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]

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.

didn't we know this?

[l2718]

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

Quit with the PR nonsense...

[Hamster Lover]

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.

Spyware != Rootkit

[SoapBox17]

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.

Re:Misleading Title

[ZachPruckowski]

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:didn't we know this?

[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?

music producer, or coder?

[Gothmolly]

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:oooh, data miner.

[TheRealMindChild]

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".

Re:A brontosaurus standing on its head.

[arkham6]

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.

I Used to Think that Rick Rubin "Got It"

[hondo77]

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.

Re:Won't affect anybody

[PeelBoy]

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

One of the best in the world.

Re:Won't affect anybody

[Technician]

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.

Re:didn't we know this?

[mpe]

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.

Re:Slashdot proves you're wrong.

[kripkenstein]

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.