Tuesday, December 3, 2002
Sony's Death Grip
Posted by Ed Hansberry in "THOUGHT" @ 05:00 AM
In an unprecedented effort to bring their consumers frustration levels to new heights, Sony is readying a CD protection scheme (see definition #2) that is sure to drive the peer-to-peer software usage to all corners of the globe.
They call it Label Gate. Label Gate.... Label Gate, Magic Gate, Watergate, Travel Gate, whatever. A bunch of guys sitting in a back room sucking on stogies planning to fatten their wallets through the unconscionable use of power over others. Ok, that may be over the top. Watergate probably doesn't belong in this group. :wink:
How does Label Gate work? Every track on the CD is encoded. Supposedly this doesn't affect normal CD players, but computers won't be able to play or rip any tracks - well, not without Sony's proprietary software. (Do you ever see the word "Sony" with "proprietary" not being far behind? :? ) Just install this software on your Windows based PC. Sorry Apple and Linux users. You're out of luck. So, install the software, register with Sony and you can decode the tracks to your PC. Once. ONCE! For the incredibly low price of $1.64 each. Each track that is, so figure about $20 per 12 track CD that you have already paid $15 for from the store. And if you get a new PC, or somehow lose your music? Well, Sony has you covered. You simply re-rip it... at the special deal of $1.64 per track, or you can bulk purchase 10 tracks for $16.40. What a sweetheart deal!
I can tell you one thing - there won't be any Label Gate CDs in my house, car or office. I used Napster for a few months and Kazaa a few months after that but removed it after spyware/adware was introduced. I sampled quite a bit of stuff and wound up buying about 7-8 CDs I would have never bothered with and deleted what I didn't purchase. If any of my favorite artists show up with this Label Gate junk, I'll probably buy a cheap $500 PC, load Kazaa and all the popups that come with it and wait for the music to be copied, 'cause it will be copied. Then I'll buy the CD so the artist gets their $1 per CD and throw it in the trash before I leave the mall.
They call it Label Gate. Label Gate.... Label Gate, Magic Gate, Watergate, Travel Gate, whatever. A bunch of guys sitting in a back room sucking on stogies planning to fatten their wallets through the unconscionable use of power over others. Ok, that may be over the top. Watergate probably doesn't belong in this group. :wink:
How does Label Gate work? Every track on the CD is encoded. Supposedly this doesn't affect normal CD players, but computers won't be able to play or rip any tracks - well, not without Sony's proprietary software. (Do you ever see the word "Sony" with "proprietary" not being far behind? :? ) Just install this software on your Windows based PC. Sorry Apple and Linux users. You're out of luck. So, install the software, register with Sony and you can decode the tracks to your PC. Once. ONCE! For the incredibly low price of $1.64 each. Each track that is, so figure about $20 per 12 track CD that you have already paid $15 for from the store. And if you get a new PC, or somehow lose your music? Well, Sony has you covered. You simply re-rip it... at the special deal of $1.64 per track, or you can bulk purchase 10 tracks for $16.40. What a sweetheart deal!
I can tell you one thing - there won't be any Label Gate CDs in my house, car or office. I used Napster for a few months and Kazaa a few months after that but removed it after spyware/adware was introduced. I sampled quite a bit of stuff and wound up buying about 7-8 CDs I would have never bothered with and deleted what I didn't purchase. If any of my favorite artists show up with this Label Gate junk, I'll probably buy a cheap $500 PC, load Kazaa and all the popups that come with it and wait for the music to be copied, 'cause it will be copied. Then I'll buy the CD so the artist gets their $1 per CD and throw it in the trash before I leave the mall.
