Eject media?

Do you ever get that feeling that there's someone or something out there ruining everything for everyone else? I know I do.

The Media is corrupt

We all know Sony. Sony is a big company that makes televisions, stereos, game-consoles and lots of other stuff. They also publish music. In recent weeks Sony has received infamy when it was discovered that they actually install a rootkit (rootkit is a piece of software that hides in the computer and exposes the system to all kinds of security-threats) on the users computer! They do this to make sure that no-one would copy their precious music. The rootkit also communicates with Sony, telling them who is making copies and where. The acronym to remember here is "DRM", short for "Digital Rights Management". I can't see CRM or "Consumer Rights Management" anywhere.

A reminder: copying music is perfectly legal.

After furious backlash from paying customers, Sony is now backtracking on their "hey, let's nuke our customers computers, and expose them to security-risks and viruses!"-strategy. Of course, refunds are not mentioned, nor is publish lashing of Sony-execs on the books. But things are better, right?

Well, no. As it happens, the rootkit is only half the picture. Then there's the EULA (End User License Agreement). I'm not going to go through the EULA, because EFF did a great job at explaining it. You can't make that stuff up! Seriously!

So, not only is Sony attacking your computer with dangerous software, they are _trying_ to limit your legally-mandated rights. And they do all that and more, in order to protect their precious "intellectual property". What about the customers intellectual property? If the users loes his data because of malware Sony installed on his computer, is Sony liable? According to Sony, they are not. Yet, Sony reserves the right to screw over your computer in order to protect THEIR intellectual property!

You are liable for everything, they are not liable for anything. That's the way it works these days. And remember: YOU are giving your money to THEM! And in return, they screw you over!

But there's even more... It seems that Sony's rootkit contains copyrighted code from the LAME-project. What does this mean? It means that Sony is stealing LAME-developers' intellectual property and violating their rights, in order to protects Sony's intellectual property and rights. In short: Sony is doing the exact same thing they want to prevent with their rootkit! they want to protect their intellectual property, and in doing so, they are stealing someone else's intellectual property!

Welcome to my blacklist, Sony!

You WILL do as we tell you to do!

It doesn't stop there. Digital media is already full of "Digital Rights Management". But, as the saying goes, if you can see or hear something, you can copy it. And that has irritated powers-at-be for a long time. And they are planning to "fix" it by "plugging the analog hole". No, I'm not kidding. I could write long pieces of text about this, but I'm not going to. Instead, I urge you to read the article on Arstechica. They did great job at explaining it.

Bottom line: media-companies are slowly stripping consumers of their rights, in order to "protect" their intellectual property. They have the money to make these things happen, you or I do not.

Sometimes I feel that I need to get away from all this bullshit. This corporate meddling, creeping pseudo-totalitarism, this CRAP. But it's the same everywhere. Unless I decide to move to a middle of Siberia or something. And to be honest, Siberia is becoming more and more appealing every day.