DRM: Now EMI want to play too
You'd think after the SONY DRM debacle that big media companies would have wised up.
But no - from this report in Boing Boing it now appears that EMI are playing the DRM game now.
There are two buttons below the agreement. The first reads "Accept the Agreement" the second reads "Reject it". After reading all the above, I decided to reject it, and pressed the "reject" button. Immediately a screen with the word "Initializing" appeared, the proprietary software was installed, and the music started to play in my computer using the proprietary EMI player, as if I had "accepted" the whole thing.
So the softare is installed without explict consent, and EMI haven't provided an un-installer - that sounds like malware to me.
I'll be interested to hear what the Freedom to Tinker team have to say about the mechanisms used - asuming they woun't get prosecuted under the DMCA for investigating - and whether the EMI DRM uses rootkit style "cloaking technology" to interefere with the proper running of the operating system while possibly introducing system security vulnerabilities.
You would think that EMI - having seen the web campaign against SONY, read about the SONY DRM debacle in the trade papers, and noted the successful EFF suit against SONY - would have decided that DRM was a big mistake
1. DRM hurts paying customers
2. DRM destroys Fair Use rights
3. DRM renders customers' investments worthless
4. DRM can be defeated
5. DRM encourages platform lockdown and discourages innovation
6. DRM encourages "content lockin" or "corporate authorship"
There are many reasons not to use DRM - but big media seem helll bent on enforcing it anyway - even against the customers will.
Time to start boycotting all DRM encoded music - there are enough smalll labels out there making great music who won't implement DRM because it is not economically feasible for them - so the alternatives are there - for now.
Tags:
piracy pirates dmca drm big media copyright violation free speech EMI SONY rootkit EFF