It is bad enough trying to keep your computer free of viruses, spyware, and those annoying pop-up ads that can download even more nasty stuff to one’s hard drive. Now we have to beware of music CDs and their associated software that comes along with the tunes. It is sending another sour note in the music industry, a sad song indeed.
At least one of Sony’s music CDs comes with special rights management software from a company called First 4 Internet. The software came with the CD from the Van Zants called <i>Get Right with the Man</i> (ironic title completely unintentional).
The software is used to play the music files from the CD and monitor how the music is used by the PC, ostensibly to prevent digital copying and ripping the music. Sadly, the software does more than that, including burrowing deep into your Windows OS and purposely disguising itself and hiding its executable files from plain sight. Worse yet, the software steals performance from your computer in doing its bidding. Even more ironically, the software is Windows-only, meaning that you can still rip the tunes on your Mac without having to worry about having this code enter your system.
The security researcher who uncovered this sad state of affairs, Mark Russinovich, continues to dig deeper this week as Sony backpedals and offers half-baked fixes to the situation. As he mentions on his site, “the EULA does not disclose the software’s use of cloaking or the fact that it comes with no uninstall facility.” Before the story broke, there was no way to remove this code without knowing a great deal about where it was located and how to uncover it. I guess that is part of the design: after all, why would you install a rights management client if you could easily remove it? But people don’t install DRM, big faceless corporations that want to continually grab your wallet do.
Unfortunately, that Catch-22 is at the basis of why digital rights management will ultimately fail, just as every other digital copy protection scheme has failed in the past. While most people don’t care, and just want to play their music, music I might add that they have legitimately purchased, those that do care will spend the extra time like Russinovich and go to great lengths to remove it from their systems. And it isn’t because they want to become digital scofflaws. They just want to get access to their music files without any associated baggage, and play their tunes where and when they want to.
What makes matters worse is how Sony is dealing with the situation, and how they continue to get caught up in their copy protection. There are three big lies here. First is how they are not being upfront in their EULAs (not that most of us read this documents anyway, but still). Not being upfront on their Web pages dealing with the matter is the second:
“The protection software simply acts to prevent unlimited copying and ripping from discs featuring this protection solution. It is otherwise inactive. The software does not collect any personal information nor is it designed to be intrusive to your computer system.”
Not according to my reading of the situation. Code that takes away a couple of percentage points of CPU performance is not what I would call inactive.
But the final straw is issuing a “uninstall patch” that doesn’t really uninstall the code. The tool that Sony has posted on their Web site last week doesn’t remove anything, but just reveals the files and updates its DRM code with something even more heinous. This won’t do. Sony needs to face the music, as it were, and stop meddling with my machine.
When I buy a CD (and I do buy them from time to time), I don’t want anything extra coming along for the ride. I want access to my music in my car, at work, at home, and on any of the various digital devices that I currently listen to. I want to make backup copies because CDs aren’t indestructible and they do wear out, especially since I leave many of them in my car. I don’t want to be treated like a common criminal, nor do I wish to infect my PC with something that will sap its performance and communicate back to Sony what I am listening to.
It is ironic that contemporaneously with Sony’s actions, the TV industry is getting its act together and selling more programming to people who will gladly pay a buck an episode. Disney started this ball rolling, and this week other networks announced they will get on board and make it easier for people to download content. There is a lesson to be learned from the video studios that the music industry could learn. How much piracy would go away if we would could pay 25 cents a song?
It was bad enough when the lawyers of the recording industry went after teenagers and others for participating on peering networks. It was bad enough when people and businesses that I don’t know are trying to grab my bits and deposit their digital crap all over my PC without my knowledge or agreement. Now Sony is coming after my hard drive. As I have said before, Sony, and the rest of the music industry, needs to back down and treat its customers properly, or we will all go away. You could say they need to get right by the Man before the Man goes elsewhere. I know I will think twice the next time I buy a CD. Or at least run it on my Mac.