Posted by Jeff on 11/07/05 02:02

I've read some information about this particular DVD player
software, which seems to be bundled with a lot of titles,
such as Pirates Of The Caribbean, Tron, and Lord Of The
Rings: Return Of The King.

It appears to want to install by itself if the bundled DVD
is inserted into the DVD drive with Autoplay turned on.
On the surface, it enables access to hidden content
found on the DVD, but there appears to be more to it.

One of these is that it has spyware-like behavior, sending
out your personal information to a third party. The other is
that it seems to install a DRM component that interferes
with DVD ripping software in a similar manner that Sony's
rootkit DRM or SunComm's copy protection does with
audio discs.

I know how to defeat the self install of Interactual by leaving
Autoplay turned off on both my optical drives, but I was
wondering if anyone can confirm the spyware behavior or
DRM it allegedly has?

I also understand that both WinDVD 6 and DivX 6.0 also
include (or can be upgraded with) an Interactual module
that does the same things WRT accessing the extra
features on a DVD bundled with it. I wonder if that also
means they include the spyware and DRM components as well.

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