Sony CDs: Still Dangerous

Freedom to Tinker reports that Sony’s MediaMax DRM installs even if you tell it not to. Again, NEVER install software from a music CD, and MAKE SURE you’ve disabled autorun in you’re running Windows.

We note that folks not on Windows are much, much safer on this point — all these copy-protection schemes require the user to install (albeit unwittingly) software that prevents him or her from using the CD normally; in the absence of said software, there is no DRM. Neither Linux nor OS X have anything so wrongheaded as CD autorun (which even MS has moved away from, we understand), so even if such programs are developed, the user would have to deliberately install them. That’s why they’re frequently called innocuous things like “PlayCD.exe” — what user in their right mind would install it if it were named honestly? Flash hokum and screensavers be damned, there is nothing on a music CD you need to install.

Here’s how to disable autorun in Windows XP. If you’re not sure it’s off, CHECK NOW.

Comments are closed.