Music Industry - Everyone is a potential Criminal
 

To all of you that agued that DMCA wouldn't result in anything harmful coming out of the entertainment industry, well, it is now well known that newer Sony BMG audio CDs drop a little present on your Windows box. The importance of this? <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/10/sony_drm_trojan/">It is already being exploited</a>, <a href="http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=919">is being used by other spyware to further compromise your system</a>, and is even <a href="http://online.securityfocus.com/brief/34">disrupting World of Warcraft</a>.

Besides, the moment you drop the money down on the counter for the CD, you're <a href="http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004145.php">agreeing to some really bizarre legal agreement</a>.

Shit, Sony, why you gotta be so nasty?

Ho-lee Cow! (scuse me, got to make another HoF induction)

A freakin' self-cloaking rootkit. That's just evil. Wait, I just read the third link...that EULA is evil.

One small bright spot...the default behavior on my XP system is to Prompt for Action when a cd/dvd is inserted into the drive. This is the default behavior for music, video, mixed, etc, all kinds of discs. I have regularly said Cancel to the little dialog box, and now I have changed to Take No Action.

Thanks for the tip Kitsune. Seriously. I publish internally a Tip of the Week for the company and this post is it. I'll have an extra 20 minutes Monday morning cause this is already done. :tips cap:

From what I've read, it appears that the CDs drop their code through MS Media Player, not through the autorun. I could be wrong, though, but I'm not certain that the "take no action" security policy setting is enough to block it.

Anyways, the DRM software even <a href="http://www.sysinternals.com/blog/2005/11/more-on-sony-dangerous-decloaking.html">contacts Sony servers to check for updates</a> and removal looks like a total bitch according to the finder.

You have to love something that <a href="http://www.internetnews.com/security/article.php/3561161">kills your CD player</a>. How nice of Sony, but how equally kind of Windows to have a security hole that allows software to create unlocatable files, registry keys, and invisible services.

<a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20051108/tc_pcworld/123454">Looks like Italy is pursuing legal actions, now</a>, against Sony and the DRM kit creator.


I'm sticking with iTunes and my Mac.

What if you use something such as Winamp or some other media player?

"Here's your vocabulary word for the morning: rootkit". This story on NPR is a useful audio description of the story for those who aren't into reading "rootkit" and seeing "apocalypse". Recommended.

Woop! Spoke too soon! <a href="http://www.macintouch.com/#tip.2005.11.10.sony">Macs get it, too</a>, it just isn't concealed so well.

Addition: you have to run it manually and, well, you'd be stupid to do so. Macs prompt for admin passwords before doing any installs, although this Sony DRM doesn't notify you what it is.

Sony/BMG has *deep* pockets. Some smart lawyer is gonna kick their ass with a class-action suit and retire on his share.

Stupid fucks. Greed. Purely greed. Not only do they own the product (you know, the one you shelled out $15 or more to "own"?), but now they've decided that they own your computer too.

BOO-YAH!!
 

Yeah! Score one for the good guys!

Once the word got out, Sony risked people voting with their feet. A draconian solution like the one they were using only works if people don't have another choice. When people learned about it, it became a consumer issue. Very few people are so attached to a single artist that they couldn't weigh the alternatives and choose an unprotected CD by a different artist.

Wait until the artists start suing Sony for having crippled their sales because of this.

They will find their contract allows Sony to do whatever they want.

Which in the long run could make UT a very wealthy man. :)

I would be happy enough if Sony were made poor by it.

The stories of big label horror are starting to really come through now, and not a week goes by where I don't hear about some really awesome music that is simply unavailable because a label maintains the publishing rights and has left it out of print.

For example the first two Bears albums cannot be purchased at any price. There may be only 1000 people who want that material. Nobody is going to make a dime off it. But no matter, it is music which cannot be had legally.

Typically, in these cases, the artist says go ahead and b**tleg it. They will not see a dime from it if it is ever sold anyway.

Maybe. In California contract law, there is a "good faith" implication, which states that both parties are acting in good faith, in accordance with the stipulations stated. It's the clause that allows you to sue your medical insurance company when they refuse to cover standard procedures based on their own non-standard classifications system (Chemotherapy as an experimental, non-covered procedure?).

I can see an artist bringing a case that holds the label liable for acting in bad faith. The intent of the recording contract is to secure distribution for the recorded content. The obligation of the artist is to provide and promote that content. The obligation of the label is to fund and distribute that content.

This kind of crippling DRM might be a "bad faith" act on the part of the labels - an act that essentially voids their obligation to distribute the content.

I dunno. Might be a shot in the wind, but if I were an artist whose fan base suddenly threw a riot and left because of the actions of my label, i might sue.