DRM = spyware
If you're one of the misguided fools who believes that digital rights management (DRM) is a good idea, then what would you think if DRM were spyware?
Mark Russinovich's Sysinternals blog reveals that a CD published by Sony installed spyware on Russinovich's computer. The spyware, like all spyware, goes to great lengths to hide the fact that it exists and a uses Windows process-sounding name so that, in the event it is discovered, the user (who probably isn't very computer literate) thinks it's a legitimate Windows process that shouldn't be deleted.
Russinovich first became suspicious when he found evidence of a rootkit on his system. A rootkit is designed to hide files and processes from Windows. After doing a lot of stuff that I could never begin to understand, he discovered that the rootkit came from a company called "First 4 Internet." After doing some research (that part I understood), he found out that the software is DRM software and that First 4 Internet's clients are, among others, Sony. The DRM software is designed to hook into the computer's CD-ROM drivers. Delete the DRM files and your CD-ROM drive disappears from the list of devices.
The problems with this are many-fold. First, copyright law does not allow a company to hack your computer in order to protect its copyright. Second, as Russinovich notes, "the software is poorly written and provides no means for uninstall." The software can actually have an adverse effect on your computer. You are being punished when you purchase copy-protected music. Music industry executives have concluded that you will probably copy the music from the CD, which is your right to do as the buyer of the CD. They have further decided that you will probably share this copyrighted music with others, and to forestall such a thing from happening, they have taken measures above and beyond the bounds of copyright law to prevent you from sharing that music online. They have placed software on your system without your knowledge, and indeed, have gone to great lengths to hide from you the fact that such software is on your computer. If this software were to screw up your system, you would have no recourse. The software is unsupported and uninstallable. And it appears to be poorly written. Who knows what else it might do? Who knows how a hacker might exploit this software for his own nefarious use?
Don't buy music from Sony/BMG. The only way to stop DRM is to refuse to buy music from publishers who put DRM on their CDs. The only way the music cartel (and, in the sense that economists use the word as it applies to an oligopolistic market, the RIAA qualifies as a cartel) will listen is if they're hit in the pocketbook. Refusing to buy DRM-crippled music shows them that consumers will not tolerate being forced to use their legally purchased products at the pleasure of music industry executives.