WARNING: SONY ROOTKIT ON IMMERSEEL ALBUM

[Bunny]

The MIdori Seiler/Jos van Immerseel/Anima Eterna recording of Mozart Symphony No. 29 KV 201 and Violin Concertos Nos. 2 & 3 (Zigzag-Territoires) is copy protected by Sony, and it has the infamous rootkit on it.

Do not buy this album unless you know exactly how to deal with the Sony DRM rootkit which gained so much infamy in 2005!  I had autorun disabled on my computer, but after some technical work was done on it, autorun had been enabled (by the techie).  When I put the album into the drive, it launched, and I now have the job of cleaning out a rootkit from my harf drive.

I emailed Zigzag, but have yet to hear from them. 

This is a real case of caveat emptor...

[M forever]

You can suppress autorun in any case if you hold the shift key down while loading the CD.

[FideLeo]

The MIdori Seiler/Jos van Immerseel/Anima Eterna recording of Mozart Symphony No. 29 KV 201 and Violin Concertos Nos. 2 & 3 (Zigzag-Territoires) is copy protected by Sony, and it has the infamous rootkit on it.

Do not buy this album unless you know exactly how to deal with the Sony DRM rootkit which gained so much infamy in 2005!  I had autorun disabled on my computer, but after some technical work was done on it, autorun had been enabled (by the techie).  When I put the album into the drive, it launched, and I now have the job of cleaning out a rootkit from my harf drive.

I emailed Zigzag, but have yet to hear from them. 

This is a real case of caveat emptor...

What Bunny said is true - I almost bought this disc (it's Immerseel! - his LvB sonata disc with Seiler is stellar) out of love at first sight but had to give my buying frenzy a rest as soon as I saw the much detested COPYCONTROL mark on it.   So it is worse than the EMI version of the same anti-piracy "technology," which can be disabled by blocking out (w/a marker) the outmost track which contains the software.

[The new erato]

Is this a recent development at Zig-Zag? And does it include all their discs from a certain date? Where is the copy protection label placed?

I have some CDs from them in my collection, but will stop buying if they now have started to copy protect their discs. Really meaningless; since their discs have all the features of discs worth having (instaead of copying), includong glorious packaging and booklets. And BTW I never have copied a disc in my life; but they are losing a customer.

[FideLeo]

Is this a recent development at Zig-Zag? And does it include all their discs from a certain date? Where is the copy protection label placed?

I have some CDs from them in my collection, but will stop buying if they now have started to copy protect their discs. Really meaningless; since their discs have all the features of discs worth having (instaead of copying), includong glorious packaging and booklets. And BTW I never have copied a disc in my life; but they are losing a customer.

Nope....this is not one of their more recent releases actually.  More like the only instance of this happening in their entire output.  The logo is located somewhere at the bottom on the back cover.   

[The new erato]

More like the only instance of this happening in their entire output.  

Good to hear that I can continue buying them then. But why the f..k did they ruin this single recording (and their reputation) by doing it on that then?

[Montpellier]

......I have some CDs from them in my collection, but will stop buying if they now have started to copy protect their discs. Really meaningless; since their discs have all the features of discs worth having (instaead of copying), includong glorious packaging and booklets. And BTW I never have copied a disc in my life; but they are losing a customer.

An absolute nuisance.  I'm not in the habit of copying discs but it is possible to buy blank CDs "for audio use".  They're slightly more expensive than regular CD-R blanks because a royalty is prepaid on them precisely to allows one to make a copy for personal use.   It's useful for copying borrowed out-of-print discs.   

[Bunny]

There are instructions on the web about extracting files on discs protected by the rootkit.    Here's a link to a very good method: http://www.dsg.cs.tcd.ie/~haahrm/copying-protected-cds/

You can suppress autorun in any case if you hold the shift key down while loading the CD.

Yes, this is true.  I had disabled autorun on my computer, but after an IT professional did some work on it (just this past week), it came back with autorun enabled.  Unfortunately, I was told that my computer settings had not been changed; clearly not true!

I only hope that the "professional" who got me into this jam will be as "professional" at getting the "jam" out of my hard drive. 

Meanwhile, if anyone knows where to find a rootkit extraction tool on the web, please be sure to post it here.  I will have to wait until Tuesday or Wednesday before the "professional" has time to see my computer. 

[BachQ]

I had disabled autorun on my computer, but after an IT professional did some work on it (just this past week), it came back with autorun enabled.  Unfortunately, I was told that my computer settings had not been changed; clearly not true!

I only hope that the "professional" who got me into this jam will be as "professional" at getting the "jam" out of my hard drive. 

That's why we have a court system: you need to sue the meathead who recklessly performed IT work and who recklessly stated that your settings had not been changed ........ When in doubt, litigate ........

[Bunny]

That's why we have a court system: you need to sue the meathead who recklessly performed IT work and who recklessly stated that your settings had not been changed ........ When in doubt, litigate ........

HehHeh.

Hopefully the professional will be willing to restore everything to its proper condition.  Unfortunately, my opinion of lawyers isn't much better than my opinion of politicians, so I avoid both like the plague.

[Morigan]

I thought that the Sony Rootkit thing had caused a scandal and that Sony had released some kind of patch to remove it from your computer?

In any case, I'm sure it's not too hard, the must be lots of documentation on the Web.

[Gurn Blanston]

I thought that the Sony Rootkit thing had caused a scandal and that Sony had released some kind of patch to remove it from your computer?

In any case, I'm sure it's not too hard, the must be lots of documentation on the Web.

It did. And the uninstaller they provided was even worse than the original rootkit. Read this and decide for yourself whether DRM should be choked off:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Sony_BMG_CD_copy_protection_scandal#Rootkit_removal_program

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Now playing:
Cleveland Orchestra/Dohnanyi - Op 125 Symphony #9 in d 4th mvmt - Presto - Allegro assai / Recitative - Allegro assai

[M forever]

Now playing:
Cleveland Orchestra/Dohnanyi - Op 125 Symphony #9 in d 4th mvmt - Presto - Allegro assai / Recitative - Allegro assai

One of the few recordings with that team the didn't really convince me.