This week in the music industry

What would the music industry be without a little controversy?

Just when you thought Sony BMG Music Entertainment had put its security problems behind it, the record label announced it had found, and fixed, a new risk associated with some of its CDs. The vulnerability could let malicious programmers gain control of computers that have run the software, which is typically installed automatically when a disc is put in a computer's CD drive.

A few days later, Sony BMG announced it was replacing that patch after Princeton University researchers found a security flaw in the update. Ed Felten, a Princeton computer science professor, wrote in his blog that the patch itself could open computers to attack by hackers.

Sony executives said they are working closely with security professionals to address the issues identified by Felten and will have a new patch available soon.

The issue affects a different set of CDs than the ones involved in the copy-protection gaffe that led Sony to recall 4.7 million CDs last month and that has triggered several lawsuits against the record label.

And just like Sony, if at first you don't succeed...RealNetworks Chief Executive Rob Glaser told a packed hotel ballroom that Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs' refusal to make the iPod compatible with music services other than Apple's iTunes was "pigheadedness." Glaser also said that Apple's unwillingness to cooperate with other online music vendors promotes piracy of copyright materials and will eventually draw the wrath of consumers.

"We think Apple Computer, and Steve personally, are making a mistake by making the software proprietary," Glaser said, noting that RealNetworks will continue catering to users of Macintosh computers. "There's no reason we should penalize Apple customers for Steve's pigheadeness."

Meanwhile, the online music wars took another turn Down Under when Sharman Networks cut off Australians' access to the Web site from which the file-swapping software Kazaa can be downloaded. The shutdown was undertaken to comply with orders from Australia's Federal Court. While people with an Australian IP address who have already downloaded Kazaa can continue to use it, Sharman is warning them not to do so.

However, Stephen Peach, chief executive of the Australian Record Industry Association, criticized the effort. "Sharman has thumbed its nose at the court. They were given a chance to do the right thing and they've ruined it," Peach said in a statement.

[heystoopid]

SONY & The RIAA stand at the crossroads!

The SONY BMG management misclaims and the RIAA statements from Cary Sherman, giving absolute and tacit support, for the piracy of well in excess of 568,000 personal and business computers, show the absolute arrogance and corruption, that is rampant within the recording industry at this point in time!
Further SONY BMG, was well aware, of the various security loopholes caused by the use of MediaMax and XCP, and deliberately ignored the illegality of this intrusive style DRM, applied to a media format, that was never designed for this garbage! Which in turn meant, that a fair number of full redbook compliance CD players, could not play these corrupt cd's!
The current business practices of this industry today, has more in common, with the action and activities of 16th century pirates on the Spanish Main and modern Mafia style criminal activity! (Read the average recording artist contract to see how one sided and greedy the industry has become, in which they hold all the trump cards!)
The industry, made a very tidy fortune from the customers, when they upgraded from LP's and cassettes to the digital format cd's, and now they seek to repeat this in the digital age! For just how many times can one charge for the same piece of music?
The Internet,due to it's very diversified nature has granted new additional freedoms, that the recording artist, has not ever possessed before! For it means many talented independent artists, can and are able to derive a direct income without the RIAA parasites taking the lions share!
The industry, now stands at the cross roads, it can continue to remain an active parasite and steal from both the artist and customer, and eventually become redundant, or move with the times!
Oh well, let the fall of the house of SONY continue unabated, and the world will be a better place after their demise, for after all they need all of us to be their captive customer, but then again, we can do without them without any problems !

[sarahpashe1391]

ipods and itunes

I don't think iPods SHOULD work with any other music player. Why would Mac want their product being used with Windows Media Player, or Music Match? It's made by Apple, it should be used with Apple. And making the iPods work with other music players would just take up more space on the iPod harddrive, and would probably lead to malfunctions. So I say, iPods should deff. stick with iTunes. kbye.