point that I realised I needed to change and I needed to surround myself with good people and go good things in my life.

Onward and upward, keep going and findng solutions.

Rob Turner