Related link: http://www.securityfocus.com/brief/34
Seeing stuff like this makes me want to say something cheesy, like: “Welcome to the 21st Century!”
So, basically, hidden software-vendor-installed malware will fight it off on poor users’ PC. Evil will fight evil and the user will loose either way… “Trojan vs Rootkit, Part II” :-)
“Called the Warden, the anti-cheating program cannot detect any files that are hidden with Sony BMG’s content protection, which only requires that the hacker add the prefix “$sys$” to file names.”
Too soon to say
I think it's too soon to call what Sony BMG/First 4 Internet are doing "legal". It's simply unchallenged, so far. If, and when, somebody's computer and data become damaged as a result of this, I fully expect legal action to be brought against Sony et al. The result of such action? We'll just have to wait and see.