Music

Don’t Play Sony CDs in Your PC

This entry was posted in Intellectual Property Law Music Technology on by

Better yet, don’t even buy them until Sony stops a whole bunch of bad behavior:

the EULA does not disclose the software’s use of cloaking or the fact that it comes with no uninstall facility. An end user is not only installing software when they agree to the EULA, they are losing control of part of the computer, which has both reliability and security implications. There’s no way to ensure that you have up-to-date security patches for software you don’t know you have and there’s no way to remove, update or even identify hidden software that’s crashing your computer.
The EULA also makes no reference to any “phone home” behavior, and Sony executives are claiming that the software never contacts Sony and that no information is communicated that could track user behavior. However, a user asserted in a comment on the previous post that they monitored the Sony CD Player network interactions and that it establishes a connection with Sony’s site and sends the site an ID associated with the CD.
I decided to investigate so I downloaded a free network tracing tool, Ethereal, to a computer on which the player was installed and captured network traffic during the Player’s startup. A quick look through the trace log confirmed the users comment: the Player does send an ID to a Sony web site.
….. (go to above link to see screen shots)
I dug a little deeper and it appears the Player is automatically checking to see if there are updates for the album art and lyrics for the album it’s displaying. This behavior would be welcome under most circumstances,…

Let’s see: hidden software, no easy way to uninstall, lying about how the software works, and,well, there may be more that we don’t know about yet. I do think no purchase is the right action: Boycott Sony music CDs!
And, I disagree with mark’s assertion that checking for album art and lyric updates “would be welcome under most circumstances.” It should only be welcome if the system owner specifically asks for it to happen and given the extremely limited value of this information on a day to day basis such requests should be very rare.
Via MU at Running Scared.

What Not To Buy At Wal-Mart

This entry was posted in Culture Marketing Music on by

Willie Nelson’s new album:

Assuming you buy anything at all there…. Wal-Mart apparently doesn’t like the cover.
A second thought: Yes, the cover image links to Modulator’s Amazon account but perhaps we shouldn’t buy it all or anything else put out by Universal Music Group until they stop licking the boots of the censors at Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart certainly has every right to stock their shelves with items of their choosing but we do not have to support them or those who support the policy.
Via skippy’s place which you should hit many times today. Happy Birthday and many millions of hits to you!

CD Copy Protection

This entry was posted in Intellectual Property Music on by

My first reaction when I read the subtitle of this San Jose Mercury News article (R)?

MAJOR LABELS TO COPY-PROTECT ALL CDS SOLD IN THE U.S.

Well, I won’t be buying any of those CDs.
Then I read the article.
It looks like the schema being proposed will allow what I consider to be plenty of copies for typical fair use requirements. We do, in the Modulator family, make mix CDs and backup copies for the car and other places with high risk of theft. As long as I can make 3-4 copies I really don’t care whether I can make 7, 8 or more copies of a CD or for that matter whether I can put a song on an IPOD (yea, I know lots of you like IPODs).
Oh, and has anyone run across any betting lines on how long before the most onerous of the copy protection schemes will be breached? If one really wants to some of the approaches appear to be rather trivial to get around.

Boycott Ending?

This entry was posted in Business US Capitalism Economics Libertarianism Marketing Music Talk Radio on by

Maybe.
I’ve have successfully avoided any Clear Channel operated music venues for, well, since clear channel entered the concert promotion business and still enjoyed a lot of good music.
Now comes this possible good news:

Clear Channel Communications, the world’s largest radio broadcaster, will spin off its live-entertainment unit…

This, of course, wouldn’t have anything to do with:

Get ready to hear music to your ears: Concert ticket prices are about to come down.
Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones and Coldplay are set to go on tour — but the real news for music fans is an expected drop of as much as 30 percent on some tickets, concert experts said.
Clear Channel Entertainment, the world’s largest concert promoter, is leading the way, cutting the prices for its lawn seats.
The show-biz giant is considering running a big ad campaign with the tag line “Music Sounds Better on Grass,” sources said.
No-frills seats at Clear Channel venues that used to go for as much as $40 will now cost $20. On top of that, Clear Channel is ditching the $4 facility fee it used to charge, all in an effort to lure back sticker-shocked music lovers.

Or, this:

Clear Channel thought its combination of assets would create a powerful, across-the-board platform for advertising sales on its billboards, at concert and sports venues and on its 1,200 radio stations.
Instead, the combination irked music fans, record labels and artists, who complained that Clear Channel used its might to punish artists who didn’t play by its rules and contributed to the sharp rise in ticket prices at venues it controls.

Final decision on the boycott to come after the spin-off happens and I’ve evaluated the new ownership structure.
Via Eschaton.