Jazz Odyssey

From AP:

Stung by continuing criticism, the world’s second-largest music label, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, promised Friday to temporarily suspend making music CDs with antipiracy technology that can leave computers vulnerable to hackers.

So lots of folks jumped all over the big, bad record label when the news broke the other day about the Sony/BMG anti-piracy software having vulnerabilities that left computers open to hacker exploitation. The problem was even addressed by anti-virus companies who issued updates to their software that disabled the Sony/BMG software.

Those who know me would say that I’m the first guy who would stand up and say that any copy protection (or the record industry’s kinder/friendlier semantics of “copy control” or “copy management”) should be totally invisible to consumers who are doing the right thing and should never restrict consumers from repurposing their music digitally for their own listening enjoyment. However, having seen first-hand many times the number of bootleg discs on Manhattan streetcorners, I don’t have an issue with a piece of software that prevents a single consumer from making 20 or more copies…I defy anyone to tell me why you’d need to make 20 copies of a single disc you own. Or even 10 copies. And I further defy anyone to tell me that the folks selling those discs on the streetcorners have a right to do so.

That said, efforts to address the problem with a technology solution does not absolve any company of the responsibility to test thoroughly, disclose fully and ultimately treat customers well. In this instance, consumers paid this price–this is unacceptable. At the same time, all the testing in the world can’t guarantee a piece of software will be completely safe from hacking as companies from Microsoft to Winamp to Mozilla have all learned. Whether the public loves you or hates you doesn’t affect your hackability.

Ultimately the piracy problem caused by CD copying is out-of-control and growing, and as opposed to the P2P debate it can hardly be argued that copying a bunch of CDs and giving them out to friends is helping music sales or helping the artist….(yeah, yeah, yeah, one of you wise guys is gonna leave a comment about how the burned copy of the disc your friend gave you made you buy a ticket to their concert….go sell that line of crap to somebody who’s buying).

While it appears Sony/BMG may have seriously chumped this, they are not the only contributors to the problem. I have to call Apple out on this as well….if they would work with record labels on a copy management solution that was iTunes/iPod compatible, a consumer-friendly solution would be at our fingertips. After all, no one complains about the DRM in iTunes because if you are playing by reasonable rules YOU DON’T EVER FEEL APPLE’S DRM.

If some sort of copy control technology is a solution, it shouldn’t mess with my computer and it should be fully compatible with all portable digital music players. End of story.