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J
jacob navia
TedF a écrit :
Apple. OK it *is* spyware.
Can anyone here tell me for sure that Windows Media Player
doesn't do the same?
It connects very quickly to Virgin Megastore, and some of
the ads it displays are very interesting... it is as if it
knew what music I like. Mmmmmm....
Can I be *certain* that WMP doesn't do the same?
Thanks
jacob
iTunes sends account and user data to the store of
Apple. OK it *is* spyware.
Can anyone here tell me for sure that Windows Media Player
doesn't do the same?
It connects very quickly to Virgin Megastore, and some of
the ads it displays are very interesting... it is as if it
knew what music I like. Mmmmmm....
Can I be *certain* that WMP doesn't do the same?
Thanks
jacob
M
Mike Gleason jr Couturier
My opinion is no. I tend to agree with comments
below the article
I don't like the new feature but it is not spyware
as far as i'm concerned...
Mike
below the article
I don't like the new feature but it is not spyware
as far as i'm concerned...
Mike
T
TedF
All trying to get piece of the pie.
We are the guinea pigs, many thanks to all, specially MS.
That is why I try to stay away from all the new bull$hit,
rather buy my own CDs and DVDs.
We are the guinea pigs, many thanks to all, specially MS.
That is why I try to stay away from all the new bull$hit,
rather buy my own CDs and DVDs.
T
TedF
We will soon see, if government officials and watchdog
groups after them.
groups after them.
J
Jud Hendrix
We will soon see, if government officials and watchdog
groups after them.
You can always try Quicktime Alternative:
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alternative.htm
jud
M
Mike Williams
That is why I try to stay away from all the new
bull$hit, rather buy my own CDs and DVDs.
Hope you didn't buy any Sony music CDs!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/01/sony_rootkit_drm/
Rootkits are one of the nastiest things ever devised, and they dig their
evil nails so deeply into your system that you cannot then believe anything
that your compuer tells you. Sony's particular rootkit seems to be
spectacularly nasty, apparently leaving you with a crippled machine that has
to be reformatted to get it working properly again if you discover it and
try to remove it!
Mike
K
Ken Halter
Mike Williams said:Hope you didn't buy any Sony music CDs!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/01/sony_rootkit_drm/
Rootkits are one of the nastiest things ever devised, and they dig their
evil nails so deeply into your system that you cannot then believe
anything that your compuer tells you. Sony's particular rootkit seems to
be spectacularly nasty, apparently leaving you with a crippled machine
that has to be reformatted to get it working properly again if you
discover it and try to remove it!
Mike
fwiw, here's a utility that'll scan your PC for rootkits and remove any it
finds. I ran it once and didn't find anything (I don't play music at work
and not often in my PC at home so I'm not surprised). Warning.... the
process is no where near "fast".. even on a 3.2ghz P4 (work) or AMD64 3000
or 3500 (home)... all with multiple gigs of ram.. Just let it run and do its
work.
Sysinternals Freeware - RootkitRevealer
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/RootkitRevealer.html
The Sysinternals home page has more info on rootkits and Sony.
M
Mike Williams
fwiw, here's a utility that'll scan your PC for rootkits and
remove any it finds. I ran it once and didn't find anything
(I don't play music at work and not often in my PC at
home so I'm not surprised).
Yep. I do know about various rootkit removal tools. I think the problem with
the specific Sony rootkit though is that removing it (either manually or
with an approperiate removal tool) does damage to your computer that can
only be fully repaired with a full reformat. That situation might have
changed by now (these things are changing all the time), but as far as I
know the problem still remains, even with a rootkit removal tool. I haven't
check the latest rootkit removal tool offerings, so things may have changed
by now in this respect.
By the way, regarding your comment that you don't play music on your PC,
rootkits are not specific to music CDs. A rootkit is the current "leading
edge techology" of the virus writers, and more and more of them will appear
as time goes on, so you'll have to be careful what programs and applications
you run (whether those programs came in a downlaod or from a web page or
from a CD that you insert into your machine). Tha really nasty thing about
the Sonty rootkit though is that unlike most other viruses (which often come
from "dodgy" sources) this particular Sony virus came from a previously well
respected company and it was secretly installed on your machine by means of
a legitimate music CD that you bought and paid the full price for in a
store. Thoroughly nasty! Okay, I know that Sony (at least in Europe) have
recently been forced by EEC legislation to stop selling CDs containing
rootkits, but I think they are still on sale in other parts of the world.
Mike
T
TedF
Thanks for the info.
Very little said about removing rootkit and fixing the computer.
The damage could not be more than Roxio 5.0 CD drivers,
which cripples the CD drive all together in WinXP.
into classic rock.
I rather have the rootkit than see a rapper pointing to
what is between his legs.
I do buy many DVDs though, wonder if they have a rootkit
for that.
Very little said about removing rootkit and fixing the computer.
The damage could not be more than Roxio 5.0 CD drivers,
which cripples the CD drive all together in WinXP.
The new music hardly turn me on, I am moreHope you didn't buy any Sony music CDs!
into classic rock.
I rather have the rootkit than see a rapper pointing to
what is between his legs.
I do buy many DVDs though, wonder if they have a rootkit
for that.
S
Saga
from "dodgy" sources) this particular Sony virus came from a
previously well respected company ...
<snipped>
Very nicely said! I liked that <g>
Regards!
Saga
M
Mike Williams
The new music hardly turn me on, I am more
into classic rock.
I rather have the rootkit than see a rapper pointing to
what is between his legs.
Yeah. I'm more into "the old stuff" myself (mind you, I would be at my
age!). I've gotta say that I'm not into "rock" though (if you mean what I
think you mean by rock). I like most of the old "sixties" stuff myself.
Mike
G
George Bashore
Mike
I read about the Sony rootkit.
I don't remember where I saw it but I did run the check on my computer for
it.
from run type in
cmd /k sc query $sys$aries
if message "The specified service does not exist as an installed service"
you are free of the rootkit from Sony.
George
I read about the Sony rootkit.
I don't remember where I saw it but I did run the check on my computer for
it.
from run type in
cmd /k sc query $sys$aries
if message "The specified service does not exist as an installed service"
you are free of the rootkit from Sony.
George
T
TedF
Classic Rock in the US refers to Rock and Roll in the 60s
70s, more early 70s.
Just went to the Rolling Stones concert in No 2005, and will see them
again in March.
70s, more early 70s.
Just went to the Rolling Stones concert in No 2005, and will see them
again in March.
D
DanS
<snipped>
Very nicely said! I liked that <g>
Regards!
Saga
FWIW, another (ahem) respected company, Symantec, got hit with complaints
that stemmed form their use of a rootkit in one of their products,
SystemWorks (don't know what version)....
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1910077,00.asp
But their reason for using it was to hide a program directory, so 'you
don't accidentally delete the program's files'.
The big fuss is over the fact that since their already was a rootkit
installed on the system, the virus/trojan/spyware/adware authors didn't
need to do anything more than have their package install into the already
hidden directory.
DanS
M
mayayana
I thought it was commonly accepted thatiTunes sends account and user data to the store of
Apple. OK it *is* spyware.
Can anyone here tell me for sure that Windows Media Player
doesn't do the same?
Media Player and RealPlayer were both
spyware. There was talk years ago that they
were reporting music choices online. You'll find all
sorts of info. if you search Google for "media
player privacy".
At the very least, if you're playing DRM media
then it's going to contact online to keep track of
permissions. And it's hard to imagine any
company in that situation passing up the data
mining potential in keeping a record of what you
play.
"Media Player Classic" is an open source Media
Player clone, which also has a QuickTime Alternative
plugin. (I just installed that the other day so I could
watch a Daily Show clip in QuickTime format.)
So there's no need to have either Microsoft's
or Apple's DRM software on your machine. As far
as I know MPC is a clean alternative that can play
pretty much anything. But I guess that in the case
of anyone buying DRMed music files, if you're
going to put up with the DRM then you'll have
to put up with their terms, their software, and their
intrusion. It's basically a rental system so there's
nothing to stop them from monitoring the service.
G
Gman
Quite right: when I last had Real Player One on my system - two or more
years ago, every time I opened a local mp3 or avi file my firewall would
invariably catch it trying to contact its dark masters.
I heartily second your recommendation of Media Player Classic - aside
from being spyware free (AFAIK) and being a one-stop-shop i.e. it can
play Real Media (rm etc.), QuickTime (mov) and MS (wmv/wma etc.) it's
also a very small application -- thus you're not starting up a
resource-hungry, slow-loading behemoth jukebox and playlist editor just
to play a 10" clip of a monkey sniffing its finger.
And I suspect it can play DVDs too - if you have the codecs installed.
years ago, every time I opened a local mp3 or avi file my firewall would
invariably catch it trying to contact its dark masters.
I heartily second your recommendation of Media Player Classic - aside
from being spyware free (AFAIK) and being a one-stop-shop i.e. it can
play Real Media (rm etc.), QuickTime (mov) and MS (wmv/wma etc.) it's
also a very small application -- thus you're not starting up a
resource-hungry, slow-loading behemoth jukebox and playlist editor just
to play a 10" clip of a monkey sniffing its finger.
And I suspect it can play DVDs too - if you have the codecs installed.
J
Jud Hendrix
At the very least, if you're playing DRM media
then it's going to contact online to keep track of
permissions. And it's hard to imagine any
company in that situation passing up the data
mining potential in keeping a record of what you
play.
So that means if you are playing from a system
which is not online (say your notebook while you
travel), you are basically doomed, and can not play
the music you paid for?
jud
M
Mike D Sutton
I heartily second your recommendation of Media Player Classic - aside
Yup, I use it for DVD playback, region unspecific too I think although it's been a while since I tried playing back a
region 1 DVD so this could have changed in newer versions. It certainly properly renders menus, allows switching
between angles/audio tracks etc.
Lovely little app although sometime a little temperamental (odd hangs when starting playback or switching monitors) but
perhaps that's only on multi-processor machines? Certainly a _lot_ better than all the competition put together:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/
(If you need a 7Zip extractor then you can find that here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/sevenzip/ )
Cheers,
Mike
- Microsoft Visual Basic MVP -
E-Mail: (e-mail address removed)
WWW: Http://EDais.mvps.org/
from being spyware free (AFAIK) and being a one-stop-shop i.e. it can
play Real Media (rm etc.), QuickTime (mov) and MS (wmv/wma etc.) it's
also a very small application -- thus you're not starting up a
resource-hungry, slow-loading behemoth jukebox and playlist editor just
to play a 10" clip of a monkey sniffing its finger.
And I suspect it can play DVDs too - if you have the codecs installed.
Yup, I use it for DVD playback, region unspecific too I think although it's been a while since I tried playing back a
region 1 DVD so this could have changed in newer versions. It certainly properly renders menus, allows switching
between angles/audio tracks etc.
Lovely little app although sometime a little temperamental (odd hangs when starting playback or switching monitors) but
perhaps that's only on multi-processor machines? Certainly a _lot_ better than all the competition put together:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/
(If you need a 7Zip extractor then you can find that here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/sevenzip/ )
Cheers,
Mike
- Microsoft Visual Basic MVP -
E-Mail: (e-mail address removed)
WWW: Http://EDais.mvps.org/
M
mayayana
At the very least, if you're playing DRM media
by choice), so I don't know much about the details.
Probably you'd need to confer with someone using
the same service.
My impression is that each DRM system varies,
but that most or all do online "license checks".
There's at least one service where you pay monthly
and all your songs stop working if you quit the
service. That must require a regular online
contact as well. On the other hand, it's my impression
that Apple allows a limited number of CD recordings.
I can't imagine how they keep track of that.
I'm actually very curious about what most music
fans are doing. Downloading "illegally" seems like
risky business for adults to be getting into, but if
it were me I can't imagine paying for a crippled
recording, at virtually no cost to the record company,
but at about the same price that it would cost buying
a CD. I'm amazed that people are paying $1 per
song for DRM music. I suppose the product in
that case is really convenience more than anything,
since people could easily copy each other's CDs
and record from the radio for free.
I don't generally listen to music (at least notSo that means if you are playing from a system
which is not online (say your notebook while you
travel), you are basically doomed, and can not play
the music you paid for?
by choice), so I don't know much about the details.
Probably you'd need to confer with someone using
the same service.
My impression is that each DRM system varies,
but that most or all do online "license checks".
There's at least one service where you pay monthly
and all your songs stop working if you quit the
service. That must require a regular online
contact as well. On the other hand, it's my impression
that Apple allows a limited number of CD recordings.
I can't imagine how they keep track of that.
I'm actually very curious about what most music
fans are doing. Downloading "illegally" seems like
risky business for adults to be getting into, but if
it were me I can't imagine paying for a crippled
recording, at virtually no cost to the record company,
but at about the same price that it would cost buying
a CD. I'm amazed that people are paying $1 per
song for DRM music. I suppose the product in
that case is really convenience more than anything,
since people could easily copy each other's CDs
and record from the radio for free.