A couple of years ago, I ordered a CD from my favorite band, Stratovarius. While the disk played fine in my stereo and boom box, when I attempted to play it in my laptop, it wouldn’t play at all. What had happened was that the disk had apparently been written in such a way so as to not be playable in computers so that it couldn’t be copied. Note that I don’t even know how to make an MP3. Plus it is too much of a hassle to me anyway.

This was during the time when the record companies were starting to emply Gestaopo tactics to go after users who were using peer to peer networks to download songs. I figured that other bands and record companies were going to take the same tack as Stratovarius did and I wouldn’t be able to use new disks on my laptop when I travelled. I don’t want to bring a separate cd player with me when I go somewhere with my laptop.

So since then, I haven’t bought one cd. I have never used file sharing programs due to security concerns. And now with all this news about record companies secretely loading, and let’s call it what it is, malware on your computer in the name of copy protection, I am done with buying cd’s.

I don’t see how it can be legal for the labels to interdict people’s fair use rights. Moreover, there is an inherent presumption in putting this crap on every copy that all consumers are thieving pirates. Thanks for calling us guilty from the outset guys. I’m sure that business schools are teaching that the best way to curry favor with customers is to make war on them.

The reality is that the record companies have a long history of making war on new technology. When radio came out, the labels went ballistic when broadcasters began to play music, figuring that nobody would buy records if they could hear them over the air. Didn’t quite work out that way, now did it. Then they attacked cassette players when those came out and tried to get those pulled off the market. But then they relented when the devices created a new market (kinda like what happened with VCR’s later on). They then destroyed the DAT player for no good reason by running lawyers at it, and now are making war on the internet and computer technology in general rather than figuring out how to exploit it.

The record companies have appointed themselves technological gatekeepers. Where the hell do they get off in doing that? Either adapt or piss off you lot. We consumers just want to enjoy our purchases without having to think about it. But you’ve generated a lot of uncertainty in the consumer’s minds and now you are paying for it. The record industry’s reputation is only slightly more savory than organized crime and politicians. They have some fence mending to do and they need to shuffle their executives and bring in some people who can work within the framework of the 21st century and not that of the pre-digital era. Until you change your ways, you will not see one more dime from me. Ever.

“Our program is sold “as is”, with no guarantee that it will work.”.

That omission should have tipped off Sony BMG, as anyone can figure out that a program to ouperform or trick an existing one is always possible. As DVD Jon.

One would think that large corporations know how to think.

Or could this be a sign of an internal revolt at Sony BMG because employees do not like what they are doing, by criminilizing the people, mostly youth, and other things?

Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com

So there you go, be a nice customer, swallow what the providers give you and know it is in your best interests. After all, you have the comfort of knowing big name corporations with those “great reputations” are backing such products and you can use them all the comfort of mind that they know best how to use their products.

(scarasm free of charge)