Sony rootkit fallout

These stories were inevitable...

El reg El First Trojan using Sony DRM spotted:
"Roots you, Sir. Virus writers have begun taking advantage of Sony-BMG's use of rootkit technology in DRM software bundled with its music CDs.…"

Slashdot California Suing Sony Over Rootkit DRM:
"carre4 writes 'California has filed a class-action lawsuit against Sony and a second one may be filed today in New York. The lawsuit was filed Nov. 1 in Superior Court for the County of Los Angeles by Vernon, CA. It asks the court to prevent Sony from selling additional CDs protected by the anti-piracy software, and seeks monetary damages for California consumers who purchased them. The suit alleges that Sony's software violates at least three California statutes, including the 'Consumer Legal Remedies Act,' which governs unfair and/or deceptive trade acts; and the 'Consumer Protection against Computer Spyware Act,' which prohibits -- among other things -- software that takes control over the user's computer or misrepresents the user's ability or right to uninstall the program. The suit also alleges that Sony's actions violate the California Unfair Competition law, which allows public prosecutors and private citizens to file lawsuits to protect businesses and consumers from unfair business practices. EFF has released a list of rootkit affected CD's and Slashdot user xtracto also has a list.'"

digg PestPatrol detects and removes Sony's DRM software:
"It seems like at least one major spyware/antivirus company has the nads to take on Sony. Will Sony sue to have their name removed from every blacklist?"

Tags: infosec

Monkeying with your OPAC

First off, I hate the term "OPAC", but I had to make sure that I got the attention of all of the librarians out there. For non-librarians, OPAC stands for "online public access catalogue", which is a ridiculously antiquated way of referring to a library's search interface. These days, this is usually a web-based search interface of an integrated library system or "ILS". Your local public library probably has one, your local university and college libraries probably have one, and your local school library probably does not (most school libraries do not make this a priority).

Anyway, much has been said lately of the short comings of most library search interfaces. My favorite critiques come from Mr. Lorcan Dempsey and of course Ross Singer's classic post Polishing the turd: the dangers of redesigning the OPAC. Now, virtually every library uses COTS for their ILS as there is really no other option (go www.openils.org!). Now there is a way to theoretically transcend the limitations of your ILS web interface without being limited by the API or web templating language, or without tampering under the hood in a way that might violate your licensing or support agreements. The Ajaxian blog brings to our attention monkeygrease!

Monkeygrease is for the server-side what greasemonkey is for the client side (at least with firefox). Basically, it uses the filtering function of current Java Servlet engines to rewrite HTML en route to the browser. This could be a significant tool in modernizing your web search without having to wait for your ILS vendor to do it. The possibilities really are endless - from including information from outside your ILS in search results to a fully Ajax enabled search, and everything in between.

Let me know if you plan to try this out.

Tags: libraries cool ajax

Well, it's that time of year again. The snow has come to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, seemingly to stay.