Mark has investigated further into the issue and the newly released "patch/uninstaller" which is supposed to allow users to uninstall the DRM software. Only to find that it doesn’t work. It also appears that the software is phoning home to Sony. The reasons for this isn’t a big one, it’s about updating lyrics and album information, but it’s a first step. Besides, it also adds a unique ID to your system, which in theory allows them to track you.

But before we draw too many conclusions, have a look at the new article at SysInternals:

    More on Sony: Dangerous Decloaking Patch, EULAs and Phoning Home

Another interesting tidbit is that some users are using this technology for their own ends. The immensly popular MMORPG, World of Warcraft is a steady target for bots and other "utlities" which interact with in ways that Blizzard never intended (or even allows) and thus have a pretty tough anti-cheating mechanism called Warden. But not even WoW is immune to Sony’s "rootkit" and users are able to use this vulnarbility to circumvent the protection.

Any Sony claims that computer security isn’t at risk with their software. It didn’t take long for people to do this, so how long will it take until we start seeing some really nasty stuff (such as keyloggers, bots, etc) which hitch a ride on the Sony DRM protection racket?