HackNBlog @ Salamanteri Server

Ok, once again I got pissed off by corporate fuckheads… Check this news article out:
Sony BMG’s chief anti-piracy lawyer: “Copying music you own is stealing”

…those greedy bastards wont be satisfied by defining every kid who copies a song or two from a friend a thief - no, the new definition by Jennifer Pariser, “the head of litigation for Sony BMG” is that “When an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song.” Making “a copy” of a purchased song is just “a nice way of saying ’steals just one copy’,”.

So now they are claiming that when you buy a CD, you can’t copy a song from the CD to your MP3 player - if you want to listen a song on your home stereos and in your MP3 player you would have to buy two separate copies of the same song! Of course while making a backups of data you have on your computer you should make sure that you wont make backup copies of the songs you have purchased in MP3 format - in this twats dreams that is!

Now, I dont know if that actually sounds fair for anyone else than members of these huge corporations, but heres some news to Pariser and anyone sharing her views:

I dont know if any country actually has laws fucked up enough (or politicians fucked up enough to actually allow such laws to ever being passed) to actually make it illegal to create copies of media that you have legally purchased for personal use, but at least where I live, it is not up to Parisers of this sick world to define what is legal and what is not and not only is it naturally legal to make MP3’s of your CD’s and copy them in your MP3 player, computer, etc., but also:

• It is, if not actually legal, at least not punishable and generally considered acceptable to copy songs that you don’t own for your personal use. Making them available for others to copy, ie. sharing them is another thing alltogether and unless you do that, you are perfectly law-obeying good citizen.
• As long as they actually add a tax in price of empty CD-R’s because they can be used to copy music that you havent purchased, don’t come tell me that I’m not allowed to make such copies - I have already been forced to pay extra for it and at least my understanding is that paying for something gives one a right for that ’something’. CD-R’s, btw, are not the only such taxed products - I believe that MP3 players for example have such tax on them. (Notice that this tax exists here in Finland and I’m not making any claims on other countries)
• Personally I have no respect of any sort for any corporation that tries to narrow down customers rights like these Parisers of Sony would love to do by actions like denying making personal copies of legally purchased data and thus forcing a customer to buy the same product several times. I will feel no sorrow if I shamelessly lend a Sony CD from a friend and rip it on my harddisk, so GFY Sony BMG. All this is even legal, unlike…
• …installing a rootkit on persons computer without asking user if he actually accepts such insane thing (remember Sony BMG rootkits) that is actually illegal in many countries - and this is not my opinion, so miss Pariser, your company is faulty of cyber-crimes against people who have purchased your products, that is against your customers. You think that it increases my respect for your company?

Author is a 29 years old linux zealot and hacker from Finland.

Tags: freedom, legal, media, rant

This entry was posted on Monday, October 8th, 2007 at 1:42 pm and is filed under General Rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.