soulxtc
December 13th, 2005, 10:01 AM
Scarcely a week passes without the entertainment industry warning us that its business model is about to be exterminated by some new technology.
The Internet, satellite radio and TiVo are among the mortal threats that have sent media executives scurrying to Washington with proposals to rein them in, tax them, even ban them. The music labels, TV networks and movie studios never propose to alter their own models to accommodate new technologies — they merely insist that everybody else change to accommodate them. When they don't get their own way with lawmakers, they take it out on consumers.
The most brazen recent example of the latter approach was a copy-protection program that Sony BMG Music Entertainment added to 52 of its CD titles by artists ranging from Sinatra to Van Zant. When any of these CDs was played on a personal computer, it secretly installed software designed to prevent copying of the disc. But the program also surreptitiously transmitted data to Sony about what was on the PC, rendered it vulnerable to hackers and was configured to wreck the machine if the owner attempted to uninstall the program.
After all this was exposed this fall, Sony recalled the CDs and gave buyers a safe way of eradicating its coded mole. (The label still faces lawsuits, and possibly government action, in the matter.)
READ ARTICLE (http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-golden12dec12,1,2853707.column?coll=la-headlines-technology)
The Internet, satellite radio and TiVo are among the mortal threats that have sent media executives scurrying to Washington with proposals to rein them in, tax them, even ban them. The music labels, TV networks and movie studios never propose to alter their own models to accommodate new technologies — they merely insist that everybody else change to accommodate them. When they don't get their own way with lawmakers, they take it out on consumers.
The most brazen recent example of the latter approach was a copy-protection program that Sony BMG Music Entertainment added to 52 of its CD titles by artists ranging from Sinatra to Van Zant. When any of these CDs was played on a personal computer, it secretly installed software designed to prevent copying of the disc. But the program also surreptitiously transmitted data to Sony about what was on the PC, rendered it vulnerable to hackers and was configured to wreck the machine if the owner attempted to uninstall the program.
After all this was exposed this fall, Sony recalled the CDs and gave buyers a safe way of eradicating its coded mole. (The label still faces lawsuits, and possibly government action, in the matter.)
READ ARTICLE (http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-golden12dec12,1,2853707.column?coll=la-headlines-technology)