An FPS Discussion

[nmaster64]

Originally Posted by Mormon

lol *agrees*

yeah im not a sony lover but i do greatly enjoy some of their exclusives, like gran turismo and ratchet and clank. i mean cmon, sony isn't THAT bad =P

see, see, your judging the products...I was speaking specifically on the company...

[Sepharite]

Its the inside that counts.

Your view of the company is worthless. Sure, they may be retard at times... nevermind, all the time. But they entertain me, which matters.

[nmaster64]

Originally Posted by Sepharite

Its the inside that counts.

Your view of the company is worthless. Sure, they may be retard at times... nevermind, all the time. But they entertain me, which matters.

Ah, but is it entertaining when they screw you? I generally don't find having rootkits on my computer and dealing w/ draconian return policies "fun".

That's why God invented piracy...

[Sepharite]

I guess I was lucky and haven't encountered those problems.

But they've solved those problems anyways (What's a rootkit, btw), everyone makes mistakes. Nintendo's was making the Gamecube. >_>

*edit: Ahem, yes... piracy. What's that? *stashes 200 DVD collection of burned games*

[ShadowMarth]

Basically it was sony installing spyware on your computer under the guise of copy protection. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[bignds]

For arguments sake, youre probably wrong.

[nmaster64]

I'd say that's about right...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_rootkit

[bignds]

Explain it to me in small digestable chunks.

[nmaster64]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_So...ection_scandal

Originally Posted by Steve Heckler, Sony Pictures Entertainment US senior VP (Aug 2000)

The industry will take whatever steps it needs to protect itself and protect its revenue streams...It will not lose that revenue stream, no matter what...Sony is going to take aggressive steps to stop this. We will develop technology that transcends the individual user. We will firewall Napster at source - we will block it at your cable company, we will block it at your phone company, we will block it at your [ISP]. We will firewall it at your PC...These strategies are being aggressively pursued because there is simply too much at stake.

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

On October 31, 2005, Mark Russinovich posted to his blog a detailed description and technical analysis of the characteristics of the software contained on Sony BMG music CDs. Called Sony, Rootkits and Digital Rights Management Gone Too Far, the article asserts vocally that the software is illegitimate and that digital rights management had "gone too far."

Russinovich stated that there were shortcomings in the software design that manifest themselves as security holes that can be exploited by malicious software such as worms or viruses. He also mentioned that the XCP software installed silently before the EULA appeared, that the EULA does not mention the XCP software, and that there was no uninstaller, all of which are illegal in various ways in various jurisdictions.


The article also asserts that the software runs in the background and consumes system resources, slowing down the user's computer, regardless of whether there is a protected CD playing or not.

Russinovich presented evidence that the software employs unsafe procedures to start/stop the rootkit, which could lead to system crashes (the famous BSoD) and that inexpert attempts to deinstall the software can lead to the Windows operating system failing to recognize existing drive(s). The Sony rootkit is designed to hide any files, registry keys and processes starting with the string $sys$, making it very easy for writers of worms and other malware to also hide their files by simply using the same name. Within weeks there were several trojans and worms taking advantage of this functionality in machines already compromised by the Sony rootkit.

That's the jist of it...