There is an old adage that says there is no such thing as bad publicity and for the last month or two Sony has been really pushing the limits trying to find out whether or not this is true.
I wont go into the in’s and outs of what has become my favourite soap opera here, besides Cory Doctorow from the EFF summarises all the really good bits over at BoingBoing.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Remember no one is making this up (except maybe the Sony denials)
Now just barely in time for the holidays there is Freedom to Tinker’s Make Your Own Copy-Protected CD with Passive Protection article. Step by step instructions on how to make your friends and relatives their very own copy-protected CDs using the same industrial-grade passive protection technology built into XCP and Macrovision discs. Without all the “phone home” stuff and break your PC bits that the Sony version had.
It’s a great article showing how easy it is to do (and how easy it is to stop it working).
Passive protection exploits subtle differences between the way computers read CDs and the way ordinary CD players do. By
changing the layout of data on the CD, it’s sometimes possible to confuse computers without affecting ordinary players  or so the theory goes.
Besides I just like the buzzsaw cd pic.