Shortly after installing Skype I read a blog article at pagetable.com Skype Reads Your BIOS and Motherboard Serial Number
Since the middle of December 2006, Skype has used a third-party program called EasyBits, to secretly access the system BIOS settings and record the motherboard serial number of their Windows-based users. EasyBits offers DRM (Digital Rights Management) features.
Skype blog entry Skype Extras plug-in manager
The EasyBits software includes a form of digital rights management functionality intended to protect commercial software, such as plug-ins, from illegal redistribution or unlicensed use. Simply put, the EasyBits DRM framework helps us ensure compliance with software usage and distribution.
Since we learned that EasyBits DRM did not perform well on some newer platforms, we updated the version of their framework with one that no longer attempts to read from the BIOS. The current download of Skype for Windows, version 3.0.0.216, includes this updated framework.
As documented in the pagetable blog, the EasyBits software ran a .com file and prevented users from reading it. Only the errors it gave users of 64-bit versions, brought the snoopware to light.
2005 was the year of the Sony DRM Rootkit scandal.
