Bring Me The Head Of Andy Lack
Now it affects Macs.
Read the article.
If you click through to Macintouch, you’ll see that to install the kernel extension you’ve got to enter your name and password, a procedure Apple insists upon to prevent the installation of malware on your computer, but does anybody REALLY expect a CD they PURCHASED to fuck up their operating system?
I think David Pogue of the "New York Times" put it right:
"Personally, I can’t understand why any music fan would buy one of these discs. If you really want a song from Sony BMG, why not just buy it from one of the online music stores and avoid the whole issue? Sony BMG would soon get the message that customers don’t like being treated like criminals.
I was also surprised at how dismissive Sony BMG and First 4 Internet seem to be. ‘It’s a tempest in a teapot,’ Mr. Gilliat-Smith says. ‘It’s benign content protection. It’s not malware, it’s not spyware-it’s innocent.
Consumers, for eight months, have been using these discs with positive feedback. When the issue arose, we addressed it very quickly.’
I wondered if he could even understand why consumers might feel a bit violated. I pointed out that the usual damage-control plan for public-relations disasters (see also Tylenol; Perrier; Pentium bug) is not to haughtily dismiss customer fears, but to apologize profusely.
But the closest thing Mr. Gilliat-Smith would say is, ‘We understand what the concern was, but there was no intent. We reacted as quickly as we could, took responsive issues. And now, hopefully, we move on.’"
It might be a tempest in a teapot to these fucks. Who call up an IT guy when they’ve got a problem with their computer, who just buy a new box when things get out of control, but if you’re an average citizen, working for a living, this is FUCKED!
And who are these people who’ve given positive feedback. And how did they find them to begin with? Yes, I bought a crippled disc that’s fucking up my computer, I’m THRILLED!
Ah, the hubris. Ah, the mismanagement.
This fiasco proves once again that record execs live in their own little bubble, unaware, NOT CARING about the life and ways of the proletariat.
People rip their CDs and put them on their iPods.
You might pooh-pooh the number relative to those who purchase CDs, but let me remind you of the photographic world. We heard forever how film was going to be eclipsed by digital. Like a big bad wolf crying in the night. For years. And then, suddenly, nobody wanted a film camera anymore. Has anybody purchased a film camera for the last year, TWO YEARS? What did Kodak do? It now makes the largest selling digital camera. Instead of trying to keep people locked into the past, they addressed the FUTURE!
How has Sony addressed the future? By creating the inane Sony Connect that sells tracks in a format nobody uses?
Meanwhile, Kodak ain’t doing that well. And neither are the major labels going to be in the future. By denying reality, they’re just hurting themselves. They should fight in the new world, not abhor and deplore it. Try to SELL files, USABLE files, like they got people to replace cassettes with CDs.
DRM is a joke. Beaten by anybody marginally tech-savvy. So, the way you fuck with these people is to fuck with their COMPUTERS??
The labels, after the Napster fiasco, should be bending over backwards to regain the trust of the consumer. Instead the RIAA cabal has built a wall around itself and is trying to take the moral high ground. Ain’t that a laugh. You’re purveying 50 Cent. Glorifying violence. Flying around in private planes. And the PUBLIC is the problem?
Then again, the furor of the public against the major labels has died down since 2000. But it takes an ignorant prick like Andy Lack to reignite it. This rootkit story eclipses bombings in Iraq. What happened in Jordan. EVERYBODY uses a computer and is FREAKED OUT and PISSED! And the message is being sent virally via the Web the same way a band is broken.
Yup, take off the DRM. Legalize file-trading. Watch your revenues go up.
But no, the labels want to keep their OLD monopoly.
But it’s not working. Not only not financially, but they’re starting to lose the press war. Articles about Grokster in the major newspapers quoted BigChampagne’s file-trading numbers, stating that file-trading has INCREASED since June, from 8.8 million people to 9.2 million using various P2P services at any time.
And then there’s the ridiculous End-User License Agreement. Which Sony says makes their behavior all right.
I’m a member of the California Bar, and I don’t read this shit. But now somebody has. And this is what they say the license states:
"1. If your house gets burgled, you have to delete all your music from your laptop when you get home. That’s because the EULA says that your rights to any copies terminate as soon as you no longer possess the original CD.
2. You can’t keep your music on any computers at work. The EULA only gives you the right to put copies on a ‘personal home computer system owned by you.’
3. If you move out of the country, you have to delete all your music. The EULA specifically forbids ‘export’ outside the country where you reside.
4. You must install any and all updates, or else lose the music on your computer. The EULA immediately terminates if you fail to install any update. No more holding out on those hobble-ware downgrades masquerading as updates.
5. Sony-BMG can install and use backdoors in the copy protection software or media player to ‘enforce their rights’ against you, at any time, without notice. And Sony-BMG disclaims any liability if this ‘self help’ crashes your computer, exposes you to security risks, or any other harm.
6. The EULA says Sony-BMG will never be liable to you for more than $5.00. That’s right, no matter what happens, you can’t even get back what you paid for the CD.
7. If you file for bankruptcy, you have to delete all the music on your computer. Seriously.
8. You have no right to transfer the music on your computer, even along with the original CD.
9. Forget about using the music as a soundtrack for your latest family photo slideshow, or mash-ups, or sampling. The EULA forbids changing, altering, or make derivative works from the music on your computer."
Just because somebody wrote it, that doesn’t mean it’s going to stand up in court. And without laying out legal theory, I guarantee you the above wouldn’t stand in a court of law. First and foremost it’s not a proper warning, because the average person neither reads nor understands an End-User License Agreement, AND to enforce this agreement would be inequitable.
Sony needs to do a big mea culpa here.
People believe all the Net urban legends, no matter WHAT Sony’s position, some people will still believe the CDs are going to mess up their machines. Hell, Sony should remove all copy protection from their discs and give away MP3s for free on their site to combat the negative publicity.
But in the closed foxhole, er, I mean boardroom, these guys live in, they don’t understand the breadth of their faux pas.
