In a scathing attack on Sony, CNet editor Molly Wood calls this last week as the beginning of a war the media content companies have waged on its own consumers. How did that happen? In one of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever seen by a technology company, Sony somehow though it was acceptable to force the user to install a rootkit in order to listen to some albums under their record label. Have a listen to this NPR report for more breifing on this situation. By the way, someone needs to tell Ari Schwartz, Associate Director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, who was interviewed by NPR that the “root” part of the term is not derived because “it’s at the root of the computer” but rather because by having “root” access on a unix/linux based system means you have super-admin access. It’s really not that big of a deal, except for his occupation as a Washington DC technology lobbyist. I would have hoped he knew what he was talking about.

How about this comment from the story as well… the President of Sony BMG’s Global Digital Business stated “Most people, I think, do not even know what a Rootkit is, so why should they care about it?” How unbelievable is that?!?! Ignorance is bliss I guess Mr. Hessa. I just couldn’t believe a Sony exec would say such a thing, basically saying that what you don’t know doesn’t concern you, even though it is on your personal computer.

Anyways… Sony’s latest attempt is just a a natural evolution of the media/software/technology companies attempts at preventing people from doing perfectly legal things with products they buy (CD “Ripping” falls under fair use laws). Molly Wood gives a great description of what we are facing now days and how absurd it is getting.


No, we ain’t gonna take it

This is an unacceptable development in digital rights enforcement. I don’t know how to put this any more clearly. Don’t get me wrong--we’ve long since crossed the line. It’s utterly absurd that we accept paying for music that will play on only one or two digital audio players, at best. It’s absolutely insane that anyone ever tried to put out a CD that couldn’t be ripped to a PC at all. It’s a complete joke that we’re sitting around anticipating the day when TiVo comes along to tell us when we have to watch a recorded show, and that it will choose when a recorded show might be deleted. I can’t even believe cell phone carriers think it’s OK to cripple cell phone features in order to protect their own moneymaking propositions. And Hollywood’s proposed new Analog Hole legislation, which would criminalize nearly every digital video activity you can think of, is another column unto itself, and it’s going to be a long one.



But this--using the tactics of criminals to invade our PCs without our knowledge and to expose us to further attack, just so you can keep us from, say, burning a mix CD and giving it to our friends--this is beyond the pale. And as many news sources are beginning to point out, there’s some reason to think it might also be illegal, under the U.S. Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.