In case you missed it somehow: Sony Music released several CDs recently that contained some malicious copy protection software called "XCP". (They won't admit exactly how many, or which ones.) This program secretly installs itself on your hard drive when you put the CD in the computer, like a virus. It goes to great lengths to conceal itself from you, like a virus. It wastes your computer's time and slows everything down by constantly scanning for non-Sony-approved activities, like a virus. It cannot be uninstalled, like a virus. It damages your operating system and leaves gaping holes that can be exploited by other attackers and viruses.

Sony was quite happy to ignore the resulting uproar for months, until an assistant to the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security told them in public to knock it off. The company is now facing class action lawsuits and criminal investigations in several states and countries. They have stopped the production of XCP-infected discs and have issued the following semi-apology:

A warm personal message from me to anybody that might be in any way connected with Sony/BMG Music, or any of its many labels and subsidiaries:

Your "XCP" copy protection scheme is the most disgusting example of arrogance and greed I have yet noticed in the music publishing industry, which is no small accomplishment. I have avoided buying crippled CDs for a while now, but because of the XCP debacle I have taken the trouble to look up the labels that you distribute (Arista, Columbia, Epic, RCA, and others) and will specifically avoid buying any more of your new releases whether they are crippled or not.

This is too bad, since you currently own some artists that I am going to miss (Trey Anastasio, for one). And your "dual disc" format, with DVD video on one side and CD audio on the other, could have been cool. That's all you ever had to do, was work just a little bit harder to give us some incentive to buy your products instead of pirating them, which has always been pretty inconvenient. If you had just used a little more carrot and less stick, we would have been fine. But now, I will just have to make sure I wait to buy Sony albums used, since I know that when I do that, you don't receive a dime and it really chaps your ass. Too bad about those silly courts and the right of first sale, eh?

But you could not care less about the few hundred dollars of my money that you have lost, so I will of course influence as many people as I can to do the same. I hope that thousands of people learn to associate the Sony brand name and your oh-so-distinctive Dual Disc and UMD formats with spyware and Trojan horses. I hope that this costs you millions of disc sales. I hope this motivates a few of your popular recording artists to find another publisher (to the extent that they are able, given that you were screwing your talent for decades before you turned on us customers). I hope that this accelerates the collapse of your publishing business and its entire parent corporation, which we know is already struggling. I hope that ten years from now, the names of Sony and Bertelsmann are remembered only as a cautionary tale.

Very truly yours,

M. Dickerson

14 Nov 2005 01:14 PT - persistent link - trackback - 0 comments