[d@DCC] SONY'S CD ROOTKIT - Is clamed to infring LGPL copyright.

[Russell McOrmond]

Jem wrote:
> Sigh, I wish "consumers" (citizens) were brighter. I often wonder how 
> different circumstances would be if people, when encountering a product or 
> service that didn't sit well with them, just walked away.


   I have been beating my head against this for years as well.  The 
problem is that the marketplace for knowledge (including software), arts 
and entertainment is not at all like the marketplace for "products".  A 
car from Mercedes-Benz (Say, a Smart Car ;-) is a complete product 
substitute for a car from Ford -- while the features may be a bit 
different, and may better match your personality/etc, they can 
accomplish the same basic function.

   A defective CD from Sony-BMG that doesn't conform to the Red Book 
Audio CD format with Celine Dion music on it can't be substituted for a 
RedBook standard audio CD with Ottmar Liebert music on it (Taking the 
most recent musician featured on CreativeCommons.org ).

   Some people are willing to simply boycott the major labels as a 
solution to this problem, only purchasing music from unsigned or 
independent musicians who offer their music in a suitable format 
(Creative Commons online advertising with MP3/FLAC, RedBook standard 
CDs, etc).   This is a small number of people who are willing to do 
this, as if they want Celine Dion then they are going to get Celine Dion.


   I have a hard time accepting this myself, and don't take this route, 
but many people I talk to state that if they can't get Celine Dion music 
through "authorized" channels in a format that is acceptable (Which 
clearly "On ne Change Pas" released via Epic was not!) then they will go 
through "unauthorized" channels.  They feel that if the labels do not 
want to accept their money for their use of a standard unencumbered 
media format then that is the choice of the label.

   The problem in my mind with this alternative is how it is perceived 
by parliament.  Parliament does not recognize that the reason why the 
major labels are loosing money is because of competitive forces (people 
going to the unsigned and independents, to musicians not 
owned/controlled by the US/European major labels, people buying other 
forms of entertainment such as DVD movies instead, etc) and because the 
labels refuse to provide the music in a format acceptable to their 
customers  (Voluntary collective licensing for online distribution, 
standard MP3/FLAC/etc format for commercial downloads, RedBook Standard 
Audio CDs, etc).  The false rhetoric of "theft" seems to have captured 
parliamentarians who blindly believe, without any evidence, that the 
correlation between the rise of unauthorized sharing and the reduction 
in US/EU major label revenues is a causal relationship.

   Not recognizing what the problem is, every "solution" that they are 
coming up with is fundamentally flawed.

> Kids and teens seem especially weak in this respect. They feel they have to 
> buy what is hot.

   I guess I don't worry about the youth as much as I did in the past. 
I worry about those 308 folks up on Parliament Hill.   They are even 
weaker than the teens, always confusing the interests of the currently 
most successful companies with the very different (often opposed) 
interests of the creative and innovative people within the industry.


-- 
  Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
  GOSLING Ottawa Nov 18 keynote: Dealing with Spreadsheet Addiction
  Speaker: J. C. Nash, Professor, School of Management, U of Ottawa
  http://digital-copyright.ca/node/1152  http://goslingcommunity.org/