(From MSNBC.com/The Associated Press)
After a chorus of criticism, SONY CORPORATION'S music division said Wednesday it is distributing a free software patch to reveal hidden files that automatically installed to hard drives when some of its music CDs were played on personal computers.
The offending technology was designed to thwart music piracy.
SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT and its partner, UK-based FIRST 4 INTERNET, said they decided to offer the patch as a precaution, not because of any security vulnerability, which some critics had alleged.
"What we decided to do is take extra precautionary steps to allay any fears," said MATHEW GILLIAT-SMITH, FIRST 4 Internet's CEO. "There should be no concern here."
The controversy started Monday after WINDOWS expert MARK RUSSINOVICH posted a Web log report on how he found hidden files on his PC after playing a STEVE VAN ZANT CD. He also said it disabled his CD drive after he tried to manually remove it.
Russinovich made the discovery while running a program he had written for uncovering file-cloaking ROOTKITS. In this case, the SONY program hid the antipiracy software from view.
Similar technology also has been used by virus and worm writers to conceal their code.
Sony Music Issues Fix To Anti-Piracy Program
Scott O'Leary, thanks for the post.
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