WFMU's Beware of the Blog

The life and crimes of the music biz

"The life and crimes of the music biz," a lengthy indictment of the music industry, recently written by insider Simon Napier-Bell.

Reminiscent of Steve Albini's earlier "The problem with music."

(Thanks to Steve Fitch)

Now RIAA wants $1.5 million if you copy a CD

Nate Anderson @ ars technica writes:

Not content with the current (and already massive) statutory damages allowed under copyright law, the RIAA is pushing to expand the provision. The issue is compilations, which now are treated as a single work. In the RIAA's perfect world, each copied track would count as a separate act of infringement, meaning that a copying a ten-song CD even one time could end up costing a defendant $1.5 million if done willfully. Sound fair? Proportional? Necessary? Not really, but that doesn't mean it won't become law.

The change to statutory damages is contained in the PRO-IP Act that is currently up for consideration in Congress. We've reported on the bill before, noting that Google's top copyright lawyer (and the man who wrote a seven-volume treatise on the subject of copyright law), William Patry, called the bill the most "outrageously gluttonous IP bill ever introduced in the US."

The industries pushing it (music, especially) have an "unslakable lust for more and more rights, longer terms of protection, draconian criminal provisions, and civil damages that bear no resemblance to the damages suffered," he said.

Read full article @ ars technica

Sony sues DRM authors (CD malware fiasco update)

Just throwing out a follow-up to my 2005 articles on Sony's malware CD's (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4):

Two months ago, Sony-BMG filed suit against one of the two companies it paid to make this nasty software.  There are some rather amusing details in Ed Felton's article and comments.

The Freeform Fabricator (Watch out, WFMU)

"We are trying to get this technology into as many hands as possible," Cornell University PhD student Evan Malone said. "The kit is designed to be as simple as possible... It's probably the cheapest machine of this kind out there."

The kit can be assembled with a soldering iron and a couple of screwdrivers. It has been tested with silicone, plaster, play-doh - not to mention chocolate and icing. Multiple materials can be used; the software that comes with the kit prompts the user to provide the appropriate materials at the propitious moment.

Watch action video (YouTube)
Full story

Make your mother sigh (crying babies o'plenty)

From Jill Greenberg's "End Times" exhibition:

via qotile/slocum

Bryce meets Irene: A Serendipitous Mashup

I like playing things together.
I like when things surprisingly fit together perfectly.
I don't have a lot of free time.
I like listening to Bryce's show.
I like listening to Irene's show.

So, it was only natural that I'd find myself listening to them both at the same time. Perfection!

Try it yourself (before the MP3's start expiring on June 12th!):

• Skip ahead 12:48 into Bryce's 5/26/06 MP3 archive
• Start up Irene's 5/22/06 MP3 archive

Can't do it? Here's a 15-minute audio taste (128k MP3).

"Between the RIAA and a Hard Place" from "Recording Industry vs. The People" blog

Op-ed piece by Andrew Harden for the "Recording Industry vs. The People" blog (run by two lawyers working with the EFF) discussing some implications of the latest in the series of overly broad anti-copying measures that continue to become the law of the land.

Read the entire piece here: "Between the RIAA and a Hard Place."

Excerpts:

... Attorneys for the Recording Industry Association of America have made the argument that simply having a "Shared" folder on your computer can be considered grounds for infringement and, by extension, prosecution.
... The problem with this is that nearly every PC in use right now, running a modern operating system like, for example, Microsoft Windows XP, has a "Shared" folder on it ...created by Microsoft's Windows installer program.
... In Apple's OS X, we have the same thing. I have a folder called, simply, "Shared."
... So if I was subpoenaed right now, the RIAA would find a "Shared" folder.

... The Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2006 would increase the penalties for infringement, and make attempting infringement illegal. ... Here's the problem with a law like this: it applies to entirely too much stuff. Stand up and look around, and raise your hand if you see a

Computer | Printer | Fax Machine | Photocopier | VCR | TiVo or DVR | Camera | Scanner | Audio recorder

All of these things are “tools” that can be used to "circumvent" anti-piracy measures.

...This campaign isn't about stopping piracy; it's about control. Instead of adapting to new technology, which is usually what happens, instead of finding a new business model, which is key to having a successful business, the RIAA is out to litigate the market into submission.

Don't be annoyed by this article! I don't want to go to jail.

MP3's: Old Glory, Reading your rights

It has recently become a federal offense to post "annoying" web messages or send "annoying" e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity.

No word on what's "annoying" or what a "true identity" is! (I swear, I really am Kenzo!)

I tried looking it up myself, to find it in the unrelated "Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act" where it's been buried.

But where would it be?

• TRAINING AND SERVICES TO END VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN WITH DISABILITIES?
• REPEAT OFFENDER PROVISION?
• SAFE HAVENS FOR CHILDREN?
• PRESENCE OF VICTIMS OF A SEVERE FORM OF TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS?
• GRANTS TO INDIAN TRIBAL GOVERNMENTS?
• OFFICE OF WEED AND SEED STRATEGIES?
• OFFICIALLY APPROVED POSTAGE?
• USE OF OPT-OUT PROCEDURE TO REMOVE SAMPLES FROM NATIONAL DNA INDEX?

Nope, I'm just a citizen - I shouldn't expect to understand the law.  Perhaps the police will explain when they come to drag me away for today's entry.

Declan McCullagh's article, Create an e-annoyance, go to jail, quotes the relevant language he somehow found:

"Whoever...utilizes any device or software that can be used to originate telecommunications or other types of communications that are transmitted, in whole or in part, by the Internet... without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person...who receives the communications...shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both."

Anyway, I'm sure this law won't be used to silence political dissidents or anything like that.  Phew.

Sing along with DUDE Walker! Old Glory (MP3)

UPDATE 1/10/06: After reading comments below and on Boing Boing, it's unclear what the law really says.  But you've got your rights, whatever they are! (MP3, clips from Terry Gilliam's Brazil, as sampled in Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza)

Christmas Lights Sequencer From Hell

Merry Christmas, Con Ed; or, I'm Glad I Don't Live Next Door to Them.

3-minute video (Windows Media) (Or here or here) (Music is "Wizards of Winter" by Trans-Siberian Orchestra)

(Artist neighbor unknown)

VARIOUS UPDATES:
Another arrangement on the same house, with Jingle Bells audio by (brace yourself) Barbra Streisand: 2-minute video (Windows Media)

(Users of better operating systems can view Windows Media video using the open-source video player VideoLan (a.k.a. VLC).)

The light arrangements are by Carson Williams on his Mason, OH house.  The show ran four hours a night at low volume, simulcast via low-power FM radio for drive-bys, and used 16,000 lights and the Light-O-Rama sequencer.

Or, play Pong on the side of an office building using your cell phone.

(Thanks to Barrett Golding and others for more info!)

UPDATE 12/5/05: How to make the EXACT same display on your own house using Carson Williams' sequencer file.

Yet another UPDATE 12/8/05: Williams has pulled the plug on the light show at his house, due to traffic problems and accidents in front of his house.

UPDATE 12/20/05: Another video to the same music here (Windows Media) (thanks Joe!)

Sony's Deteriorating DRM Mess: One Month Later

It's been one month since details of Sony's invasive Digital Rights Management rootkit malware came to light.  (See my earlier articles: Nov. 1, Nov. 3, and Nov. 7.)

About 9,777 blogs now mention "Sony rootkit", while a web search for Sony rootkit malware yields 13 million results.  Here's a messy update on this mess:

Sony hired First 4 Internet (one of whose corporate directors spent 12 years as a Sony director) to build the intrusive digital restrictions management software "XCP", which has been quietly installing itself on about half a million computers over the past year, including military and government sites.  Many more Sony CD's install spyware DRM called "MediaMax", made by another Sony-related company, SunnComm.

Some of the bad things the XCP and MediaMax DRM malware do:

• Modifies your OS to hide and embed itself (and helps other malware hide itself).  It masquerades as a real Windows service, to make it harder to notice that something bad is running.
• Interferes with your computer's ability to read the audio on that CD, not letting you use your own audio player.
• Silently interferes with any CD-ripping software you might use, even with non-Sony CD's, adding random noise to your copies.
• Secretly "phones home" to send information about you and your listening habits back to Sony (although Sony originally denied this).
• Runs all the time and slows your computer down.
• Can crash your computer, while being difficult to diagnose and repair due to its self-hiding methods.
• Using advanced tools to try to uninstall the software can render your computer's CD drives completely useless.

Some bad things Sony (and friends) appear to have done:

• Snuck the XCP software onto people's computers, providing nothing but a legal jargon license that never actually explained what the software would do, while claiming it could be uninstalled without providing an uninstall mechanism.
• The MediaMax software may install even if the user clicks "Decline."

Pop music covers on an 8-bit Nintendo synthesizer

Radiohead, Queen, Survivor, Led Zeppelin, R.E.M., Slayer, and more, rocked out in NES 8-bit glory.

Download the whole NESCover collection here (68mb, at SomethingAwful.com, and requires a RAR extractor).

If you can't manage that, here's Survivor - Eye of the Tiger (MP3), as arranged by kalocin.

Lawsuits against Sony for sneaky DRM, and refuted denials from malware author

Lawsuits, incompetence, and denial: Some news in the case of Sony's music CD's installing nasty hidden software on people's computers. (Prior articles: Sony CD's caught... & Sony releases PR "patch"...)

Declan McCullagh writes in CNET about a class action lawsuit being prepared against Sony, and the possible reverse lawsuit that could occur from Sony against those who dare to remove the malware from their own machines:

Now the lawyers are taking aim, too. Robert Green, a partner at the San Francisco firm of Green Welling, says he's readying a class action lawsuit against Sony.
[...] In a bizarre twist, though, it's not only Sony that could be facing a legal migraine. So could anyone who tries to rid their computer of Sony's hidden anticopying program. That's because of Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which bans the "circumvention" of anticopying technology.

An Italian group (ALCEI: Electronic Frontiers Italy, which is the "Association for the Freedom in the Interactive Communication Electronic" using a bad translating program) is pursuing a suit against Sony. (Here's the suit announcement, badly translated from Italian.)

Mark Russinovich of Sysinternals receives a response from First 4 Internet, author of Sony's DRM malware, denying all wrongdoing.  Russinovich refutes all their denials:

[...] Their claim that the communication is "one way" from Sony's web site is false, however, since Sony can make a record of each time their player is used to play a CD, which CD is played, and what computer is playing the CD.
[...] Sony's patch is dangerous because the way that it removes the cloak could crash Windows.
[...] Besides demonstrating the ineptitude of the First 4 Internet programmers, this flaw highlights my message that rootkits create reliability risks in addition to security risks.
[...] The comment does not explain why Sony won't simply make the uninstaller available as a freely accessible download like they do the patch, nor why users have to submit two requests for the uninstaller and then wait for further instructions to be emailed (I still have not received the uninstaller). The only motivation I can see for this is that Sony hopes you'll give up somewhere in the process and leave their DRM software on your system.
[...] Instead of admitting fault for installing a rootkit and installing it without proper disclosure, both Sony and First 4 Internet claim innocence. By not coming clean they are making clear to any potential customers that they are not only technically incompetent, but also dishonest.

UPDATE: Sony's Deteriorating DRM Mess: One Month Later (Dec. 1, 2005)

Sony releases PR "patch" for its DRM malware that doesn't address the problems

After a flurry of thousands of blog postings (those pesky bloggers!) exposing the nasty malware Sony CD's had been hiding on people's computers (here's my original discussion of the situation), Sony has, predictably, made an (empty) Public Relations move.

Sony has released a "patch" which the mainstream media is covering with misleading headlines like "Sony Music issues fix to anti-piracy program." But all this "patch" does is make some of the internal files associated with their nasty program appear less hidden.  It doesn't do a thing to address the majority of the problems with the malware.  It doesn't remove the sneaky DRM.  And, rumor has it that this patch will reinfect a machine that was previously cleansed of the malware.  (Read Sony's spin here)

Here's the original list of issues from my previous article:

• 1. The hidden software is poorly written, and hogs computer resources at all times, even when CD's aren't being played.
• 2. Its hiding techniques could inadvertently make it easy for others to hide software on the machine.
• 3. It takes actions that could result in a system crash.
• 4. It disguises itself as a legitimate Windows service.
• 5. It doesn't provide a way to remove the software.
• 6. Upon manual removal of the software, the CD drive can be rendered useless.

The new Sony patch only addresses issue #2.  It totally ignores the rest of them, and of course ignores the broader issue that Digital Rights Management is bad for everyone.  If the movie- and music-industry owned politicians have their way, "forget, realistically, that your computer will ever be under your control again."

Here's a longer article on this subject: Sony DRM is worse than you might think.

By the way, Universal Music uses the same DRM malware.  UPDATE 11/29/05: Since First 4 Internet has removed all their pages that admit to this, read the excerpts on Google's search results page instead.

My previous article for more background on this subject: Sony CD's caught installing extremely well-hidden and sketchy DRM software

UPDATE: Lawsuits against Sony for sneaky DRM, and refuted denials from malware author (Nov. 7, 2005)
UPDATE: Sony's Deteriorating DRM Mess: One Month Later (Dec. 1, 2005)

Sony CD's caught installing extremely well-hidden and sketchy DRM software

Yesterday, Windows innards guru Mark Russinovich of Sysinternals wrote of his disturbing discovery regarding one of those newfangled "copy-protected CD's."

(These are music CD's that self-install software on your computer, and then prevent you from doing some of the things you might want to do -- like copy a song for a mix CD.  Some artists have spoken out against this freedom-reducing scheme that has been used on their CD's without their consent -- although major record labels working against the interests of artists is nothing new.)

Russinovich discovered that this CD had installed its software in an extremely well hidden way, via something called a "rootkit," which basically interferes with the operating system kernal so that it becomes extremely difficult to detect its presence, or to remove it.

His findings included:

• This hidden software appeared to be poorly written, and was hogging up some of his computer's resources at all times, even when he wasn't playing the CD.
• Its hiding techniques would also have inadvertently made it easy for others to hide software on his machine.
• It took actions that could have resulted in a system crash.
• It tried to disguise itself as a legitimate Windows service.
• It didn't provide a way to remove the software.
• Upon his own manual removal of the software, his CD drive was rendered useless.

These are exactly the techniques commonly used by the most insidious malware (viruses, worms, spyware, etc.), the ones that are so difficult to remove from Windows machines.

And he found that this software had been installed by the CD he'd gotten from Sony.

The End User License Agreement (EULA) from Sony went into none of these details, merely saying that "a small proprietary software program" would be installed on his machine.  The EULA actually mentioned removal of the software, even though there was no means provided to remove what he had found.

This is a big deal, and one might expect a lawsuit (class action?) to evolve out of this (putting aside the "Waiver of Trial by Jury" clause in the EULA).

Here's Russinovich's article: "Sony, Rootkits and Digital Rights Management Gone Too Far" (which is quite thorough and very technical).

The wise and careful (who of course already avoid DRM, by not buying protected CD's, or protected audio from the iTunes Store) who scan their machines for malware (with free tools such as Spybot-Search & Destroy and Ad-Aware) might consider adding the free Sysinternals RootkitRevealer tool to their arsenal.

Here's Cory Doctorow of EFF on Why DRM is bad everyone (and here's another critique of his).

Finally, Richard Stallman of The Free Software Foundation: Can You Trust Your Computer?

UPDATE: Sony releases PR "patch" for its DRM malware that doesn't address the problems (Nov. 3, 2005)
UPDATE: Lawsuits against Sony for sneaky DRM, and refuted denials from malware author (Nov. 7, 2005)
UPDATE: Sony's Deteriorating DRM Mess: One Month Later (Dec. 1, 2005)

Corporations, stop those crazy bloggers! They're saying things about you!

"You can't stop bloggers from launching an allout attack on you or your business if that's what they decide to do--but you can defend yourself."  OK, that's what online business mag Forbes.com says here.

Tips include (paraphrased):

• Hire a watchdog company to spot smears to your company's good name and "stamp them out"
• Bribe other bloggers to build your own propaganda army out of commoners
• Play dirty: "Dig up dirt on your assailant and feed it to sympathetic bloggers"
• Threaten to sue the ISP under the DMCA. (After all, you're a corporation!  You've got a nice juicy law like that written just for you.  Use it!)
• Heck, sue the blogger.  Who's going to fare worse being dragged through years of court hassles and expenses: An abstract entity with a ton of money (that's you), or a real human being?

Corporation as psychopath, anyone?

Hey kids! The National Guard wants YOU to have free MP3's!

Receive 3 FREE iTunes music downloads when you sign up to be contacted by the Army National Guard!

__ Yes, I understand that the Army National Guard will send me information about great new Army National Guard benefits! I also understand that I will be contacted by a recruiter, and that's OK with me!

AlterNet blogger Evan Derkacz has this to say:

Who needs obsolete platitudes like Freedom and Security when you can get free mp3s for letting the National Guard contact you? I mean, it's not like they're just free all over the internet or available for $.99 each at the itunes store or anything...

What I want to know is, if your parents opt you out of the creepy provision in the No Child Left Behind Act that permits the armed forces to access students' records, can a student then override this by signing up for $2.97 worth of Kelly Clarkson singles?

To boldly go where no Vic-20 has gone before

Five photos of William Shatner in a Commodore Vic-20 commercial.

"Why buy just a video game from Atari or Intellivision? Invest in the wonder computer of the 1980s for under $300, the Commodore Vic-20. Unlike games, it has a real computer keyboard. With a Commodore Vic-20, the whole family can learn computing at home. Plays great games, too. Under $300! The wonder computer of the 1980s, the Commodore Vic-20!"

Not good enough? Then browse through the rest of the current issue of Retrogaming Times Monthly online magazine, or browse through the past 100 issues for all your TI-99, TRS-80 Color Computer, Commodore 64, Timex Sinclair 1000, Colecovision, Odyssey 2, etc. needs. Y'know, game reviews and stuff!

Audio cassette tapes. Beautiful cassette tapes!

project C-90 is an online museum of images of cassette tapes.  I didn't THINK this would get me so excited, until I stumbled onto images like the one at the right, sending me back to forgotten early childhood memories of making little home radio shows on my portable tape recorder, taking apart and unravelling the cassettes, and marvelling over how  quickly the audio quality deteriorated in such a distinct way.

Enjoy the cassette pr0n!

(Thanks to Soviet listener Andrei for the link)

Get your anti-mind-control software now! (For Linux & Amiga)

MindGuard is a program for Amiga and Linux computers that protects your mind by actively jamming and/or scrambling psychotronic mind-control signals and removing harmful engrammic pollutants from your brain. It also has the ability to scan for and decipher into English specific signals so you can see exactly Who wants to control you and what They are trying to make you think.

MindGuard works by leveraging your computer's aluminum-based innards to both detect and emit psychotronic energy using advanced quasi-quantum techniques. Once a mind-control signal is identified and analyzed, MindGuard can generate a specially tuned anti-signal that will jam the incoming signal. If MindGuard is unable to properly identify the signal, it will generate psychotronic white noise to ensure the signal's harmful message is scrambled.

If you think protecting your hard drive from viruses is important, but give no thought to the safety of your mind...

Read more and get it here!  http://zapatopi.net/mindguard.html

622 Music Videos

Download these 622 music videos before the crushing weight of the rest of WFMU's listenership brings the Gran Faro blog crashing down.

America's new (Jersey) rock video anthem: "America: We Stand As One"

It's America's rock anthem (music video) for the new century of war without end.

And who better to channel it for us* than a Jersey native who can claim to be "also featured on the Star Trek Trading Cards, which in the trading card world is a high honor."

The Quicktime music video is here (for streaming or download).

Here's the main site.

(Yes, Station Manager Ken included this in a list of wonderful links a few days ago, but, damnit, this song is just too important for our country to not give a spotlight to!)

(*I mean, of course, other than John Ashcroft or Bryce.)

Sue your leftist totalitarianism dictator professors

Florida bill aims to control "leftist" profs ... Could let students sue for untolerated beliefs.

Republicans voted 8-to-2 along party lines to pass "The Academic Freedom Bill of Rights" that aims to stamp out "leftist totalitarianism" by "dictator professors" in the classrooms of Florida's universities.

Students who believe their professor is singling them out for "public ridicule" - for instance, when professors use the Socratic method to force students to explain their theories in class - would also be given the right to sue.

Rep. Baxley suggested a student should sue if a professor asserts that "Evolution is a fact."

Rep. Gelber warned of lawsuits from students enrolled in Holocaust history courses who believe the Holocaust never happened.

Suits could be filed by students who don't believe astronauts landed on the moon, who believe teaching birth control is a sin, or by medical students who refuse to perform blood transfusions and believe prayer is the only way to heal the body, Gelber added.

Full article text: http://www.alligator.org/pt2/050323freedom.php
Related article: http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050404&c=1&s=jacoby