Now Playing: Where Did Our Love Go - The Supremes
Of late, my Inbox has been full to overflowing with the usual newsletters (tech and entertainment), google-alerts (concerning P2P), blogs (they're everywhere!) and music-related publications (what is the Industry up to now - besides no good?) but a single recurring theme runs through the gamut of information that flickers briefly on my screen before disappearing in a flash of pixels.
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The "big story", as you may already know, is the nefarious under-handling dealing by The Sony Corporation with the inclusion of a Root Kit on COPY/CONTENT PROTECTED crippled Compact Discs (although I'm sure Philips, the co-creator of the format, would maintain their argument from as far back as 2002 that legally these cannot be called a "CD".)
As has been pointed out elsewhere , this Grand Inquisition by the RIAA against legitimate customers/consumers of the "product" penalizes the wrong party. Those who should be rightfully prosecuted under existing laws for large scale, for-profit piracy will always find a way to defeat any DRM restrictions and continue to counterfeit in a manner that measurably affects the bottom line of the copyright holder. Fans swapping tunes for free are very likely to actually buy the real deal when it comes to music they love enough to want to own, and thus affect the bottom line in a measurably positive manner.
For the hapless home user (and I'm sure you know the type) for whom e-mail is a challenge, the severity of the damage done to their computer simply because they wanted to listen to the latest Sony CCP disc - purchased! - is unforgiveable. If your treat your suc... err, customers as pirates before they've even entertained the idea, it should come as no surprise that's exactly what they will become.
You can follow along at home by visiting the sysinternals blogsite, where Mark Russinovich first broke the story on what's becoming known (in LocoWorld) as The SONY Rootkit Debacle, in case there is some question as to the appallingly sloppy - and dangerous - code supplied by the First 4 Internet company. Those unfortunate enough to have (unwittingly) allowed this malicious bit of software to invade their machines are forced to jump through an amazing number of hoops in order to rid themselves of the infection.
The response from Sony, from a Public Relations standpoint, has been disastrous to say the least. Fans, at least the tech-savvy ones, are fuming... and I'd suggest they'll think twice about buying anything with the new four-letter word masquerading as a "brand name". That will be deleterious to all divisions of the Sony Conglomerate. I'm reminded of the Black Knight sketch in Monty Python's Holy Grail (terrific movie, and freely available to preview courtesy of the net.)
Once you've abused the trust of a customer, it's virtually impossible to get it back. When it comes to the proprietary holy grail, you'd think some lessons had been learned from the betamax, MiniDisc, ATRAC fiascos... but apparently, no.
Right.
It would be startling to hear the sheep bleating while being shorn.
So, while I try to mentally digest all the convoluted machinations of an Industry seemingly intent upon hoisting themselves on their own petard, I started to wonder where it all went wrong... when did loving music (surely the most non-essential product ever sold, as it's always been widely available for free) and sharing that music with others, become a crime?
That led me to pondering where it all began... for me, when I first heard something I knew I had to own and thus began my journey as fan and collector. It's a journey that has spanned several decades... starting with my first purchase of a coveted 45 r.p.m record - in the picture sleeve.
Alas, by the shadows falling across the face of the clock, t'is late and I will have to resume this at a later date. In the meantime...
- Loco -
(Now Playing: How Do You Keep The Music Playing? - Johnny Mathis)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The "big story", as you may already know, is the nefarious under-handling dealing by The Sony Corporation with the inclusion of a Root Kit on COPY/CONTENT PROTECTED crippled Compact Discs (although I'm sure Philips, the co-creator of the format, would maintain their argument from as far back as 2002 that legally these cannot be called a "CD".)
As has been pointed out elsewhere , this Grand Inquisition by the RIAA against legitimate customers/consumers of the "product" penalizes the wrong party. Those who should be rightfully prosecuted under existing laws for large scale, for-profit piracy will always find a way to defeat any DRM restrictions and continue to counterfeit in a manner that measurably affects the bottom line of the copyright holder. Fans swapping tunes for free are very likely to actually buy the real deal when it comes to music they love enough to want to own, and thus affect the bottom line in a measurably positive manner.
For the hapless home user (and I'm sure you know the type) for whom e-mail is a challenge, the severity of the damage done to their computer simply because they wanted to listen to the latest Sony CCP disc - purchased! - is unforgiveable. If your treat your suc... err, customers as pirates before they've even entertained the idea, it should come as no surprise that's exactly what they will become.
You can follow along at home by visiting the sysinternals blogsite, where Mark Russinovich first broke the story on what's becoming known (in LocoWorld) as The SONY Rootkit Debacle, in case there is some question as to the appallingly sloppy - and dangerous - code supplied by the First 4 Internet company. Those unfortunate enough to have (unwittingly) allowed this malicious bit of software to invade their machines are forced to jump through an amazing number of hoops in order to rid themselves of the infection.
The response from Sony, from a Public Relations standpoint, has been disastrous to say the least. Fans, at least the tech-savvy ones, are fuming... and I'd suggest they'll think twice about buying anything with the new four-letter word masquerading as a "brand name". That will be deleterious to all divisions of the Sony Conglomerate. I'm reminded of the Black Knight sketch in Monty Python's Holy Grail (terrific movie, and freely available to preview courtesy of the net.)
Once you've abused the trust of a customer, it's virtually impossible to get it back. When it comes to the proprietary holy grail, you'd think some lessons had been learned from the betamax, MiniDisc, ATRAC fiascos... but apparently, no.
Thomas Hesse (President of Sony’s Global Digital Business) had to say on the topic: “Most people, I think, don’t even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?”
Right.
It would be startling to hear the sheep bleating while being shorn.
So, while I try to mentally digest all the convoluted machinations of an Industry seemingly intent upon hoisting themselves on their own petard, I started to wonder where it all went wrong... when did loving music (surely the most non-essential product ever sold, as it's always been widely available for free) and sharing that music with others, become a crime?
That led me to pondering where it all began... for me, when I first heard something I knew I had to own and thus began my journey as fan and collector. It's a journey that has spanned several decades... starting with my first purchase of a coveted 45 r.p.m record - in the picture sleeve.
Alas, by the shadows falling across the face of the clock, t'is late and I will have to resume this at a later date. In the meantime...
- Loco -
(Now Playing: How Do You Keep The Music Playing? - Johnny Mathis)
posted by Loco Jones | 11:30 PM
1 Comments:
There's more...consider their EULA, covering digital music derived from said CD's.
Scary, no?
(BTW, my linked post has links to the original rootkit story as well as one where they've pulled the malware...for now...until, I'd bet, they figure out how to better cloak it...)
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