Sony DRM

From the What Were They Thinking Department...

Sony Music created a major controversy when they put a new digital rights management (DRM) system from First 4 Internet Ltd  on some of their recent CDs.  This scheme borrows some ideas from the worm and virus writers by using a root kit to cover its tracks.  Not only does it prevent copying the CD to a computer's hard drive, but it also takes over several of the Windows APIs to hide any files or registry keys that start with “$sys$”.  Apparently its intended not just to make it difficult for customers to "rip" their CDs but also to prevent them from loading their music into iTunes and thus put pressure on Apple to open up their system.  It also opens up a huge security hole in Windows that would enable other troublemakers to hide malware on your computer.

Sony succumbed to the pressure and released a patch to remove it.  A thorough description can be found at Mark Russinovich's blog.

Until Microsoft sees fit to put the same "you are about to install potentially dangerious software" warning upon CD insertion that they put in their web browser, you should turn off auto-run on your CD driver.