Prompt's TechBlog

F-Secure reports that the German DVD release of 'Mr and Mrs Smith' uses a rootkit to hide its antipiracy software.

This is the first time we've seen this technique applied to DVDs, but there was uproar when it emerged that Sony BMG was using similar technology to stop people copying (or, in some cases, playing) some of its music CDs. Shortly after it became public, viruses were in circulation that exploited the security vulnerabilities that Sony's software introduced.

Users were up in arms because the software installed itself without asking first and because it severely restricted what they considered to be their fair use rights, including the ability to play music they had bought on an MP3 player.

It seems that other media companies (in this case 20th Century Fox) are reluctant to learn the lessons here. Security scares and an inability to use the media drive away many more customers than piracy does.

If you read German, there's a detailed explanation of the Mr & Mrs DVD problems here (excluding the quality of the film itself).