SunnComm MediaMax may be as bad as XCP without rootkit

While Sony’s XCP Rootkit copy protection may have caused enough problems so far, apparently the MediaMax technology Sony uses to copy protect its other CDs can be just as bad as XCP without the Rootkit part.  Unlike the XCP copy protection, the MediaMax service is automatically installed, whether or not the user agrees to the EULA.  It is also considered Spyware since it ‘calls home’ without the user’s consent and finally, like XCP it also lacks an uninstaller and is rather difficult to remove. 

As the MediaMax technology needs to install itself as a kernel service, users can only play these CDs while logged on as an Administrator, which not only hogs system resources and memory as a constantly running background process, but also prevents users at universities and at work from playing these CDs if they don’t have administrative rights to their system. 

Finally, in
order to play these CDs, consumers need to use the included MediaMax
player.  This player only works with these CDs and vice versa, thus
preventing consumers from using their preferred players, let alone use MediaMax
as a player that plays all CDs.  As a result, some consider this to be a
potential security risk since if any security flaws are found in either the
software or the kernel service, the user cannot simply just uninstall MediaMax
to eliminate the security risk, target=_new>like what happened with XCP, not to mention the risk of using its
uninstaller!  

Source: p2pnet.net