I’ve been hearing a lot about the Sony Rootkit situation. Everyone’s been talking about it, so I won’t go into the details. CNet‘s Buzz Out Loud podcast mentioned Sony’s EULA and how it’s equally ridiculous. I guess Sony thought no one would read it so they’ll put whatever they want in there or to cover themselves in any situations.
Some of the “highlights” are that you can’t put the music on your work computer, when you leave the country, you can’t bring the music with you and if you go bankrupt, you give up rights to the music you bought. Here is BoingBoing‘s article on Sony’s EULA.
Here is some updates to what is happening with Sony’s Rootkit:
- Sony lied about its rootkit. They said it didn’t phone home with information about your deeds. It does. When they were caught in the lie, they said that they didn’t pay attention to the information it sent back, so it’s OK
- Lawsuits against Sony are already underway in Italy and the US (CA and NY so far, others will likely follow)
- Microsoft is building a Sony rootkit-remover into its anti-spyware product (They’re likely sue as well leading to a possibility of the two giants going head-to-head, even though they’re already doing so with the Xbox 360 and PS3)
- At least one piece of malicious software that exploits Sony’s rootkit has been discovered in the wild
