Category — Music

I bought the Backstreet Boys' latest CD- Never Gone and had completely forgotten Jive/Zoomba was owned by Sony BMG. Well I popped the CD in to copy to iTunes so I could listen to it without tying up a CD player and it installed MediaMax (tiny print on the case and it said it "enhanced" Windows. I had fun cleaning it up and once it was gone, I could copy noncorrupted files. Sheesh. I only pay for my music and want to listen on the computer which is the ONLY place I can listen to music as I don't have a CD player in my cars. I definitely don't like companies telling ME, the freaking customer (for without a customer, they are out of business) what I can and can not do with stuff I buy legally. GRRR.

Wired News: Boycott Sony

I like Sony. I should after buying a PSP on launch day and planning on buying a second one soon, along with owning a PS2 and 2 PS1s, and planning on buying a PS3 whenever they launch. But, Sony did wrong in putting some nasty code on CD's, effectively opening PC's to attack and putting some spyware on Macs, which I think has also been mentioned. (Check, googles, yep they did install kernel extensions, by a different company, read article from Gizmodo, Sony Mac Rootkit,which makes it an equal oppotunity offender)

Wired is calling for a boycott of Sony. Does that include SCEA. or is it the Sony music label? Decisions, decisions. I don't like ANY company that installs crap on my computer be it Microsoft or Sony or hell even Apple. I don't like companies telling me what I can or can not do with the things I buy, emphasis on buy. I don't like licensing my software and I doubt I'll be buying any of Sony's CD's for a while.

The major media companues treat ordinary consumers like criminals whenever they buy digital media, be it games, CD's or movies. If Cd's were priced better and not loaded with crap like Sony pulled, maybe it just might make piracy less viable. Some people in this world can't afford to buy a new $15 CD just for a song they like or if they want to try an new group.