Frrrttt...wgwrbl...Sony is the Devil...Frrrttt...wgwrbl...Sony is the Devil

The Politburo Diktat covers the State of Texas bringing suit against Sony/BMG for violation of anti-spyware laws. I used to care about this issue a lot more, when I was writing The Notion, but I've lost track of the debate.

"People buy these CDs to listen to music," Abbott said. "What they don’t bargain for is the consumer invasion that is unleashed by Sony BMG."

That's the stupidest part of booby-trapping the CD's: the damage is being done to paying customers who have already forked over the $17 for the music. What's the object lesson? Don't buy the CD, download it off of Limewire or some such. You can't tell me that this anti-piracy software is so sophisticated that dedicated crackers can't find a way to nullify it. At least some free copies will be available to those that want them, which means that within a relatively small space of time there will be thousands of copies or more. Now, does Sony want to convince people to take advantage of them, or not? Welcome to the land of perverse incentives.

50 Cent said in a recent Spin that his first album was downloaded 300,000 times prior to its release, and still managed to sell 800,000 copies within a month. When is the music industry going to use downloaded music as low-cost advertising instead of marking it as a debit? Their business model needs rapid readjustment. Glad to see the law finally wacking them in the head with this fact.