Another one in my "F**KING" series…
I read this article today on sysinternals about a rather extreme form of DRM on some of Sony’s latest CDs.
In case you couldn’t be arsed reading the article, Sony in their infinite wisdom require windows users to use a special media player to play their CDs in a windows box, in order to force the user to comply with this requirement they install (without permission or even telling you) a Root Kit that patches parts of your Windows installation to hide itself and prevent the CD driver in Windows from accessing the disc without using the "special" media player.
There is no way to uninstall this Root Kit without going to extraordinary lengths….
A related post I saw on digg the other talked about the fact that Sony is pissed with Apple for not allowing them to licence the FairPlay DRM that it uses in the iPod. Apparently one of the reasons they instigated their current DRM is to prevent windows users from being able to rip Sony CDs for use in iTunes and the iPod in the hopes that the masses of affected users will bombard Apple with demands to play nice with Sony.
So, you are basically being coerced into lobbying on behalf of Sony.
The amusing thing about this is that Mac owners can happily rip the same CDs into iTunes with no DRM problems.
