Sony Patents Anti-Piracy Blacklist for Smart TVs and Media Players
Sony is patenting a technology that can detect and blacklist pirate apps on media players and smart TVs. Through the use of monitoring software, third-party applications sideloaded onto these and other devices can be blocked, effectively protecting rightsholders against online piracy.
[...] The proposed patent, titled "Anti-Piracy Control Based on Blacklisting Function," describes a technology to ban third-party applications that allow users to access pirated content. These illicit apps will be detected on consumer hardware through the use of monitoring software, which in turn will form part of an operating system.
"The monitor application has system privileges to examine the code and execution of the third-party application installed on the electronic device," Sony writes.
Sony details several scenarios where the patent can be useful, including one where streaming devices allow users to install unvetted apps. Another envisions intervention when people try to sideload apps that are banned by official stores such as Google Play.
[...] The full patent application goes into detail on various techniques the monitoring software could use to detect and block apps. Monitoring external network sources accessed by apps, for example, or directly inspecting an app's code.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Opportunist on Friday January 13, @10:56AM (5 children)
I mean, get real, Sony, you do know that you still need to sell the crap you produce, and that in turn means that you somehow have to get me to buy it?
Why the fuck would I want that in a device?
(Score: 3, Funny) by ls671 on Friday January 13, @11:45AM (1 child)
And dummy me thought that it would protect me from malware apps on my TV when I read the title but it seems instead it protects big movie studios from me!
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Opportunist on Friday January 13, @12:24PM
Well, they'll certainly spin it that way, while at the same time not protecting you from the worst spyware in the TV, i.e. the one that works for them. Why do you think those TVs are so cheap? Part of that price is paid by whoever pays for knowing your viewing habits.
(Score: 3, Informative) by mcgrew on Friday January 13, @03:38PM (1 child)
They didn't patent this to use on their own TVs, they patented it to license to other manufacturers. I have a Sony TV, and not only will it not let you sideload apps, you can only install apps from their list. It's similar to the PS4, but the PS4 has more apps.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Friday January 13, @10:59PM
Then I guess it's time I start getting back into hardhacking again. It's been a while since I create modchips, the market will be huge when TVs become the new target medium, and it's probably also going to be cheaper and easier than wasting months on trying to figure out the timings of the boot machinery of the PS.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Saturday January 14, @08:13AM
Be happy that they patented it... and thereby have restricted other companies from doing likewise (at least by Sony's methods).
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by crafoo on Friday January 13, @10:57AM (9 children)
what a joke of a patent
(Score: 5, Touché) by canopic jug on Friday January 13, @11:04AM (3 children)
what a joke of a patent of a patent office
FTFY
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by mcgrew on Friday January 13, @03:40PM
Not office, patent SYSTEM.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 4, Informative) by owl on Friday January 13, @05:33PM (1 child)
You don't get to blame this one on the patent office just yet. This is just a patent application at this time (scroll to the bottom of TFA, they included a link to a pdf of the publication document).
The patent office is not at fault for what people file as applications with them. They only get to take blame for what they allow to become actual patents. But they have no control over whatever crazy stuff folks want to file (that only requires being willing to fork over some cash, and upload a PDF file to the patent office), and this is just a publication of an application Sony has filed.
So your ire here should be aimed at Sony. They filed this thing. If the patent office allows it to become a patent, then they can share in the blame.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by darkfeline on Friday January 13, @09:18PM
> If the patent office allows it to become a patent, then they can share in the blame.
No. It is not the patent office's responsibility to police what people do. They manage patents for technology. Whether and how that technology is used is up to the legislature, courts, and consumers.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday January 13, @03:34PM (3 children)
Lettuce hope that patent battles prevent this technology from being used in any non-Sony devices.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday January 13, @03:50PM (2 children)
Lettuce hope that patent battles prevent this technology from being used in any non-Sony devices.
As I mentioned already, the patent is to liscense, not use themselves.
"Lettuce hope"? Brain salad surgery?
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday January 13, @04:02PM
Dang! I mist that part about the licensing.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Saturday January 14, @08:16AM
Ah, so the idea is to suck the profit margin out of other companies, to make them non-competitive with Sony.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by owl on Friday January 13, @05:28PM
If you scroll to the bottom of TFA, they actually do link to the application pdf. If you open that, you see at the top: "Patent Application Publication". This is not (yet) a patent. It is only a publication of an application for a patent that Sony filed.
It may, someday, become a patent, or it might be one of the ones that never becomes a patent, only time will tell on that (although probability is it does become a patent some day).
But it is not yet, as of today, a patent at all.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Ingar on Friday January 13, @11:24AM (6 children)
So, Sony created software that's able to remove other software they consider undesirable.
For the past three or four decades, we've been calling this "anti-virus software".
Personally, I use a blacklist to identify undesirable companies I won't ever again buy stuff from.
Sony is on #1.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Snospar on Friday January 13, @12:18PM (4 children)
Will it remove the Sony Rootkit? Never forget, never forgive - and vote with your wallet!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 13, @01:01PM
20ish years later I still do.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Ingar on Friday January 13, @02:39PM
The rootkit is actually why I blacklisted Sony in the first place. Back in the day I had a team leader who was rather anal about MP3 and OMG PIRATEZ,
so I bought some real, shiny disks I could play in the CDROM drive from my work PC.
Or should I say, should have been able to play.
Ripped the CDs using an old SCSI drive that wasn't too impressed with Sony's DRM, told my team leader I was just listening to the CD I bought.
Everybody happy, except Sony who hasn't seen a dime from me since.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by mcgrew on Friday January 13, @03:59PM (1 child)
vote with your wallet!
I prefer a society where the rich don't have ten thousand votes to my one.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aafcac on Sunday January 15, @03:37PM
Yes, good luck voting with your wallet on enough things to fix the system. There may not even be a small business that's offering something that you legitimately need. And if they do, it is likely going to be a lot more expensive.
Really, though, the most that most of us can do is avoid the worst abusers and continue to push for politicians, and where available initiatives, to strip them of their undue influence.
(Score: 3, Touché) by PiMuNu on Friday January 13, @04:19PM
You made a mistake:
"anti-virus software" is designed to remove harmful software.
Sony's evil is designed to remove useful software.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Runaway1956 on Friday January 13, @11:53AM (7 children)
WTF?
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by mcgrew on Friday January 13, @04:14PM (6 children)
Patents make a lot more sense for computer programs than copyright does. I've repurposed hardware (e.g., changed a transistor radio into a guitar fuzzbox as a teenager), have written computer programs, and have written books, and code is far more like building a new type of cabinet or making a box into a cabinet than writing a book.
I hold copyright on code that hasn't run on any hardware produced in the last thirty five years, copyrights that not only outlasted the hardware but will outlast me for longer than I will have lived. Patents only last for twenty years.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Friday January 13, @04:17PM (2 children)
But what about the software that runs a database to look after HR data (or whatever dumbass stuff the PHBs need). Nothing new, and yet it takes some work to set it up. Should poor dev not have some protection for their work?
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday January 14, @08:29PM (1 child)
Ever heard of being paid by the hour, or by the month? The company doesn't make any money from the database; they're not selling it, they're using it in-house. Who do they need protection from?
For example, I wrote databases when I worked for Illinois. Not one, including the database they had me write for a hospital, would ever have any use other than their intended purposes. Databases are custom-made. Now, the programs you write the databases with can be cheap for PCs, like one they had that would make executables from dBase .prg files for a couple hundred bucks, but they paid $750 per seat per year for a mainframe SAS license (you pretty much need a PhD in statistics to use that program). But the programs they wrote they were paid to write, like I was (only twice as much).
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Monday January 16, @07:13PM
A lot of people buy Oracle DB software. It is used just for stupid HR functions, but nonetheless Oracle wrote the software and make a buck from selling it. They make money from the infrastructure, but I bet they would make a hell of a lot less $ if they couldn't claim copyright on the backend software.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Friday January 13, @06:24PM (2 children)
That's backwards, copyrights make sense for software for the same reason that copyrights make sense for other things that people write. Books, plays, movies, none of them being patentable would make any sense. Similarly a book of instructions of how to do things wouldn't typically make sense as a patentable thing either. The patent is for the invention, not for the instructions to perform it.
The only aspect of patents that make more sense for software is the length of protection. The vast majority of code isn't useful for more than a few years, and even then it's probably been updated substantially in the mean time, meaning that the latest version should probably be the one that actually needs protecting.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday January 14, @08:44PM (1 child)
Books, plays, movies, none of them being patentable would make any sense.
Yes, however,
a book of instructions of how to do things is exactly what a patent is. A patent for a gizmo shows all its parts, how they're put together, and how it works. And patents aren't only for objects, there's a guy who actually patented swinging on a swingset. [google.com]
I've written code, fiction, and nonfiction. One of those three are not the same.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Sunday January 15, @01:14AM
No, that is how a patent is filed for practical reasons, but it's the actual item or process that's covered not the written list.
(Score: 4, Funny) by pkrasimirov on Friday January 13, @01:19PM
1. They make a list with apps they don't like.
2. They make a program to enforce this list to everybody they can!
3. They patent the enforcing program so that nobody else can make such a program!?
4. Profit???
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 13, @01:26PM (9 children)
I don't have a smartphone because of all this spyware nonsense. I know a lot of people have rooted their phone to bypass this BS. Seems to me the "Smart TV" is ripe for these type of hacks. Anybody know of any progress on this of stuff?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 13, @01:49PM (7 children)
You just connect any computer you want to the TV using HDMI and you're done.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by canopic jug on Friday January 13, @02:05PM (2 children)
You just connect any computer you want to the TV using HDMI and you're done.
There are a lot of options, including Kodi [kodi.tv]. Too bad that even mentioning Kodi [kodi.tv] on YouTube will get your channel suspended or banned there. Perhaps that is because it competes with the spyware that the newer televisions are being loaded with at the factory. One difficulty is when you have IPTV via an ISP and the ISP remains tight lipped about the settings needed to access the programs via other means than their own crappy, hard to use spyware.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Rich on Friday January 13, @02:48PM (1 child)
Umm... What's this about YT takedowns after mentioning Kodi? I wouldn't doubt that they did, but there's even an official Kodi channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/teamxbmc [youtube.com]
Notes on TFA: In the 90s, I had a nice, fat, top of the line Trinitron TV. Eventually it broke and the experience with getting it fixed gave a taste of why we're campaigning for "right to repair" today. (That at the time was in contrast to the Grundig TV my parents had, which came with schematics, and I was able to have my dad to bring a PAL-to-RGB IC from a downtown store that fixed the TV after I soldered it in). Sony are on my shit list since then. The rootkit debacle, the "Other OS" betrayal, and deleting camera software when unlocking phones just didn't make it better.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by canopic jug on Friday January 13, @03:42PM
It's a widely known phenomenon that YouTube demonitizes, suspends, and bans accounts for mentioning Kodi. It started out with them going after "piracy" ...
... but it quickly expanded to include any mention at all of Kodi. It's not a new thing but you won't hear much about it since vloggers have adjusted their wording and phrasing to use Newspeak to avoid triggering the algorithms starting quite a while back. (For what it's worth, a lot of sites even block Torrent Freak [torrentfreak.com], too. )
Furthermore, you will also almost certainly end up with any individual video demonetized through using the string "Linux" in its title. By the time you win the fight against Google over that and have the video's status restored, the crowd has moved on and there are few to no new viewings. Bryan Lunduke, among others, have complained about that.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday January 13, @04:27PM (3 children)
Not quite, unless you use your TV only as a monitor and have a TV receiver card in the computer. When plugged into the internet, a smart TV has channel listings for over the air broadcasts, as if you were paying for cable. Pluto TV is free and has hundreds of channels, but requires you to enable digital restrictions management.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Friday January 13, @06:26PM (1 child)
Ah, that reminds me of that short lived WebTV thing from the '90s.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday January 14, @08:55PM
Yes, exactly.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 13, @09:36PM
>not using the streaming piracy
Hell, even with Pluto TV I've been able to make it not show ads on accident. DRM absolutely does not matter though because why would I want to record the background noise content.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Friday January 13, @02:11PM
Start here - https://github.com/0x192/universal-android-debloater [github.com]
This guide is slightly dated, but may work on up-to-date TVs - https://medium.com/@drakkars/hacking-an-android-tv-in-2-minutes-7b6f29518ff3 [medium.com]
Few devices are locked down really tight, there is usually a way in, and someone has published a how-to for you to follow.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by PiMuNu on Friday January 13, @04:23PM
... sideload is NuSpeak for installing software.
Every time we use NuSpeak, we help spread the evil.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Friday January 13, @04:42PM
Missing the point the quote is
Nobody uses smart TV features because they usually don't work and are never updated/upgraded so you can't use them. The mfgr makes money off spyware installs and everyone goes home happy.
What the entire discussion here is missing is the "media player" line. The important part is a Sony patent means things people actually use, like roku and similar boxes, can't implement this without paying a fee to Sony, and you all know how big companies love paying fees... so nothing anyone actually uses will be able to implement this shitty idea except Sony.