Rick Rubin Discloses Sony Rootkit Called Home

caffeinemessiah writes "Rick Rubin, the legendary music producer, recently signed on as co-head of Columbia Records, which is owned by Sony BMG. In a recent New York Times interview (on pg. 4 of the online version), he discloses, possibly accidentally: 'It was the highest debut of Neil [Diamond]'s career, off to a great start. But Columbia — it was some kind of corporate thing — had put spyware on the CD. That kept people from copying it, but it also somehow recorded information about whoever bought the record...' Seems like the rootkit might have been a little more than your vanilla invade-your-rights-DRM scheme."

A simpler solution

[Michael Woodhams (112247)]

Maybe it didn't phone home, and Rick Rubin (a music producer, not a computer geek) just doesn't understand what the root kit did.

Slashdot proves you're wrong.

[Anonymous Coward]

No, he's correct. You're wrong.

http://games.slashdot.org/games/05/11/07/1221209.s html [slashdot.org]

Sony Rootkit Phones Home

strider44 writes "Mark from Sysinternals has digged a little deeper into the Sony DRM and discovered it Phones Home with an ID for the CD being listened to. XCP Support claims that "The player has a standard rotating banner that connects the user to additional content (e.g. provides a link to the artist web site). The player simply looks online to see if another banner is available for rotation. The communication is one-way in that a banner is simply retrieved from the server if available. No information is ever fed back or collected about the consumer or their activities."

Re:

[catbutt (469582)]

Well then how is he correct? Rubin said "it also somehow recorded information about whoever bought the record." and your quote says "No information is ever fed back or collected about the consumer or their activities."

BTW, i just read an article about Rubin (was it linked here yesterday?) that said he had never heard of Simon Cowell from American Idol up till last year or whatever. Now...not saying that Simon Cowell is anything great, but for a top record producer to have never heard of someone that f

Re:

[TheRealMindChild (743925)]

Uh dude... you think a webserver doesn't log what "banner" you downloaded? Is it that hard to conceive that maybe even a log scanner or even apache module is on the server side, using the "retrieval" to amass a database of what people are listening to?

Re:

[gweilo8888 (921799)]

You misread the comment. What you have quoted is the *claims* from Sony, but those claims were proven to be untrue.

Re:

[shaggy43 (21472)]

I had never heard of Simon Cowell before 'idol', nor had my father, and he's a gold-and-platinum-record-holding sound engineer and record producer *from England also*.

Just because you *might* have doesn't mean the industry has...

Re:Slashdot proves you're wrong.

[kripkenstein (913150)]

BTW, i just read an article about Rubin (was it linked here yesterday?) that said he had never heard of Simon Cowell from American Idol up till last year or whatever. Now...not saying that Simon Cowell is anything great, but for a top record producer to have never heard of someone that familiar to everyone else...that's just weird.

Rick Rubin not hearing about Simon Cowell is about the same as the chef de cuisine at a French restaurant not knowing what McDonald's is.

Re:

[Captain Splendid (673276)]

He's the Rick Rubin of the UK. Seriously.

BWAHAHAHAHA

Try [allmusic.com] again. [allmusic.com]

Re:A simpler solution

[Purity Of Essence (1007601)]

I don't know, he might know plenty about systems. RJR and RMS are practically twins. [google.com]

Re:A simpler solution

[jollyreaper (513215)]

Maybe it didn't phone home, and Rick Rubin (a music producer, not a computer geek) just doesn't understand what the root kit did.

Have you seen the way Rick Rubin looks? He could have easily fallen out of Richard Stallman's beard. When someone who looks like that tells me something, I listen. Or tell him I don't have any spare change; I guess it depends on what he says.

Re: Falling out of Richard Stallman's Beard?

[TaoPhoenix (980487)]

Should we tell Rob Manuel so he can update Name That Beard?

http://www2.b3ta.com/namethatbeard/ [b3ta.com]

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe, maybe not. One thing that I am certain of, however, is that RR is a dirtbag. Proof?

How about evidence instead? Besides simply being in the music industry. When the Black Crowes (formerly Mr. Crow's Garden) were making their debut album, the oh-so-clever NYC sophisticate RR kept insisting that they change their name to the Kobb Kounty Krowes, an unsubtle jab at Cobb county and the boys' southern heritage.

Yeah, so he'd make millions from the controversy of an Suthren [sic] artist with the initials 'KKK

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's the thing, RR has been involved in creating some of the most innovative and exciting music of the past 25 years. The Black Crows is basically a secondrate coverband.

Re:Clip of text from page 4

[Technician (215283)]

By the time Barnett first approached Rubin about coming to Columbia, Rubin had already decided that he would have nothing more to do with Columbia Records. This was because of the company's handling of the Rubin-produced Neil Diamond record "12 Songs" in 2005. Diamond was a hero of Rubin's, and he spent two years working on the album, persuading Diamond to record acoustically, something he hadn't done since the '60s.

"The CD debuted at No. 4," Rubin told me at Hugo's, still sounding upset. "It was the highes

Next sony rootkit debacle...

[Darundal (891860)]

...Bravias have rootkits! Honestly, at this point, I think non-rootkit news about sony would be front page worthy. At this point, it is just expected.

didn't we know this?

[l2718 (514756)]

The analysis of the trojan already showed that it phoned home. Of course the point of this was to gather data.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

And again, I must ask... why wasn't anyone ARRESTED for this? If an individual had created and distributed such a program, he would be imprisoned for years and the 6 o'clock news would run a half a dozen segments along the lines of "Special Report : OMG TEH HACKERS CAN STEAL YOUR HARD DRIVE!". Why doesn't anyone care when a corporation does it?

Re:didn't we know this?

[mpe (36238)]

And again, I must ask... why wasn't anyone ARRESTED for this? If an individual had created and distributed such a program, he would be imprisoned for years and the 6 o'clock news would run a half a dozen segments along the lines of "Special Report : OMG TEH HACKERS CAN STEAL YOUR HARD DRIVE!". Why doesn't anyone care when a corporation does it?

There is a distinct lack of prisons for "corporate people". Indeed the whole "corporations are people" meme just falls apart when it comes to criminal (as opposed to civil) law.
It also dosn't help when the concept of "limited liability", something which was only intended to be relevent to a bankrupt company, is instead treated as a shield for the activities of what amount to criminal gangs.

oooh, data miner.

[Spy der Mann (805235)]

I guess this is their "We can't afford watermarking all the CD's music, but we'll steal the buyer's identity instead" solution.

Re:oooh, data miner.

[TheRealMindChild (743925)]

Because if Joe Hacker did this, and it comes back to Joe Hacker, Joe Hacker is arrested. Now when they go to Sony, they'll be met with a wall of lawyers. When fingers start being pointed, you'll get "I wasn't the person who authorized/conceived said issue. And no, we can't tell you who did. Talk to our lawyers".

Dup

[astrosmash (3561)]

There's an interesting discussion on the same topic over here [slashdot.org].

Neil Diamond proposed this scheme decades ago

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, one, touching one, reaching out
Touching me, touching you...

Won't affect anybody

[sunderland56 (621843)]

The number of people who own a computer, are technically smart enough to listen to music on it, and who listen to Neil Diamond, is zero.

Re:Won't affect anybody

[Detritus (11846)]

Neil Diamond has more talent in his big toe than most of the artists that get airplay on American commercial radio. I'm not a fan of his style of music, but he is an excellent singer and songwriter.

Re:

[PeelBoy (34769)]

I agree. Neiel Diamond is one of the great American singer / Song Writers.

One of the best in the world.

Re:

[Technician (215283)]

The number of people who own a computer, are technically smart enough to listen to music on it, and who listen to Neil Diamond, is zero.

If that were true, than this whole rootkit discussion would be a non-issue as absolutely nobody would have even found the software at all. The technicaly smart people who listen to Neil Diamond is the ones who blew the cover of this DRM.

And yet

[obeythefist (719316)]

And yet Sony has walked away with less than a slap on the wrist.

Replace "Sony" with "Al Queda" or "North Korea" in the same story and see how it reads. Amusing, isn't it?

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Neil Diamond is working for the Koreans? That's not amusing at all. The terrorists have won.

Re:And yet

[Scrameustache (459504)]

And yet Sony has walked away with less than a slap on the wrist.

Replace "Sony" with "Al Queda" or "North Korea" in the same story and see how it reads. Amusing, isn't it?

Now now, don't be silly. Al Quaeda and NK are nowhere near as powerful as Sony ;-)

HOLY GOD!!!!!

[j00r0m4nc3r (959816)]

Now that Sony knows the true identities of all the Neil Diamond fans, they can now complete their deathstar and will be the ultimate power in the universe!

A brontosaurus standing on its head.

[yusing (216625)]

If they want him to "save the record business", the first thing they better do is lose the RIAA, and stop manufacturing that huge steaming pile of bad will.

The industry's refusal to get into digital sales online was criminally stupid. Everyone told them that, and they just dug in. They're a brontosaurus standing on its head.

We now know how they always worked; the truth is out there. You can feel it all over. If we ever did, we don't *need* them any more. We don't like them any more, and we don't like the homogenizing and genericizing of the sound. Artists need them for one thing only: marketing.Since they've been worse than useless for decades, they'll need a lot of re-org and a lot of giveaways and a lot of goodwill-mending to survive.

I don't think they can; I hope they can't. Good riddance. I haven't bought a new RIAA product in five years; I won't pay $20 for a record I bought 20 years ago either. Personally I'll smile every time one of them buys it. They had their chance, and they gave us the finger.

Re:A brontosaurus standing on its head.

[arkham6 (24514)]

Bad will? Bad will? What bad will. You walk into any music store and ask a random person buying CD's if they like or dislike the RIAA, they are going to look at you blankly.

Ask them what they think about the lawsuits being filed daily by the RIAA, and they will shrug and say "Yeah? So, i'm not getting sued, i don't care."

Ask them if they are upset that there is a rootkit in that CD they are holding, the would probably not understand the ramifications.

Face it, the American people care for their rights, up into the moment choosing between those rights and getting the newest, shiney toy.

Spyware != Rootkit

[SoapBox17 (1020345)]

This shouldn't be a hard concept here on slashdot, but the article is talking about some type of "spyware" that tracks people who own the CD. This is distinctly different from a rootkit.

This is the second time this story was on /. ...

[3seas (184403)]

It was only recently that I got a flamebait rating for being humorous and saying Rick Rubin is the music industry new messiah ...... so everyone bow down to him and buy what he says to buy.

He promoted to know all even before he reads the long running comments made by consumers....

So what's being done about this?

[Max Littlemore (1001285)]

Has anyone at Sony done gaol time yet? If not, why not?

music producer, or coder?

[Gothmolly (148874)]

So he's a music producer, but somehow knows about the inner workings of the rootkit, and he discloses something that NOBODY else figured out about the rootkit? Amazing.

Or, he's talking out of his ass.

Re:

[blackest_k (761565)]

I don't think you can reasonably expect Mr rubin or a reporter to have much of a clue about rootkits.

"it was some kind of corporate thing -- had put spyware on the CD. That kept people from copying it, but it also somehow recorded information about whoever bought the record. The spyware became public knowledge, and people freaked out. There were some lawsuits filed, and the CD was recalled by Columbia"

Is what he said as written in the article.

He's angry and bitter coz something was put on the CD that caused

I Used to Think that Rick Rubin "Got It"

[hondo77 (324058)]

Then I read this quote: ""You would subscribe to music...You'd pay, say, $19.95 a month, and the music will come anywhere you'd like. In this new world, there will be a virtual library that will be accessible from your car, from your cellphone, from your computer, from your television. Anywhere. The iPod will be obsolete, but there would be a Walkman-like device you could plug into speakers at home.

Yes, the iPod will be obsolete. Just ask Napster...or Yahoo...or Microsoft. Sigh.

I caught that as well

[tkrotchko (124118)]

I saw those same comments and I'm surprised nobody picked up on it.

The record companies have concluded the only way to do business is essentially through getting rid of music that you "own". All music will be streamed to you via industry approved devices and if you want it, you have to pay your $20/month. What a deal.... for the record companies.

This does two things... it guarantees them a stream of money for essentially doing nothing, and it locks small artists and labels out of the distribution channels

Re:root kit?

[Anonymous Coward]

Although somewhat difficult to understand at first, I find that as an allegory for DRM, your story works quite well.

Re:

[smitty_one_each (243267)]

Parent post brought to you by: http://www.info.ucl.ac.be/~pvr/decon.html [ucl.ac.be]

How to Deconstruct Almost Anything--My Postmodern Adventure
Chip Morningstar, Electric Communities

Re:

[ookabooka (731013)]

Yeah I've seen that type of first post before. . .ah, here it is [slashdot.org] After the first few words I realize I should just stop reading. . .but it's just so damn ridiculous I have to keep reading to see where the madness will end. . .like I said before, it's the literary form of goatse; curiosity is a curse.

Re:

[EagleEye101 (834633)]

well, at least he's creative........ right?.....

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[Shados (741919)]

Its Sony. Even corporate apologists don't think much of Sony.

Re:

[Gandalf_the_Beardy (894476)]

I have plenty to hide and not afraid to admit it.

When the corporate apologists manage to show that that is a situation that is dangerous then I'll take note. Until then I'll only listen to corporate apologists that live in a glass house and write all of the financial transactions on the walls with their credit card numbers and PIN's too.

Re:

[mwvdlee (775178)]

If you listen to Neil Diamond, you have something to hide.

Quit with the PR nonsense...

[Hamster Lover (558288)]

Home isn't a "game", per se, but a three dimensional environment where one, represented by an avatar, may interact with others, launch games, play movies and music, etc. on their PS3. It's essentially an interactive 3D replacement for the XMB (media cross bar), or rather, it's an adjunct to the XMB. No one is quite sure yet and Sony isn't saying.

Home could be the next great thing from Sony or it could be utter shit. Personally, I think it's shit. Why I would want to cruise around what is essentially a Second Life clone on my PS3 simply to launch a game or view a video? The XMB does that job just fine, thank you.

Re:Misleading Title

[ZachPruckowski (918562)]

For those of you who don't already know, Sony will shortly be releasing a virtual reality MMO called Home [wikipedia.org] for their PS3 console. Home is a revolutionary game that will turn the console world upside down with its innovative features. On top of that, Home is totally free for PS3 owners!!

Astroturf much? I mean, seriously, which idiot modded this up? No one with more than basic English skills would have been confused by that title (which is a surprising rarity for Slashdot) in the way you describe, and all you do is promote a PS3 feature in an anti-Sony article. Sorry if this is harsh, but "Home" is neither revolutionary nor innovative (although it is unique to consoles), and it is completely irrelevant to this story (at least until next month, when we find Sony using it to disable PS3s of people they don't like).

Re:Misleading Title

[shakestheclown (887041)]

sounds like multi player Microsoft Bob to me...

Re:

[PygmySurfer (442860)]

When I read the title, I thought the article was about Home being a rootkit. That is clearly not the case. I just wanted to clarify that.

That's what they want you to think...