Company and Press Reports
NPR was one of the first to report on the scandal on November 4, 2005. Thomas Hesse, Sony BMG's Global Digital Business President, told reporter Neda Ulaby, "Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"
In November 7, 2005 article, vnunet.com summarised Russinovich's findings, and urged consumers to avoid buying Sony BMG music CDs for the time being. The following day, The Boston Globe classified the software as spyware and Computer Associates' eTrust Security Management unit VP Steve Curry confirmed that it communicates personal information from consumers' computers to Sony BMG (namely the CD being played and the user's IP address). The methods used by the software to avoid detection were likened to those used by data thieves.
The first virus which made use of Sony BMG's stealth technology to make malicious files invisible to both the user and anti-virus programs surfaced on November 10, 2005. One day later Yahoo! News announced that Sony BMG had suspended further distribution of the controversial technology.
According to ZDNet News: "The latest risk is from an uninstaller program distributed by SunnComm Technologies, a company that provides copy protection on other Sony BMG releases." The uninstall program obeys commands sent to it allowing others "to take control of PCs where the uninstaller has been used."
On November 8, 2005, Computer Associates decided to classify Sony BMG's software as "spyware" and provide tools for its removal. Speaking about Sony BMG suspending the use of XCP, independent researcher Mark Russinovich said, "This is a step they should have taken immediately."
On December 6, 2005, Sony BMG said that 5.7 million CDs spanning 27 titles were shipped with MediaMax 5 software. The company announced the availability of a new software patch to prevent a potential security breach in consumers' computers.
Sony BMG in Australia released a press release indicating that no Sony BMG titles manufactured in Australia have copy protection.
Read more about this topic: Sony BMG Copy Protection Rootkit Scandal
Famous quotes containing the words company, press and/or reports:
““Come, boys, I know there’s kindly hearts among so good a
crowd—
To be in such good company would make a deacon proud.”
—Hugh Antoine D’Arcy (1843–1925)
“An art whose limits depend on a moving image, mass audience, and industrial production is bound to differ from an art whose limits depend on language, a limited audience, and individual creation. In short, the filmed novel, in spite of certain resemblances, will inevitably become a different artistic entity from the novel on which it is based.”
—George Bluestone, U.S. educator, critic. “The Limits of the Novel and the Limits of the Film,” Novels Into Film, Johns Hopkins Press (1957)
“Journalism without a moral position is impossible. Every journalist is a moralist. It’s absolutely unavoidable. A journalist is someone who looks at the world and the way it works, someone who takes a close look at things every day and reports what she sees, someone who represents the world, the event, for others. She cannot do her work without judging what she sees.”
—Marguerite Duras (b. 1914)