RE: babel-digest V10 #255

["Steve Jackson" <sjackson>]

I hope everyone who managed to get a ticket has a great time at the show at
the Crocodile in Seattle tonight. I could not get a ticket. Wah fuckin Wah.
Ok hope to hear some tapes of the show soon!

Steve Jackson

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-babel-digest
[mailto:owner-babel-digest]
Sent: Friday, November 11, 2005 2:00 AM
To: babel-digest
Subject: babel-digest V10 #255



babel-digest         Friday, November 11 2005         Volume 10 : Number 255



In this issue:

        Patti on the late late show
        Patti Smith's Birthday Party
        Re: Patti Smith's Birthday Party
        Sony rootkit sparks legal onslaught
        [none]

See the end of the digest for information on subscribing to the babel-list
or babel-digest mailing lists and on how to retrieve back issues.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Thu, 10 Nov 2005 07:41:14 -0500 (GMT-05:00)
From: schanke
Subject: Patti on the late late show

here's a link to get tickets to be in the tv audience. i was able to get
tickets as of 7:40am 11/10/05.

http://www.ocatv.com/latelate/

------------------------------

Date: 10 Nov 2005 23:34 GMT
From: "Birgit Mahner" <BMahner>
Subject: Patti Smith's Birthday Party

Hi, all you fans out there!

Patti's birthday is on Dec 30 and - as you all know - she usually celebrates
with fans and friends at the Bowery Ballroom, NYC. Everybody expects her to
do it this year.

Now I live in Germany and don't have the opportunity to go to NYC -
therefore I decided to celebrate with fans in my hometown.

It is a small town in Northern Germany between Hamburg and Luebeck, quite
nice for a little vacation.

If you want to be invited, please send an email to:
patti-smith-birthday

Maybe you like to come over and join?

Looking forward to see you -

Birgit

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 10 Nov 2005 18:41:32 EST
From: Poemsl1
Subject: Re: Patti Smith's Birthday Party

Hi Birgit- Thanks for the invitation- it sounds like a fun party!
Unfortunately, I live in New York City and cannot make it over  there. Have
a great
time!  xxo- Seena

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 10 Nov 2005 15:51:39 -0800 (PST)
From: Li Lightfoot <li_lightfoot>
Subject: Sony rootkit sparks legal onslaught

Sony rootkit sparks legal onslaughtClass action lawsuit filed against
company's antipiracy software that allegedly enables World of Warcraft
cheating.
The tangled web woven by music giant Sony BMG is getting bigger by the
minute.

The label is already facing a class action lawsuit in California over its
use of copy-protection software on its CDs that hides itself when the CD is
played on a Windows-based PC.

And now at least two other suits are on the way, one in New York and another
in Italy. The legal and PR nightmare stems from Sony BMG's use of a
particular type of digital rights management copy-protection software on at
least 20 of its CDs. Those CDs include Trey Anastasio's Shine, Celine Dion's
On ne Change Pas, Neil Diamond's 12 Songs, Amerie's Touch, Pete Seeger's The
Essential Pete Seeger, and Ricky Martin's Life. Partial lists of CDs are at
Slashdot and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.



The software in this case, designed to prevent a user from copying a CD more
than twice, was created by First 4 Internet. It is called a "rootkit," and
once a CD is loaded onto a computer, a watchdog program is installed, and
then hides itself deep in the core of the operating system.

That's where the trouble begins, first uncovered by programmer and blogger
Mark Russinovich. A side effect of the software is that it can be used to
hide any files with a certain string of characters in the file name. Already
reports have surfaced of World of Warcraft hackers using the program to make
their cheats impossible for Blizzard's Warden anti-cheating program to
detect.



The California suit, filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court by a
Southern California attorney on behalf of all California consumers "who
purchased or acquired one of the rootkit-installed CDs," claims Sony BMG
broke three state laws--the Consumer Legal Remedies Act, the Consumer
Protection against Computer Spyware Act, and the California Unfair
Competition law--according to the filing.



It asks the court to force Sony to stop selling any more CDs containing the
rootkit and seeks compensation for damage already incurred by users. The
suit centers on the matter of user notification and the rootkit's removal.
The filing claims that the license agreement that pops up when a protected
CD is loaded does not indicate the potential damage caused by the software.

The agreement says, "The software is intended to protect the audio files on
this CD. It will reside on your computer until it is removed or deleted." It
does not say that the software hides itself.



The California lawsuit also charges that the agreement does not say that the
computer will be damaged--the CD player becomes inoperable--if the user
tries to uninstall it.

Sony has since released a patch that makes its software visible again. Sony
has also sent the rootkit-cloaking information to antivirus software
companies so they know to look for it.

The company has also said it has abandoned the rootkit strategy, but not, of
course, the use of other forms of DRM copy protection.



In a related and considerably ironic matter, Sony has been providing a
work-around at the same site that lets you copy the protected songs to a
portable music player.

The California lawsuit was filed before even more problems emerged. Virus
maker Sophos reported today that it has spotted an e-mail going around that
tries to exploit the controversial file-hiding abilities of antipiracy
software embedded on some of Sony BMG's music CDs.

So unless the owner of one of those CDs has already downloaded Sony's patch
to make the software visible again, and antivirus software companies beat
virus creators to the punch, some music fans have been hit with a Trojan
horse virus as a result of listening to a legally purchased CD on their
computers.



More suits are expected to follow the California filing.



A second nationwide class action lawsuit is expected to be filed against
Sony in a New York court this week, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation
in Italy has filed papers with the Italian police alleging Sony is guilty of
"illicit acts" and calling for an investigation.

Another Italian consumer group, Altroconsumo, sent a cease-and-desist letter
to the Italian division of Sony BMG, the group announced. The letter asks
Sony to not distribute the rootkit CDs in Italy.

Sony BMG did not return calls seeking comment.
By Jim Welte -- GameSpot Posted Nov 10, 2005 2:29 pm PT

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 00:41:48 -0500
From: mckenzie
Subject: [none]

No Patti on Conan tonight(thursday)?  What gives?!?!?!?!

Dave

------------------------------

End of babel-digest V10 #255
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