When are corporations going to learn that harming customers is exponentially more expensive than changing with the market?
Sony didn’t know it. Sony wanted to spy on its customers and chose the blackest of black hat hacker tactics to accomplish their mission—a rootkit. A rootkit basically opens your computer at a fundamental level. This particular rootkit modifies the actual code of Windows. Should you attempt to remove it, your computer will break. If you keep it, your computer performs worse than it already does. It’s that bad.
If you put a CD from Sony into your computer in the last two years, this code spies on you to make sure you’re not a filthy pirate. Didn’t matter that you showed your law-abiding citizen colors by paying for their garbage. Didn’t matter that you have enough problems maintaining your box of witchcraft from evil hackers. Didn’t matter that you believe corporations to be your friend.
They depended on your money to pay for spying on you. They depended on your “typical computer problems” so you wouldn’t notice their spy program sending your PC into critical condition. They depended on your trust so you would never be suspicious of corporate intentions.
The entertainment industry is in a paranoid delusion where everyone is stealing from them and they must stop it. It’s on par with the coherency of white supremacists and mark-of-the-beasters. In an age of digital bits, the industry will need to throw everyone in jail to keep their business model. Entertainment executives consider their customers to be the enemy. After attempting to sue thousands of customers, including children and the elderly, this is certainly what they want.
Entertainment executives didn’t pay for your computer but they took liberties to break it. Sony entered your home and pissed all over the place to claim your territory as its own. The damage was incredibly widespread and includes most of the government computers. Sony isn’t paying for the repair. Your corporate anti-virus, not surprisingly, doesn’t care. Microsoft doesn’t care. This is as real as conspiracies come. All transnational computer and entertainment companies want to spy on you as well. The only they’re mad about is that Sony got caught.
Sony must pay for this breach of trust. Like all transnational corporations, Sony has too many friends to allow the legal system to make them pay. It’s going to take the vote of the dollar to bring them to their knees.
First, stop buying CDs. That’s not the same as “stop buying music.” Just stop buying CDs. If you really must own the mass-produced, pre-packaged dreck of the industry, go ahead, just stop buying CDs. Twenty years ago, the industry told you that you’d pay a premium of about $15-$18 but you’d get higher quality sound and greater durability. Best of all, the price would drop as cassettes were phased out. Did it happen? No. You’re paying more money for maybe two decent tracks and 12 bundled crap tracks. Stop participating in this scam.
Second, stop buying new equipment. DVD players do not innovate. The only changes in equipment related to the entertainment industry is damaging restrictive programming needed to support their dysfunctional business model.
Third, steal the music big label you want. I never advocated this before but I do now. Odds are that you cannot fix your computer as well as a tech-head. Even if you have a computer guru friend that can fix your computer, what are the real costs in time and money? If you have important documents on your machine, Sony put them at risk. They breached an agreement that if you pay your hard earned money then they won’t harass you. Fuck big entertainment because they are trying to fuck you. In fact, they already have. You own their music for the grief they give out. Take it.
Lastly, buy independent music. It’s good stuff and it’s worth paying for. It’s not hard to find. Just start typing on Google.
You don’t need to understand technical matters to understand that the corporate kleptocracy stepped over the line. They behaved like the hackers they want you to fear. Now you need to behave like they have no chance of ever getting the trust back.
