zCodec Video Codec Is a Trojan 188
Bride of Chucky writes "There's a new video codec out there that claims to offer 'up to 40 percent better video quality' but that resets your computer's DNS settings — opening the way for Trojans, rootkits, or whatever. Techworld warns that zCodec looks professional enough, is widely available, and comes in at 100KB. What's the bet the media companies are behind this somewhere?"
Rather than the conspiracy theory. (Score:5, Insightful)
Follow the money. The MPAA has plenty to make off p2p lawsuits to risk the kind of bad press and fines they'd get by doing something like this.
Basically, the submitter is an irrational idiot pandering to the anarchist conspiracy theorists in an attempt to start a flamewar. Congratulations, you've probably got it.
Huh? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why are the media companies being accused? (Score:2, Insightful)
Don't you think that after the sony rootkit most companies wouldnt bother with such schemes....
Hmm. (Score:5, Insightful)
A tin-foil hat is a mark of someone who can, in all seriousness, say 'if it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it must be a concealed listening device placed by the government under the instruction of the military-industrial complex and funded by the media industry.' The poster should wear his with pride.
"looks professional enough"?? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Rather than the conspiracy theory. (Score:5, Insightful)
"Follow the money. Sony has plenty to make off hardware and music sales to risk the kind of bad press and fines they'd get by installing a rootkit on your computer"
Sony makes a whole fuckload more money from their products than the MPAA gets from suing grandmothers, and that sure didn't stop them from one of the biggest PR blunders by a tech company in recent memory.
It's far more likely that a script kiddie or spammer type is responsible... but I would NOT put this sort of thing past the shitbags at the MPAA.
No need for conspiracies... (Score:4, Insightful)
This ranks right up there with the scores of malware programs that pretend to be malware removers. I assume the original poster would have us believe that all those are really written by the likes of Symantec and McAfee?
Re:Rather than the conspiracy theory. (Score:3, Insightful)
Exactly.
We have no evidence for the media corporations being involved in such actions; and it wouldn't make much sense for them to do so, either. This adware will make money; money is something that media companies already have, but adware companies constantly work to get. What the media companies need is not more money, but to scare people off of using p2p software - and this isn't the way to do that. No, the way to scare people would be to damage their computers, not to make money off of them.
Oh please... (Score:5, Insightful)
That's incredibly presumptuous and a completely baseless accusation. There are lots of people who can clearly benefit from trojans, and someone obviously has seen the potential in video codecs as a nice "social engineering" way of fooling the gullible masses into downloading them. The average person generally searches for video codecs once in a blue moon - they have no way of knowing which sites are legitimate, or which files are legitimate. They'll download whatever sounds promising. In fact, the website looks far more legitimate than some of the genuine codec sites out there.
Smarter users might do regular intensive searching to make sure they are getting a legitimate file, but the average user will not. It's far more likely that the author of this trojan is just exploiting the fact that so many users of codecs are clueless than yet another paranoid conspiracy that the media companies are behind it. Really, will the slashdot editors ever get over their bias and just print actual NEWS.
Send someone to jail (Score:3, Insightful)
Enough is a enough. A message needs to be sent to these bastards. Suing and fines only do so much. They fine these bastards, they file for bankruptcy and its over. They close the company and the fines and suits go away. Can't sue what doesn't exist and current corp. laws protect us from going after personal assets.
Time to bring some real charges against these fuckers and send a few of them to prison for a good long stretch. And I'm not talking 6 months in a jail with 500 hours of community service. I'm talking 10 years in maximum security.
I know some people say the punishment doesn't fit the crime but I think its time it did. If we would have locked up some of them bastards from Sony then I bet this one wouldn't' happen.
No bet... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What! (Score:5, Insightful)
So I clicked on the zcodec.com link above and the first thing I noticed was the use of some copyrighted movie posters on their page. And then I saw the link for the "therms of use." "Professional enough" indeed...
Re:Rather than the conspiracy theory. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:No need for conspiracies... (Score:2, Insightful)
What, like Norton Antivirus? It's often installed without you asking for it, it consumes vast amounts of resources, it embeds itself into your operating system's interface, it hides itself from other programs, it phones home regularly, and it's extremely difficult to remove.