Sony did agree to stop FOR NOW/ TEMPORARILY after two Class Action suits were filed, 1 in California and 1 in Italy.ragtopW wrote:I thought I saw a news blurb on the Plane from ATL that Sony
has stopped this.
Do as you choose, for now I am choosing to boycott Sony BMG. What they did was crimminal and they Know/knew it. They deserve to be punished. If anyone has any of their affected products and played them on their computer. Beware:
There is at least one Trojan out there exploiting the Sony BMG malware.
Note the patch/fix Sony BMG, originally released DOES NOT fix anything. It merely tells you how to find the rootkit/malware/spyware.
I have not heard if they changed that as of yet.
The following is from Kim Komando's newsletter. Note the problems people have had with SOny BMG's hidden surprise. Also take note of what Thomas Hesse President of Sony BMG digital division saying that people should not care about rootkits being installed on their computers because they do not understand them.
*************************************************************
Q. I read the story in your News of the Day newsletter about the Sony
copy-protection software. I own several Sony CDs and listen to them on
my computer. I'm not sure I understand what a rootkit is, but it sounds
bad. How worried should I be about this? - George in Pittsburgh,
listening on WPGB 104.7
A. This is big, big news. I will be discussing it on my weekly radio
show the weekend.
A lot has happened in the past week, so let me start by bringing
everyone up to speed. Last week, a security expert discovered that
copy-protection software on some Sony CDs installed a rootkit on
Windows computers. A rootkit is a particularly pernicious form of
malware capable of cloaking itself and its actions.
Rootkits burrow deep into Windows. They hide by intercepting calls
between the operating system and programs. They remove their file names
from the calls. Rootkits can also tell Windows to hide files and
programs. So they're difficult to detect.
Users who tried to remove the rootkit manually encountered a nasty
surprise. It rendered their CD drives inoperable. Users had to reformat
and reinstall Windows to fix the problem.
To add insult to injury, Thomas Hesse, president of Sony BMG's global
digital business division, was quoted on National Public Radio as
saying that people shouldn't care because they don't understand
rootkits.
Sony subsequently issued a patch it claims will uninstall the rootkit.
Unfortunately, many people have encountered problems with the patch. It
has caused lost data and computers to crash. Further, others have
complained that it is difficult to get the patch. The company also said
it would temporarily stop making disks with the rootkit.
Consumers in California have filed a lawsuit against Sony Music. They
are seeking to stop Sony from selling CDs that include the software.
They're also seeking compensation for damage caused to their computers
by the software.
On Thursday, a Trojan that takes advantage of the Sony rootkit started
appearing. A variation of the Breplibot Trojan installs the file
$sys$drv.exe. The Sony rootkit hides files whose system filename begins
with $sys$. Sony says it has distributed information to ant-virus
companies that will allow their products to attack malicious programs
using Sony's cloaking technology.
Nonetheless, I remain worried. If the rootkit is installed on a
computer, hackers may be able to use it to do anything. They know how
to exploit it.
Sony uses two different copy-protection programs on its CDs. Only one
installs the rootkit, and it is included on about 20 titles. The
Electronic Frontier Foundation has a list of the CDs on its site:
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004144.php
But I wouldn't take chances. Until we know more, I wouldn't play
Sony-produced CDs on my computer. The risk is just too great.
If your computer is infected, you can download a tool to disable the
rootkit. It is available from Sony and from First 4 Internet, the
company that developed the software. Their sites are, respectively:
http://cp.sonybmg.com/xcp/
http://updates.xcp-aurora.com/
Don't forget to listen to the show for updates of this story! And
please tell some of your friends and family members about our
newsletters and show. We've got a handy form on the Web site set up
just for that.
http://www.komando.com/newsletter.asp#friends
POW-MIA, YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN!!! 
I wonder if that was the Update E-Machines just had me do???