Sony Cripples Your Computer

SiNXation 11-01-2005

I came across this a few days ago but wanted to read up on it before posting it. It looks as though there's been a new CD-Protection scheme put into play and is already gone global.

Example is this cd here. If you view it for more then 3secs you will see the line [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD]. This type of protection does a number of things. One it has hidden files on the disc that are automatically installed on your system. Next it slows down your computer by about 1% when not using a media player, and 3~5% when using media player. Lastly it disables your CD/DVD drive.

It is easily removed once installed on your system but still this will only stop the novice of cd burner users out there.

BonitaPajarita

Those faukers!

:commando

Hsoolien

It should be added that this copyright protection system has been found as a way by hackers to bypass other protection schemes, notably Blizzards 'the Warden' anti cheat system (which is also controversial since it scans all running progs randomly searching for apps know to be cheats). It does this by hiding the fact the app is even running.


All in all while I admi the system does suck, if people had not en mass decided to steal the music in the first place (1/5 people you meet probably deserves a 5 year stint in jail) (and 'sharing' is stealing f the artist does not give explicit permission) we would not have comapines doing everything they possibly can to protect what is theirs.

BonitaPajarita

Off of what you just said Hoos...I think, ok charge people when you use an online service to download music like Yahoo! Music or Napster and stuff and pay a montly fee, but when you charge 99 cents per song in order for me to burn it on a CD is quite unfair. They act as if they are the ones doing all the work and that were using there CD's. I bought the CD and paid for the service.

And if they didnt want us to do certain things at the same time I think,....then why design it.

Thank god you can still get away with rippin cd's anyway like Windows Media Player or even Real Player or other softwares that are out there like my CreativeZen Micro that I have.

Im a bit unclear on what you said HOO's:

Hsoolien

99cents a song, say 15 songs a CD, that still only 15$ for a CD, pretty cheap and you guarentee your CD is 100% material you love (And here in Canada you are entitled to one legal copy of any media you own for archivial/backup/perosnal use, I used to copy a lot of my CD's for my car, but burns degrade so fast as to make them not worth it, cheaper to replace the CD if it gets fucked or such at the odds of it happening)

And contrary to popular belief buying the CD (or software) does not mean you now own that material, because of the inherint nature of intellectual property (no true physical form) a differnet set of ownership rules need to apply. You are essentially renting the service of that software/song, under certian rules, the least of which is that you will not give away something you do not own to other people. You do not have the right ot dictate to someone else that their effort will given away (or taken) by you with no compensation to them. It's the same as saying "You are a bitch, you will now take it in the ass from me, for your time is worth nothing, and you are worth nothing, bow down and lick my shit for I am your supreme master you unworthy fuck face piece of shit", and no one I mean NO ONE has the right to dictate the self worth of another human being. So yeah you pirate/share music, then literally taking it in the ass in jail is 100% proper justice for metaphoriclly doing it up the ass of the artists you degraded.

Does the price of music seem a little high?

Well consider:
1 year to write/master/record the average album
Say it only takes you three months to wrote the music, well say an 8 hour day, 10 bucks an hour, you have now made about 4 or 5 thousand dollars. (in debt, cause you have not recieved payment for this music yet), then recording (usually about 20$ an hour for mid level studio up here), say a month their. (another 4 grand gone), then amstering (prices range from 10-100grand depending who you get to do it), and of course marketing, promotions etc.

Artists make litterally a dollar or less a CD (more for music played on air), now if you hit it off you stand to make some cash, but just because aperson is rich, does not make it any more correct to steal from them. Besides the law that protects their msuic from theft also says it hits public after so much time (usally 10-15 years after the original recording, depends on country, renewal of copyrights, etc), so in the end most artists make a living providing you with something you enjoy, so why not pay them for it.


Now I'll admit prices are high and the inudsrty is making mistakes (raising prices to cover losses, instead of lowering prices to encourage poeople to make legal purchases, heavy handed copyright measures), but their is always underground music (cheaper, and quite often better consistancy), and of course only buying the songs you want online.

It's funny how many people use the price of music as an excuse to steal it. If I walk into a high end leather store and just walk off with say a 1000$ jacket, would you allow it cause I felt the price was too high for the jackjet?

As for the other part, esseintialy cheaters are using sony's anti-piracy software to hide their cheats (since it hides files form snooping so it can hide itself and protect itself form being forced to shutdown and thus bypassed)

BonitaPajarita

Ooook so your a bit sensative on the subject I see. Breathe man Breathe!

Well you are right its wrong that they are increasing prices and changing the law when all it would take is to lower prices so people will continue to buy CD's. I heard on our radio station here on 104KRBE that Tommy Lee has a new CD comming out and he went through someone else and did alot of other processing for his CD on his own and is charging 7.00 a CD in the stores so that way kids/parents can buy the CD with out being charged and Arm and a Leg. No teenybopper is going to keep asking mommy and/or daddy for more money to buy that stuff cause they know mom and dad will probably say no when it gets too high, unless money is not an issue for you. Or they will look for other ways to obtain it when its too much.

And I know some about the music business...I sing, I've done touring, I've seen the shitty pay, on the other end the hard work that goes into it as well, at the same time, I love singing and so it didn't bother me as much the money aspect, yeah it was low, but I loved what I did. And I know that when it comes to record sales they get a small percentage from every CD that is sold. They get a huge amount of money from touring/apperances/etc, and its why they do tours instead of just making CD's.

What they do forget is that this is just another way that music is copied just like back in the day when your friends, or you had that one guy in your neighborhood where he would sell you copies for cheap on tape. Ya'll remember those days. The only difference with this is information travels a bit faster but not to mention that not everyone has a computer in there house hold and that some ppl are buying this stuff from other people. So I could understand when you maybe make a copy of a CD for a person or two but when you start handing it out or selling it like hotcakes then yeah that is wrong.

How can you say that getting charged a monthly fee to download songs and then to get charged to burn every song that you want is the best deal. Your looking at like, just a figure for example, $15.00 USD a month + 13.00 (.99cents a CD) - so you come out pay a lil bit more this way than buying the cd or just getting individual songs and paying something maybe cheaper per song. Not to mention depending upon how many songs are on the CD too! Just charge a flat fee and be done with it I say.

For me...some type of music i listen too its hard to even try to get it main stream or not even available (cause its overseas or music is a different language). Or even mixed stuff or dj's stuff.

Over all I just think this could be handled a lot better and they are just jumping ahead with out thinking about it and in the end I think its going to fall on everyones faces and for those like the RIAA and other that are overly- suing, over charging, etc. It just could be dealt with SO differently or at least better.

GIR

to SINs post,

That does suck, i dont like sony and try not to buy anythign from them.

sassicassi

you know this is just way too much for me to read right now ...... How bout I say I agree with everyone lol .. my eyes hurt lol

Kinky

I second that sassicassi!!!

Raven

UPDATE:

Sony has removed this from their cds due to everyone treating it as a virus/malware. Although I didn't think it would work on alot of peoples system that re-configure their settings. If you use a computer how it is and really don't change settings (no I'm not talking about colors and wallpapers), I'm refering to auto-run on drives. If its turned off this protection didn't work.