By:Reach for the Sky
"if CDs do become damaged, replacements are readily available at affordable prices"
-RIAA
Well isn't that just so nice of them?
Alright, here's some context. The RIAA is insisting that a user who has purchased a CD may not legally rip the songs to his or her computer, or make any kind of backups available for that matter1. Don't worry though, because if your only copy of the CD is damaged or lost, they'll be more than happy to sell you a new one. Keep in mind the means you can't put that music on your mp3 player or any other device that doesn't have a CD drive.
Let's hold of on ethics for a moment, and walk on over to the economic side of this whole thing. Preventing people from making backups of music, or any software, would not stop a single pirate. It's like a pirate version of Rule 34: if it exists, it IS available on a P2P site. Often a song or movie will end up on the internet before the legal version arrives on the market, and it's never more than a minute or so behind the legal release. In other words, every song, every game, every movie, every piece of software can and will be pilfered online, so I have to ask...
what on earth are these people hoping to accomplish by treating their paying customers like this? Do they want them to resort to DRM free pirated versions out of annoyance?
Back to ethics. Lets first look at some of the witch-hunter's anti-piracy measures. 2K games and Electronic Arts have gotten into the habit of installing SecuROM, a borderline rootkit peice of software. Users are kept in the dark about the functions and reasons for SecuROM, and if a user chooses to uninstall a game that uses it, SecuROM does not go with it. This is ethically despicable and I can't believe people are willing to buy games that come with this sort of thing attached. It should be noted that pirated versions of the games in question are SecuROM free. I'm no economist, but I doubt you're helping your sales by making the pirated version of software a more convenient product.
The RIAA is so completely evil I can't even write about them without breaking glass objects. Here is everything you need to know about them. They're like the industrial version of the McDonalds coffee lady, throwing around frivolous lawsuits by the thousands. Aaaaaaand there goes my bathroom mirror. I think you get the idea.
I do feel for the producers of software, its a brutal market. 2D Boy had their awesome game World of Goo* pirated to oblivion2. But the people who are the most vehement about piracy aren't the small indie developers like 2D boy, but giants like Microsoft and EA, and they aren't helping the issue by extorting their customers and crippling their products with these crazy restrictions.
Rose's Note: but EA created Command and Conquer......how can they do anything evil?
1http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2006/02/6190.ars
2http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2008/11/acrying-shame-world-of-goo-piracy-rate-near-90.ars
*Demo available. Go.
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