Sony finally shot itself in the foot.  According to a report in the Nov. 16, 2005, New York Times, Sony BMG has had to recall millions of CDs because, when these CDs are played on computers using Microsoft Windows, they create "a vulnerability that could expose users . . . to malicious code embedded in Web sites."  In essence, the copy protection code embedded in the discs plants Trojans in people's computers that enables viruses to get in.  Worse yet, the software that Sony released to correct the problem aggravated it.  Apparently, installing Sony's patch causes many computers to crash.

At first, Sony said it was just going to stop embedding the code; then, under pressure, it has agreed to recall the discs.  Now, it faces possible legal action for having sold products that could have damaged, at a conservatively low estimate, more than a half million computers.

The essence of this situation is that, in its paranoid zeal to prevent people from swiping its music, Sony has released an electronic monster without recognizing the consequences.  When this plays out, the company may have lost more money than it would have if several thousand individuals made pirated copies of discs for their friends.  The ill will it may have caused among those customers whose computers were infected will also have serious fallout.

I can understand the concern that the entertainment industry has about the proliferation of pirated copies, but its approach to the problem is senseless.  For example, I have a standalone CD burner that permits me to make a good digital copy of a CD.  However, it contains a chip that prevents me from making a good copy of a copy.  (The chip is a requirement that the recording industry managed to force upon makers of the burners.)  Thus, if I put together one program derived from several CDs, I cannot make a good copy of that composite.  Nonetheless, using a computer with a CD-writing drive, I can make as many copies as I want.  Furthermore, the professional pirates, who have more sophisticated computer hardware and software than I do, can crank out hundreds of copies in the time it would take me to make a handful.  All the chip accomplishes is to limit the CD burner and force me to use my computer for making extra copies of a composite musical mix.  It does nothing to stop bigtime pirates who are stealing copyrighted products for profit.

The music industry has focused all along on draconian efforts to prevent those of us who buy their products from making one or perhaps two illegal copies. They have used embedded chips and silly FBI warnings that nobody reads anymore to discourage the practice.  Meanwhile, professional hackers, who are clever enough to circumvent the chips and don't give a damn about FBI warnings, are robbing the industry of billions in revenue.  The truth is that Sony et al. are clever enough to handcuff a teen who wants to swipe music, but they are clueless about how to stop wholesale larceny by professional pirates.

I'm sorry that more than a half million innocent people have had their computers infected as a result of Sony's inept handling of copy protection, but I'm glad that the company has an expensive black eye.

Industry executives deserve to pay for their continuing stupidity.  They fought the VCR because they feared that everyone would kill their profits by taping TV shows; instead videotape became a huge money-maker.  They've been fighting recordable CDs ever since the technology became available to the public, yet CD sales did not drop as a result of CD burners (and would not have, even without the protective chip).  Internet file-sharing was at first a problem for them, but most companies have now turned that around by profiting from the trend by selling downloadable music.  Publicly available DVD recorders are the latest source of paranoia – though professional pirates have long been able to make multiple copies – and the industry (which is making a mint from sales of DVDs) is again going to great lengths to prevent John Doe from making a single copy of a copyrighted DVD.  Yes, it's theft, and no, I don't condone it.  But let's get our priorities straight, guys.  Who is doing the most damage – John Doe, who copies a single DVD for grandma, or the professional pirate, who has the know-how to circumvent the protection chip and sell thousands of copies on the black market in Shanghai?

So when Sony's overzealous copy protection causes a costly corporate crisis, I for one am enjoying the spectacle.  And I'll think twice before buying a Sony CD and listening to it on my computer.  They don't have to worry about my copying it because I won't buy anything to copy. 

Read the story here.