4 November 2005 - pirates vs. ninjas
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One stark question above all others burns in the hearts of
entertainment consumers everywhere: Who wins, pirates or
ninjas? For long, many experts believed that we might never
know, but today startling new evidence has emerged of an
ongoing battle that rages to this very moment. Sony ninja
hackers, armed with seemingly legitimate CD distributions,
steathily “owned” numerous customer computers to halt
pirates in their plundering. But the elaborate, expensive
attack hurt only honest customers. Sorry, anime fans, the
pirates are winning.
clue:
Copy-protected Sony CD’s installed rootkits on customer
computers. A rootkit is software that modifies the operating
system itself to take control over a computer, and in Sony’s
case (as usual) uses this power in part to hide from the
unsuspecting user. I don’t know of a single honest and
aboveboard use for this technology.
take oh take this clue away
copyright 2005, 2024 Jay J.P. Scott
<jay@satirist.org>