4 ms·

I might be remembering the situation wrong, but I think you’re mistaken. Sony made music discs that would fuck your computer up and install software without you

I might be remembering the situation wrong, but I think you’re mistaken. Sony made music discs that would fuck your computer up and install software without you knowing or consent. Also in the early days cd drives were wired up to the sound card. But I feel that went away later on with SATA drives and dvd drives. I must say I haven’t see a laptop with a disc drive that worked as you suggest.

PhasmaFelis 3y ago
> Sony made music discs that would fuck your computer up and install software without you knowing or consent. Yes, that is what we are talking about. OP claimed that the Sony malware was "just a part of the software you installed for playing the CDs." I'm pointing out that there was no such legitimate software, and the malware was just malware.
- charcircuit 3y ago
  The wikipedia page even has a picture of the software I'm referring to. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_roo...
  - themoonisachees 3y ago
    The software in the screenshot actually has nothing to do with their rootkit and was not present on the CDs in question. More: this wikipedia article you're using to try to validate your claims that it wasn't a rootkit says it's a rootkit in the first paragraph. It also says the software would install itself even when the EULA was refused, while you claim the opposite. My only question is why are you so vehemently defending Sony's actions? Do you somehow believe that it is a company's right to fuck over your devices security in an attempt at selling more licenses to infinitely-reproducible content? My guess is that you have something to gain from the public perception shifting to "actually this is fine" but i can't put my finger on what.
    - charcircuit 3y ago
      >The software in the screenshot actually has nothing to do with their rootkit and was not present on the CDs in question. It was present on the CDs as its the way you very supposed to use the CDs. >this wikipedia article you're using to try to validate your claims that it wasn't a rootkit I was using just the image on there to show you that there was a whole software package that was included with the CD. It wasn't just DRM, but also a media player and a disc burner. Wikipedia is just copying media propagania of the subject. That's how the site works. >It also says the software would install itself even when the EULA was refused, while you claim the opposite. The article is confusing there because it's talking about a different DRM solution than XCP. The article is claiming a different DRM solution was doing that. >My only question is why are you so vehemently defending Sony's actions? I am not defending Sony. I am just not going to join in with made up outrage of malware when there was no malicious intent. >Do you somehow believe that it is a company's right to fuck over your devices security in an attempt at selling more licenses to infinitely-reproducible content? Insecure software with elevated priviledges is not something unique to this situation and it still is happening to this day. This is an industry wide problem. Thankfully in these times we have proper DRM that is built into silicon and the operating system so that companies don't reinvent something worse and buggy.
      - PhasmaFelis 3y ago
        > It was present on the CDs as its the way you very supposed to use the CDs. I'm getting the impression that you don't understand how CDs worked. You're acting like it was perfectly normal and expected for music CDs to include an installer for a CD player app. But it wasn't; essentially any computer that had a CD-ROM drive had the ability to play music CDs with no software installation needed, the same as any computer with a floppy drive had the ability to load files from disk. Yes, some CDs shipped with branded player software anyway; this was all useless advertising shovelware even when it didn't also contain harmful rootkits.
        charcircuit 3y ago
        I am not talking about normal CDs. This whole comment chain has been about the CDs Sony sold with the XCP copy protection they licensed.
MayeulC 3y ago
In the early 2000s, it was quite common for 5.25" CD drives to have a 3.5mm audio jack port on the front, to play music independently of the computer. I can't remember ever making use of that feature.
- monocasa 3y ago
  They internally connected to the sound card with another line level connection rather than over the IDE cable. That cable looked like this: https://www.startech.com/en-us/cables/cdaudio2 https://www.startech.com/en-us/cables/cdaudio2

PhasmaFelis 3y ago

> Sony made music discs that would fuck your computer up and install software without you knowing or consent. Yes, that is what we are talking about. OP claimed that the Sony malware was "just a part of the software you installed for playing the CDs." I'm pointing out that there was no such legitimate software, and the malware was just malware.

charcircuit 3y ago
The wikipedia page even has a picture of the software I'm referring to. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_roo...
- themoonisachees 3y ago
  The software in the screenshot actually has nothing to do with their rootkit and was not present on the CDs in question. More: this wikipedia article you're using to try to validate your claims that it wasn't a rootkit says it's a rootkit in the first paragraph. It also says the software would install itself even when the EULA was refused, while you claim the opposite. My only question is why are you so vehemently defending Sony's actions? Do you somehow believe that it is a company's right to fuck over your devices security in an attempt at selling more licenses to infinitely-reproducible content? My guess is that you have something to gain from the public perception shifting to "actually this is fine" but i can't put my finger on what.
  - charcircuit 3y ago
    >The software in the screenshot actually has nothing to do with their rootkit and was not present on the CDs in question. It was present on the CDs as its the way you very supposed to use the CDs. >this wikipedia article you're using to try to validate your claims that it wasn't a rootkit I was using just the image on there to show you that there was a whole software package that was included with the CD. It wasn't just DRM, but also a media player and a disc burner. Wikipedia is just copying media propagania of the subject. That's how the site works. >It also says the software would install itself even when the EULA was refused, while you claim the opposite. The article is confusing there because it's talking about a different DRM solution than XCP. The article is claiming a different DRM solution was doing that. >My only question is why are you so vehemently defending Sony's actions? I am not defending Sony. I am just not going to join in with made up outrage of malware when there was no malicious intent. >Do you somehow believe that it is a company's right to fuck over your devices security in an attempt at selling more licenses to infinitely-reproducible content? Insecure software with elevated priviledges is not something unique to this situation and it still is happening to this day. This is an industry wide problem. Thankfully in these times we have proper DRM that is built into silicon and the operating system so that companies don't reinvent something worse and buggy.
    - PhasmaFelis 3y ago
      > It was present on the CDs as its the way you very supposed to use the CDs. I'm getting the impression that you don't understand how CDs worked. You're acting like it was perfectly normal and expected for music CDs to include an installer for a CD player app. But it wasn't; essentially any computer that had a CD-ROM drive had the ability to play music CDs with no software installation needed, the same as any computer with a floppy drive had the ability to load files from disk. Yes, some CDs shipped with branded player software anyway; this was all useless advertising shovelware even when it didn't also contain harmful rootkits.
      - charcircuit 3y ago
        I am not talking about normal CDs. This whole comment chain has been about the CDs Sony sold with the XCP copy protection they licensed.

MayeulC 3y ago

In the early 2000s, it was quite common for 5.25" CD drives to have a 3.5mm audio jack port on the front, to play music independently of the computer. I can't remember ever making use of that feature.

monocasa 3y ago
They internally connected to the sound card with another line level connection rather than over the IDE cable. That cable looked like this: https://www.startech.com/en-us/cables/cdaudio2 https://www.startech.com/en-us/cables/cdaudio2