Damn Sony! In Junior High School You Were the Man Sony...

What the fuck happened to you?

It has been known for months now that Sony has been putting restrictive DRM (Digital Rights Management, a euphemism for Don't Rip Music) on their new CDs.So when you play a new Sony CD on a PC, you are limited to how many copies you can make of the CD, what media player you can use and which format you can rip the CD to. And now many Sony CDs won't work with iPods anymore.

Sony acts like this is a minor policy change while many artists speaking out against the policy. In response some of the artists on Sony's label, like Christian rock band, Switchfoot, have posted instructions of how to get around this nonsense. Jesus shares.

No one can argue against the pure stupidity of that new policy. But that wasn't enough for Sony. When click yes on their service agreement, Sony apparently installs a rootkit (a hidden program that monitors your habits) in your system that slows down your computer, and damages your CD drive upon removal. Here is the dumbass response from a Sony BMG representative as reported by CNet.

"The software could be easily uninstalled, by contacting the company's customer support service for instructions. Those instructions are not specifically available on the Web site that answers questions about the company's copy protection tools. "

That's what I really want to do after I pay $17.98 for a CD. So much for the risk of viruses from illegally downloaded music.

So let me get this, someone actually goes out and pays for an Alicia Keys Unplugged CD from Sony and they are monitored and shackled, but someone who snatches a Sony protected Carlos Santana album off of BitTorrent is free to copy and rip to their heart's desire? Maybe we deserve to be free from duplications of Alicia Keys music, but there has to be a better way to stop it.

It's sad that Sony insists on showing their irrelevance in the digital era after failing miserably in the transition from cassette and CD players to MP3 players. Alienate away Sony, Apple will gladly take all of the market share that they haven't already.