Posted by omarenoryt on 11/17/05 20:21

Oh no, are thieves throwing temper tantrums because media companies are
fucking them over from being able to steal? Their hysteria is even more
funny than their utter cowardice.

Bob wrote:
> Copyright © 2005 MarketWatch, Inc.
>
> Commentary: Sony faces 'spyware' backlash
> By John C. Dvorak
>
> BERKELEY, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- Content theft is here to stay and
> the big media companies are going to have to get used to it.
>
> Attempts to manage content with protection tricks simply antagonize
> the consumer and can become a long-term public relations nightmare.
>
> Over the past few weeks such a PR nightmare unfolded for the Sony
> Corporation music division as the company attempted to protect its
> music with a Digital Rights Management tool that consisted of what is
> considered onerous spyware. And it was the worst kind of spyware --
> the dreaded "rootkit." It makes a computer vulnerable to all sorts of
> other forms of malicious software.
>
> Numerous geeks and nerds discovered this and became alarmed. Within
> hours of the discovery of the Sony malware, the intertwined mesh of
> blogs and websites went berserk and the situation forced Sony to
> recall all the discs. Now Sony is seen as some sort of evil villain.
> Its reputation tarnished.
>
> Here is probably the most elaborate explanation of what this onerous
> software is all about.
>
> http://www.sysinternals.com/blog/2005/10/sony-rootkits-and-digital-rights..html
>
> It tells the whole story followed by a massive public denunciation of
> Sony by way of added reader comments.
>
> Thinking you are going to trick an audience filled with technologists
> who hate to be tricked is folly. From my perspective all DRM schemes
> have to be out in the open and people need to be warned in advance
> about what they do and how they work.
>
> It seems that the marketing folks know that this sort of thing will
> actually hurt sales and thus you have attempts to fool the public in
> hopes that nobody figures it out. One day someone will realize that if
> DRM is hurting sales, then perhaps it's not such a good idea after
> all.
>
> The idea behind DRM is that content in electronic form is so
> effortlessly copied and distributed with computers and networks that
> some tool is needed to keep tabs on the content itself. It needs to be
> managed somehow in the wild.
>
> This means mechanisms not dissimilar to the copy-protection schemes
> designed to keep commercial software from being copied. These began to
> appear in the 1980's resulting in the growth of commercial companies
> such as Central Point Software which specialized in devices that could
> defeat these systems.
>
> Back then there was a real fear that not having backup copies of
> software could be a disaster. This was a legitimate argument.
>
> But the rationale for defeating these systems has changed.
>
> Today the users and buyers of content who dislike DRM mechanisms
> believe that once they own a copy of the content they should be able
> to listen (or watch) it on whatever device they choose and make as
> many personal copies as they want. This is a massive change in
> rationale for cracking the protection mechanisms.
>
> This change in mentality I believe evolved from the cassette tape era
> when people legally copied music from record to tape. Each blank tape
> had a copy fee attached to it paid to the record companies who
> factored this into their finances. Once this model was established it
> became common (and acceptable) to copy.
>
> It is not possible to reverse this mentality. Any attempt to do so
> brings with it a backlash, as we've seen with the Sony situation.
>
> Once computers were able to read data from CD's and DVD's it was
> inevitable to everyone (except those who did not understand computers)
> that copying would run rampant. Worsening the situation was the
> Internet that allowed the data on the hard disk to be transferred over
> a network to anyone. Thus an actual sale was lost with each transfer
> and the industry saw this as a theft -- not of physical property but
> of a virtual sale whether real or imaginary.
>
> From here it gets fuzzy and debatable with the concept of "sharing"
> suddenly appearing.
>
> There is absolutely nothing that can be done about this problem.
>
> Content management will never work. If it did work then nobody would
> buy the products. The fact is that content producers are going to have
> to rethink their business model and make less money, the way print
> folks have had to do.
>
> Writers like myself and my editors make 1/10 the money people can make
> in the movie or music business for doing about the same amount of work
> (content generation). Our value is lessened by the fact that we cannot
> protect the written word from rampant copying. It started with the
> printing press, bootleg publishing, plagiarism, Xerox machines, email,
> online pilfering, cut-and-paste, etc., etc. We simply got used to it
> and live with it.
>
> Sony and all the other big media companies are simply going to have to
> live with what writers and editors have lived with for some time: a
> big cut in pay.
>
>
> --
>
> BOYCOTT SONY!
>
> SONY IS TRYING TO TAKE OVER YOUR COMPUTER!
>
> HOMELAND SECURITY TOLD SONY TO CEASE AND DESIST!
>
> YOU DO THE SAME - BOYCOTT SONY!

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