Spam all you want, but don’t crack DRM!

As revealed in detail by Bruce Schneier, Microsoft this week rushed a patch out the door, well ahead of their usual once-a-month Patch Tuesday.

Included in this ‘security patch’ is code designed to break a utility called FaireUse4WM a program designed to remove the DRM from Windows Media Files.

More disturbing of course is that it’s being called a security patch in the first place. While technically it is making *someone* more secure, but that someone is not you. Of course, you still need to spare the bandwidth, system downtime for restart, and far more importantly, the inherent risk of system-damaging errors that come from installing a patch to give those other people their security.

Given that system-threatening security holes are regularly made to wait for a fix until said Patch Tuesday by Microsoft, but this minuscule threat to their DRM is addressed almost immediately, it’s not hard to see what priorities are at work here. Breaking DRM will bring immediate action, but turning your computer into a spam-spewing component of a bot net? Well, those kind of holes in your system will just have to wait.

(My sentiments exactly, but not my words, they came courtesy of Ryan Alexander)