Slashdot Mirror
Rick Rubin Discloses Sony Rootkit Called Home
caffeinemessiah writes "Rick Rubin, the legendary music producer, recently signed on as co-head of Columbia Records, which is owned by Sony BMG. In a recent New York Times interview (on pg. 4 of the online version), he discloses, possibly accidentally: 'It was the highest debut of Neil [Diamond]'s career, off to a great start. But Columbia — it was some kind of corporate thing — had put spyware on the CD. That kept people from copying it, but it also somehow recorded information about whoever bought the record...' Seems like the rootkit might have been a little more than your vanilla invade-your-rights-DRM scheme."
If they want him to "save the record business", the first thing they better do is lose the RIAA, and stop manufacturing that huge steaming pile of bad will.
The industry's refusal to get into digital sales online was criminally stupid. Everyone told them that, and they just dug in. They're a brontosaurus standing on its head.
We now know how they always worked; the truth is out there. You can feel it all over. If we ever did, we don't *need* them any more. We don't like them any more, and we don't like the homogenizing and genericizing of the sound. Artists need them for one thing only: marketing.Since they've been worse than useless for decades, they'll need a lot of re-org and a lot of giveaways and a lot of goodwill-mending to survive.
I don't think they can; I hope they can't. Good riddance. I haven't bought a new RIAA product in five years; I won't pay $20 for a record I bought 20 years ago either. Personally I'll smile every time one of them buys it. They had their chance, and they gave us the finger.
"You must try to forget all you have learned. You must begin to dream." -- Sherwood Anderson
Maybe, maybe not. One thing that I am certain of, however, is that RR is a dirtbag. Proof?
How about evidence instead? Besides simply being in the music industry. When the Black Crowes (formerly Mr. Crow's Garden) were making their debut album, the oh-so-clever NYC sophisticate RR kept insisting that they change their name to the Kobb Kounty Krowes, an unsubtle jab at Cobb county and the boys' southern heritage.
Yeah, so he'd make millions from the controversy of an Suthren [sic] artist with the initials 'KKK'.
You'll note that RR is listed as the producer of that album, however if you own a first release vinyl copy his name is not listed on the liner notes. Dirtbag only wanted credit after it went platinum.
How do I know this? I worked for the Crowes. Boycott RR, boycott Columbia, boycott Sony.