Sony DRM and the press corpse
p2p news view / p2pnet: In a post to Sony BMG DRM disaster worsens, Rik wonders, ” Are there any journalists out there reading this that are working for a major newspaper or media outlet who’d like to post anonomyously as to why this is being ignored in the press?”
Here’s an interesting response: >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The edge of the horizon
Reader’s Write – p2pnet
I don’t think you should see anything sinister in that. I’m sure Sony would be prepared to subvert news, to do almost anything, but it would be told where to go.
(On the other hand, as Bruce Schneier argues at Wired, I *do* think the slow reaction of many security companies and of Microsoft is suspicious. They haven’t protected their own customers: they have had an “industry versus the customers mentality”.)
The story has run in the print media here in the UK. See, for example:
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9075-1873580,00.html
… it just hasn’t made a big splash. However, the BBC, I was pleased to see, has actually run several items in its Technology News Section:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/default.stm
And, in fact, I think you should see a clue in that. The BBC, because of its anomolous and anachronistic funding-model, can afford to have full-time tech journalists on the staff. I doubt many news outlets can. The largest-selling broadsheet newspaper over here – The Daily Telegraph – actually laid off the guy who did its weekly computer-help column, although I just checked, and he seems to be back now.
More generally, I think almost all tech/online news is only of the edge of the horizon for most mainstream news organizations.
Consequently, what you have on this, as on most other tech news, is patchy and sporadic press coverage. Thank goodness for the blogosphere, eh? I think you’ll find that most media outlets have recycled Reuters’ stuff on this. And when they do write material themselves, they get it wrong.
USA Today, I learnt on the tWiT podcast, referred to Sony’s “virus”. Hardly accurate (as the malware doesn’t self-replicate) but serve Sony right to get the v-word. 
That reminds me of Patience Wheatcroft, the (London) Times’s business editor who in her write-up of the Microsoft US DOJ trial said that Microsoft had been accused of integrating Internet Explorer into Word. Probably, to such a person, a computer *means* “Microsoft Word”.
How can such people be expected to understand what the case was about?
I expect this story still has legs. And, if it goes to court, it will certainly get coverage in the mainstream press, although I’d expect many articles to be less than well-informed.
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local political representatives. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance.
November 20th, 2005 at 2:37 am
In Oz the only mention i’ve seen it get in the local rags (yes rupert and kerry they’re all just rags, get over it) has been official press releases.
So here’s the trick. When you want them to mention something, just find out their fax number and send them an “official press release for immediate release”. They won’t have the time or inclination to check that it’s the real thing or not and will probly only edit it for space reasons if at all.
November 20th, 2005 at 5:45 am
It’s simple you see. It’s called a cover up!!!! But if you could link Bush to it then it would get a ton of Press!!!!!!!!!!!
November 20th, 2005 at 6:36 am
Lol @ the suggestion provided by the poster above. In that theme you can just about guarentee world wide coverage if you can link it to being something being cause by those dastardly p2p pirates.
*wanders off looking for where the ship parking lot is, while feeling for more change to feed the meter*
November 20th, 2005 at 5:34 pm
Yes this does make sense. in todays fast food type press the effort is to get out a story first, be sensationalistic, and get the ratings. Todays breed of reporters do not know what real investigative reporting is and are obsessed with tabloid type stories that take up whole half hour shows. Example, I read where Greta Van Sustern (sp?) of Fox has climbed to the top “news show” mostly because of her coverage of Natalee Holloway.
The older reporters who know how to follow up on leads and get it right before airing a story are either trapped in the beauracy of todays Media conglomorates, more interested in politics, or are so overwealmed with work all they can do is spoonfeed press releases from corporate america to the public as truths.
Walter Cronkite, Barbara Walters, Bernard Shaw, have taken a back seat to Geraldo Reveria, Rita Cosby, and Bill O’reiley.
November 20th, 2005 at 10:36 pm
Of course the real answer as to why mainstream journalists don’t get this and can’t write about it, is that they’re all arts graduates!
November 21st, 2005 at 1:26 am
Sony and Sony owned Colombia Pictures have very large advertisement budgets. That give Sony a great deal of power in the news media, the press. Also many media companies are in the movie industry. For example CBS is owned by the same company that owns Paramount Pictures. Time-Warner owns Warner Brother, and so on.
We cannot expect impartial coverage by the news media. Freedom of the press means that, the “press” is free to fool the customer or viewers so as to retain the advertiser customers or to help the other businesses of the “press” conglomarates.
Freedom of the (traditional) press has always been a mirage. Luckily the Internet cames just in time to spread the true news. Nevertheless we must be alert. Dark forces are trying to limit the uses of the Internet under the guise of protecting copyright owners.
Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas
November 21st, 2005 at 2:42 am
The headline for this article says just about all there is to say on the subject. With instant person to person information sharing now a reality, the press, which does little more than regurgitate corporate news handouts, will soon find itself a casualty in the war being waged by suppliers against their own consumers, and the corpse of the press corps will soon wither and sere in the sunlight of the Information Age.
November 21st, 2005 at 8:38 am
The reason none of the Anti-Virus companies moved very quickly on this is because of the DMCA. Check out this link at the EFF. http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/?f=unintended_consequences.html
Is it really surprising no-one was falling over themselves to release an un-installer? Alex Haldermann got the dogs set on him for suggesting holding down the shift key when inserting a copy-protected CD – the company behind it was SunnComm, another of Sonys copy protection suppliers.
Microsoft also knew well in advance due to blue screens caused by aries.sys which is part of the ‘rootkit’. What did they do? Simply directed people to First4Internet and Sony.
They are all SCARED of the recording industry lawyers and the DCMA – and I for one don’t blame them. I doubt Norton, F-Secure, CA or any of the other security companies could afford to go head to head with Sony on this, especially if Sony had been quick off the mark with its PR machine. As already mentioned this ‘tech’ stuff doesn’t get much main stream press attention, but music piracy certainly does.
Thank god for blogs and the bravery shown by Mark Russinovich and F-Secure.