Nickname: drmviolatesfairuse

Review: I've used Sony DVDrw burners simply because they were the first dual format burner available and liked it when I bought it, so I stuck with them. I know that this article states that this is a seperate division of Sony from their electronics division, but I still don't trust them to keep the firmware updates free of their DRM schemes. It just doesn't make sense to me anymore to buy a DVD burner from a company that creates digital content as well. They have too much of an interest in "protecting" that content and they have demonstrated that that is more important to them than their customers. I build high-end computers and home entertainment centers for my clients and I am no longer going to recomend any Sony products. If enough people boycot them perhaps they will find that treating their customers as criminals is not the way to change things. Heck they are the ones who bought the CDs!

Date reviewed: Dec 7, 2005 9:42 AM

Nickname: Steve Wildstrom

Review: My advisce is to avoid playing any DRM-rpotected audi ("Red Book") CD on a PC. Yes, that means you have to forgo the music and can't rip the songs. Be we have ample evidence by now that the do-it-yourself DRM systems that record companies are throwing on CDs are dishonest and in many cases dangerous.

Date reviewed: Dec 4, 2005 5:35 PM

Nickname: Manny

Review: I work for the IT dept at my company. A few days before the Sony spyware fiasco was discovered, I was putting Windows and Norton antivirus updates on the director's Sony Vaio laptop. A popup message from Sony Web site recommended me to update the DVD burner drivers. I downloaded and installed it. As soon as I rebooted the laptop, I couldn't get it to load WinXP Pro normally again. I tried to unistall the Sony patch and it messed up the windows registry. I talked to customer service at Sony and they couldn't help me so they recommended to use the restore DVD/CD to put the system back to factory settings. This made me sure that this update patch might have had the rootkit also. I am not sure if this is the case.

Date reviewed: Dec 1, 2005 1:05 AM

Nickname: ScubaCub

Review: Thanks for posting this info. I have reviewed the associated titles but havent seen other labels in association with Sony BMG listed. Case in point, Sarah McLachlan's Remix Album Titled "Bloom," under the ARISTA lable, which has a referance to www.sunncomm.com/support/sonybmg: README.HTML Should I be worried?

Date reviewed: Nov 30, 2005 12:41 AM

Nickname: baomike

Review: There are other problems also. to wit: http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20051121215116613 The MediaMax software, which is included on over 20 million Sony BMG CDs, has different, but similarly troubling problems. It installs on the users' computers even if they click "no" on the EULA. It also "phones home".

Date reviewed: Nov 29, 2005 4:08 PM

Nickname: Tom B

Review: If the virus companies like Symantec, etc., were competent, they would have proactively written a definition for this malware, instead of waiting for some dude poking around on his PC to find it a year after the fact.

Date reviewed: Nov 29, 2005 2:43 PM

Nickname: Eisenstein

Review: Don't forget the other DRM used by Sony-BMG, SunComm's MediaMax. Following further research, Princeton's Alex Halderman has discovered that this software is much more sinister than originally thought. Read the latest from Halderman here: http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=936

Date reviewed: Nov 29, 2005 1:49 PM