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There have been even further developments on the Sony BMG root kit debacle since the last time we updated">http://stereophile.com/news/112105sonys/">updated you. The reports that Sony artists were unhappy that the company had been caught compromising consumers' computers were confirmed by Newsweekhttp://businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2005/tc20051122_343542.ht…;. That magazine reported that Trey Anastasio's Shine, which was released on November 1, the day after the story broke, sold 15,000 copies in its first week, but plummeted to 7,000 by week two, when the story was all over the press. Since then, all 52 albums with the XCD "protection" have been pulled. Patrick Jordon, director of marketing at Red Light Management, which reps Anastasio, said, "It's been damaging, and certainly we're going to discuss that with the label."

As we go into our fourth week of coverage of Sony BMG's digital rights management debacle, it's a good time to review what all the fuss has been about. On October 31, Mark Russinovich postedhttp://www.sysinternals.com/blog/2005/10/sony-rootkits-and-digital-righ…; his discovery of a root kit—a cloaked file that had been inserted on to his computer's hard drive. Cloaked root kit files are popular tools used by malevolent hackers, so Russinovich was curious about how the files he detected had entered his computer. It came from Get Right With the Man, a Sony DRM-protected disc Russinovich had purchased and played on his computer. When he attempted to remove the hidden files, Russinovich lost the ability to use his CD drive.

After posting a round-uphttp://www.stereophile.com/news/110705sony/">round-up; of the news about Sony BMG's F4i's XCP digital rights management system (DRM), which hid itself inside consumers' computers' root-kit code, I spent a frantic week simply trying to keep up with all of the breaking news on the issue on my bloghttp://blog.stereophile.com/wesphillips/">blog;. During the week of November 7, I posted no fewer than 9 URLs outlining breaking news on the Sony story. However, by the end of the week, the company was reeling from the news that hackers had managed to install malware (malicious programs that dismantle a computer's firewall protection) on consumers' computers that masked its presence by using the hidden software placed there by Sony BMG's DRM system.