Music Industry - Everyone is a potential Criminal

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

They could send an invincible, uncorruptible RIAA executive to accompany each CD wherever it goes, to make sure the so-called 'customer' is not using it in an unapproved manner.

Would shoving it up his ass be an 'unapproved manner'?

[Happy Monkey]

He'd be fine with that. If it's up his ass, you can't copy it.

Unfortunately, since he's invincible, it might be hard to get it up there.

[tw]

You gotta love this guy Mark.

From SysInternal dated 1 Nov 2005:

Sony, Rootkits and Digital Rights Management Gone Too Far
I entered the company name into my Internet browser's address bar and went to http://www.first4internet.com/. I searched for both the product name and Aries.sys, but came up empty. However, the fact that the company sells a technology called XCP made me think that maybe the files I’d found were part of some content protection scheme. I Googled the company name and came across this article, confirming the fact that they have deals with several record companies, including Sony, to implement Digital Rights Management (DRM) software for CDs. ...

At that point I knew conclusively that the rootkit and its associated files were related to the First 4 Internet DRM software Sony ships on its CDs. Not happy having underhanded and sloppily written software on my system I looked for a way to uninstall it. However, I didn’t find any reference to it in the Control Panel's Add or Remove Programs list, nor did I find any uninstall utility or directions on the CD or on First 4 Internet's site. I checked the EULA and saw no mention of the fact that I was agreeing to have software put on my system that I couldn't uninstall. Now I was mad.

... they were either configured as boot-start drivers or members of groups listed by name in the HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SafeBoot subkeys, which means that they load even in Safe Mode, making system recovery extremely difficult if any of them have a bug that prevents the system from booting.

... Deleting the drivers had disabled the CD. Now I was really mad.

Not only had Sony put software on my system that uses techniques commonly used by malware to mask its presence, the software is poorly written and provides no means for uninstall. Worse, most users that stumble across the cloaked files with a RKR scan will cripple their computer if they attempt the obvious step of deleting the cloaked files.

[SteveDallas]

I've been wondering when the first big classical album with DRM attached with come out...

[BigV]

You knew their potential for evil, did you know they're lazy as well?

Sony BMG's Costly Silence
The label was alerted to the secret, virus-vulnerable software on its CDs long before the scandal broke. Trouble is, it didn't act immediately to alert consumers

"If [Sony] had woken up and smelled the coffee when we told them there was a problem, they could have avoided this trouble," says Mikko H. Hypponen, F-Secure's director of antivirus research.

[richlevy]

I just got an e-mail from United that offered me 5 free songs from Connect Music. I do not know much about the competing services, so I followed the link and found that Connect was owned by Sony and that some features would not work since I wasn't using Intenet Explorer.

Thank you Firefox.

BTW, I love their privacy statement.

5. Sharing Your Personal Information.

Notice of Sharing. Sony CONNECT may share your personal information or other information as follows: (a) with affiliated Sony companies (i.e., (i) Sony Corporation, (ii) any company of which more than 50% of its outstanding shares are owned by Sony Corporation, directly or indirectly, and (iii) any company with the name "SONY" as a part of its trade name) who may want to contact you about products, services or other offerings that may be of interest to you; (b) with third parties with your consent (see "Sharing Subject To Your Consent," below); (c) with co-branded partners (see "Personal Information Provided Or Collected On A Co-Branded Web Site", below); (d) as may be required by law, legal process or court order; (e) as may be required to respond to an inquiry, request or complaint you have made; (f) to persons or companies whom Sony CONNECT engages to carry out or provide support for the operations of the Service or of Sony CONNECT’s business, which may include customer support services (such persons and companies are not permitted by Sony CONNECT to use the information for such persons’ or companies’ marketing purposes unless you indicate you provide your permission for such use by such entities); or (g) to protect the personal safety or property of you, our users, the public, our licensors or ourselves. You may need to communicate with the entities described in this section directly if you wish to amend or change any data you supply.

[Elspode]

Translation: "As soon as you give us your money and we let you borrow our property because of it, we own your ass."

[Harlan]

You called that one...