just before we get to the video that you actually came here to watch let me tell you about a new
channel that i'm running called decoding the unknown it's a show where i take a long deep dive
into some of the world's biggest mysteries from what happened to the roanoke colonists
to the regular guy who found a listening device in his power strip it's absolutely terrifying
and it's always a bit of a wild ride you can find a link below i hope to see you over there
to echo the sentiment of 2006 nerdcore single download this song the rise of computers the
internet and mp3 technology made music a far more customer-centric medium and
boy do companies hate that enter sony and a rather misguided attempt to limit how consumers
consumed music via secretly installing malware on possibly even millions of customers computers so
what happened in 2005 sony bmg the joint venture of sony music entertainment and bertelsmann music
group released millions of cds containing hidden copy protection software roughly 2 million cds
contained a piece of software simply known as xcp which stood for extended copy protocol while
a further 20 million cds contained something known as mediamax cd3 while both pieces of software were
functionally similar mostly limiting a user's ability to copy or rip songs from a given cd
they did have some minor differences the key one being that while xcp would only function with
windows-based computers mediamax would work on both mac systems and windows ones another perhaps
more worrying difference between the two pieces of software was that mediamax would install hidden
software on a user's computer even if they refused to accept the prompted agreement that popped up
when the cd was inserted into their computer whereas xcp would simply eject the cd from the
disk tray if a user refused to accept a similar licensing agreement rendering the cd and music you
paid for unplayable unless you agreed to severely limit how you used it the early 2000s everybody if
this didn't seem backwards enough given that you know you paid for the ability to play the music
an important thing to note is that neither licensing agreement made mention of the fact that
the cd would install hidden background software onto your computer in fact it wasn't until a
computer security researcher called mark rosanovic was performing routine scans of his system
that someone discovered a rather curious piece of software that somehow got onto his system
after some digging raznovich discovered that the software had been developed by a british company
called first for internet who'd been hired by sony realizing that it bought a copy of the ironically
named get right with the man published by sony bmg rusinovich quickly put two and two together and
realized that the cd was the source of the root kit after pouring through the cd's files rasinovic
discovered that not only had the incredibly invasive software been installed onto his system
in hidden files that were virtually invisible to an ordinary user but they also couldn't actually
be uninstalled by normal memes on top of that racinovich also discovered that simply deleting
the files a step he noted that would be the first thing most ordinary users would do if they ever
actually realized they were there completely crashed his computer if all of this wasn't bad
enough the key concern racinovic had with the software rather than that it was invasive and
offensively anti-consumer is that it was to quote him poorly written leaving it hugely
open for abuse by malicious software to explain in simple terms the software basically made any
file with dollar sign sys dollar sign as the first characters in its name invisible to both users and
most antivirus software of the time meaning any virus or trojan could become totally undetectable
simply by using that string of characters as an example of how easily abusable this system was
shortly after the release of rasinovic's findings people playing world of warcraft started using
this to hide the fact they were cheating from a dedicated anti-cheating program called the warden
as you can imagine for a company that thought so little of its customers that it even considered
developing the software in the first place their official response when the software was discovered
was that they couldn't understand why people cared since most people don't even know what a
root kit is when the denizens of the internet as a whole let's just say did not respond well to this
laxadazeal and anti-consumer response they suddenly decided to release a program to uninstall
xcp from systems so all of this was fixed except the removal software didn't actually work in
a follow-up article racinovich explained that the uninstaller not only exposed users to more
potentially harmful software but that it actually didn't uninstall the software after all instead
it just decloaked it racinovich also found that the uninstaller would randomly make some computers
crash and that it installed another piece of software that constantly sent information about
your cd playing habits directly to sony obtaining the uninstaller was also a laughably farcical
affair that involved filling out a form that included the purchasing information for the cd
reading through at least three different emails which took you to several different websites which
required the installation of another piece of software just to view then to top it all
off sony put your email onto a bulk spam mailing list because well apparently why the hell not sony
also only made information about the installer available to the press and hid the link to it
in an faq on their website that wasn't advertised luckily for people who had mediamax installed on
their computers things were a little simpler and they could remove the software with a relatively
simple command prompt or by drawing a black line around the edge of the cd with a marker pen
prior to inserting it unsurprisingly consumer advocate groups were a little annoyed with sony
in a class action lawsuit was filed against the company in 2005 entitling users who bought the
cd to a free download or 7.50 sony also quietly recalled millions of cds loaded with the software
costing them millions in lost revenue the federal trade commission also slammed sony with a lawsuit
for engaging what they described as unfair and deceptive business practices entitling users to a
further 150 if they had any demonstratable damage caused to their computers by the software or an
attempt to remove it the ftc also placed a number of restrictions on sony forcing them to label
their products more clearly the media similarly raked sony across the coals with countless
articles being written about the fiasco causing severe amounts of negative press for the company
and ironically bringing mass public attention to the issues of intrusive copy protection as a final
slap in the face people pulling apart the software found that itself was technically in violation
of copyright because it failed to give proper attribution to the open source software that it
used however none of those affected felt secure enough in their position to pursue proper legal
recourse against sony of course sony's stock before and after the ordeal went up almost 20
so well we really bet the board learned their lesson on that one whatever the case
to close we think this not so subtle stab at sony by department of homeland security
employee stuart baker sums up everyone's thoughts quite succinctly it's very important to remember
that it's your intellectual property it's not your computer bonus fact speaking of sony and
copyrights mr rogers famously didn't mind that people recorded his show with a vcr arguing for
people's rights to do so in a 1979 case against sony corp of america and universal city studios
at the time it was being argued by the opposition that this constituted a copyright infringement mr
rogers was one of the few involved in television that did not believe so and felt people should
be allowed to record programs the supreme court ruled that mr rogers testimony was
a significant piece of evidence that helped lead them to their ultimate decision specifically mr
rogers stated some public stations as well as commercial stations program the neighborhood
at hours when some children cannot use it i've always felt that with the advent of all this
new technology that allows people to tape the neighborhood off the air and i'm speaking for
the neighborhood because that's what i produce that they then become much more active in the
programming of their family's television life very frankly i am opposed to people being
programmed by others my whole approach in broadcasting has always been you are an
important person just the way you are you can make healthy decisions maybe i'm going on too long but
i just feel that anything that allows a person to be more active in the control of his or her life
in a healthy way is important so i really hope you found this video interesting if you did
please do hit that thumbs up button below don't forget to subscribe and thank you for watching