Kr5istofer's Thoughts

More evidence that our politician's* hands are in the pockets of the RIAA and MPAA.

Here is the proof. CLICK ME!

This article isn't really about piracy or copyright laws, but about the Apple DRM software. I can't stand buying music legit anymore for two reasons.

1) Sony Root Kit

• Sony and other music publishers are constantly trying to develop ways to prevent consumers (people that pay for their music) from being able to put the songs they bought from a store on their personal audio devices. Now the only way to get music on to a personal audio device is to rip it to your computer's music library first. Sony's Root Kit was the software that prevented all Sony published CD's from being successfully ripped to your computer. All in the name of stopping piracy. As it turned out the code used to create the software was allegedly pirated, and the software was listed as a spyware. Every effort I made to remove the software ended in failure. Even Sony's sure fire removal tool didn't remove the software, and it would only work with Internet Explorer. So not only does the software not get removed, but you have to use IE which will make you more vulnerable to spyware. Good going Sony. Really all this form of "protection" did was piss off the customers the industry wants to keep.

2) Downloaded Songs Sound Like Shit

• I have only bought songs from Apple, but I'm sure the other online distributors are the same. When you purchase a song from the Apple iTunes Store it automatically downloads the song and adds it to your library. The song is encoded using AAC and is 128kbps. That sort of compression ruins song quality and destroys the integrity of the mid range and high frequencies.

In order to fix the problem I have a few ideas.

• Revise the copyright laws and change them to protect the owner and (new concept here) the consumer.
• Offer a choice of quality after purchasing a song, even an un-encoded track.
• What you do with the song after you buy it should not be the concern of the owner unless you are illegally distributing it or altering it.
  

The RIAA and the MPAA have tried to say that making a personal copy of the media is illegal. I think they are loosing the witch hunt and they are trying to get as much help from their friends in congress. Face it your sales have decreased because most of the movies and music released is just plain horrible. Plus you have not had a new media change in 7 years. Until there is something besides a CD or a DVD you will not feel the huge bump in earnings because everyone is buying their favorite titles on the new format. A tangible format not a digital file.

These organizations need to be disbanded.

*Spin, is there supposed to be an apostrophe?