Boycott Sony Music
Dan Goodin has issued a call over at Wired News for consumers to boycott Sony. Two or three weeks ago, a computer security researcher discovered that playing certain music CDs distributed by the Sony BMG Music label, on a Windows PC causes a Windows rootkit to be installed as part of a software program that is intended to prevent the CD purchaser from "ripping" the music on the CD to mp3 audio files that can be played on a portable mp3 player such as Apple Computers popular iPod.
Despite the fact that the principle of Fair Use is generally held to allow consumers to make a copy of music they've purchased for backup purposes or other personal use, Sony has seen fit to issue some of their music CDs in a format that doesn't conform to the official CD standard so they can implement a copy-prevention scheme of dubious value. If you buy one of these "copy protected" CDs and want to listen to it on your iPod, you're out of luck. Sony says you can't. To make matters worse though, according to Goodin the software, "gives no warning of the rootkit, nor does it inform users that it prompts PCs to contact a Sony website for updated lyrics or art, and in the process, reveals the user's internet address and details about how often the CD has been played."
After being "outed" by the security researcher and enduring several days of bad publicity on the internet, Sony reluctantly agreed to temporarily stop the practice while they look into the issue. They made no apology to consumers for surreptitiously installing a security-compromising rootkit on their computer, and have made no easy way available for uninstalling the software/rootkit. As part of the statement they issued, they said, "We stand by content protection technology as an important tool to protect our intellectual property rights and those of our artists," indicating they still don't feel they've done anything wrong.
I must agree with Dan Goodin's call for a boycott of Sony. Don't buy any music on the Sony/BMG label. If you have a favorite artist that is signed to Sony, write them and let them know why you won't be buying any of their recordings, and ask them to pressure their label to cease this unethical practice.
For a good background on the timeline of this story take a look at this story from Wired News.
Despite the fact that the principle of Fair Use is generally held to allow consumers to make a copy of music they've purchased for backup purposes or other personal use, Sony has seen fit to issue some of their music CDs in a format that doesn't conform to the official CD standard so they can implement a copy-prevention scheme of dubious value. If you buy one of these "copy protected" CDs and want to listen to it on your iPod, you're out of luck. Sony says you can't. To make matters worse though, according to Goodin the software, "gives no warning of the rootkit, nor does it inform users that it prompts PCs to contact a Sony website for updated lyrics or art, and in the process, reveals the user's internet address and details about how often the CD has been played."
After being "outed" by the security researcher and enduring several days of bad publicity on the internet, Sony reluctantly agreed to temporarily stop the practice while they look into the issue. They made no apology to consumers for surreptitiously installing a security-compromising rootkit on their computer, and have made no easy way available for uninstalling the software/rootkit. As part of the statement they issued, they said, "We stand by content protection technology as an important tool to protect our intellectual property rights and those of our artists," indicating they still don't feel they've done anything wrong.
I must agree with Dan Goodin's call for a boycott of Sony. Don't buy any music on the Sony/BMG label. If you have a favorite artist that is signed to Sony, write them and let them know why you won't be buying any of their recordings, and ask them to pressure their label to cease this unethical practice.
For a good background on the timeline of this story take a look at this story from Wired News.
posted by RocketJam at 10:30 AM
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