However, for some unknown reason, the industry seems remarkably content attacking not these gangs of profit-making criminals, but college students, little old ladies and other everyday people: essentially their on customers. How can some students downloading a few films possibly dent the profits of these massive companies? Yes, something needs to be one about piracy, but the industry is on the verge of a very pulic backlash with these attacks on very "soft" and easy targets. While the eastern presses continue churning out hundreds of thousand of counterfeit discs unchallenged, sharing as little as a few songs online could be enough to land you a court appearence and a hefty fine.
The RIAA in particular been particularly agressive in this respect. Recording studios have spent millions developing CD copy-protection systems that only succeed in doing one thing - annoying people who actually buy the products. The idea beind the copy protection is that when the CD is inserted into CD-Rom drive, either software is launched that "inhibits" the abilities of the computer, or the CD contains corrupt Table of Contents (TOC) will confuse the drive. In some cases, the CD tracks aren't playable, but instead low quality WMA files are all that is available.
The problem is so severe that Philips took out a worldwide injunction to stop the record industry calling these products CDs. To be classed as a CD, a disc must bear the Compact Disc logo (your CD player manual will state somewhere to only play discs bearing this symbol). Discs with copy protection are now not allowed to carry this logo as they violate the CD standard. Some old (and not so old) players may simply refuse to play these discs. This is bad enough, but with all the millions thrown at these "solutions" they are remarkably ineffective. All too frequently the software is written for Windows, so all you have to do is stick the CD (sorry, disc) into a Mac or PC that doesn't run Windows and you can rip and copy to your heart's content. Even worse, some protection software can be disbled by simply disabling the Autorun feature of Windows (which can be temporarily done by holding down the shift key after inserting the disc). One company even tried to sue an individual that made this information available. Of course, all it takes is for a CD to be copied once and thats it. All that money and it can be overcome by pressing one key.
The MPAA made the same mistake. When DVDs were launched they were encrypted using a method called the Content Scrambing System (CSS) so only licenced players could play back the files. One software company, Xing, produced DVD playing software that didn't hide the keys well enough. A Norwegen, the so-called DVD Jon, wanted to play his DVDs on a PC that didn't run Windows, but noone would release such program so he hacked the Xing player and created a utility called DeCSS. Rather than admit that their encryption was inadequate, the MPAA tried to sue DVD Jon, but it was too late - almost overnight, DVD rippers became available and the format was wide open. DVD Jon then rubbed salt into their wounds when he was found not guilty with the judge ruling that he broken no laws by breaking the encryption to watch a DVD that had purchased. 
The next generation of DVD is about to be unleshed upon us; using a shorter wavelength laser, more information can be stored on the familiar 12cm discs which will allow for a much sharper picture and higher quality soundtracks. Unfotunately, 2 formats are vying for recogntion. The winner of this contest will be decided by who can get the most studios to sign up to their system. This of couse has meant that both formats are bending over backwards to accommodate the MPAAs requests. Possibly the most worrying aspect is that it looks fairly likely that the players will require an internet connection and upon inserting a disc, a serial code will be checked against the player code on a central server. If a player is attempting to play a non-licenced disc, the player won't receive permission to play the disc and the the most extreme senario, actually be locked from playing any further discs. While none of this is certain, it can be conceived that if your film's code or even worse, your player's code is cloned then, through no fault of your own, you may find yourself unable to watch your own films...
Much like the RIAA, there are a couple of copy potection schemes available, but likeise are a complete waste of money: one boasted that it was effective against 97% of DVD ripping software: shame it only takes one rip to make that meaningless...
Unfortunately the MPAA/RIAA have some powerful lobbyists in the US and managed to get the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) passed which severely cuts down your rights on what you can do with films and music you've just bought.
Most annoyingly, it seems that yet another organisation is jumping on the bandwagon. The Music Publishers Association (MPA) is now jumping up and down about "unlicenced reproduction of lyrics and guitar tablature" on the internet. Their president went on the record recently as saying that people who publish song lyrics on the net should be thrown in jail because it "deprives the artists of income". I'm sorry, but what? What income? What means are there to buy just the lyrics of songs? As for tabs, the "official" tablature books are in most cases hopelessly wrong and/or incomplete and I'm sure most guitarists will agree with me. Tabs are also an interpretation of a song. There are only so many chord progressions so why aren't songs that sound similar leading to massve courtroom battles? Even more unbelievably music shops are being forced to pay a "performance" tax to cover the "public performance" of punters playing recognisable tunes as they try out instruments in the shop. It sounds like something from The Day Today, but sadly it's actually happening.
Thankfully though, there may be an end to all this madness. In October 2005 Mark Russinovich, a computer researcher, found that Sony had employed a new copy protection scheme on some of its music releases. This method employed what is known in hacking circles as root-kit; essentially a way of hiding code deep inside the operating system of your computer. Nothing on the pakaging or EULA mentioned this. More worryingly, there was no way to uninstall this software. Appearing first on a blog, the media soon caught wind of it and before Sony knew what was happening the whole thing had blown up in their face. Most people didn't understand what a root kit was, but they soon understood that it was very bad as the media explained that it was frequently used by virus writers to hide thir creations from antivirus firms. Sony denied there was a problem, clearly not understanding what they had done (they had licenced the software from UK company). Sure enough there were soon viruses that took advantage of this code. Since the code was invisible to most anti-virus programs, IT supervisors over the world had no way of knowing which of their machines were infected - especially hindered as Sony refused to release a list of discs containing the software. Under the new DCMA actually removing the software was technically illegal aswell. One by one, anti-virus firms labelled the Sony software as a risk, but worse was to come...
Sony had still not released a removal tool. Users also found that the software "phoned home" something that again, was not mentioned in the EULA. This lead Microsoft to brand the Sony software as spyware. Sony finally released a removal tool, but unfortunately this hadn't been checked and introduced a whole new security risk. As a final kick to the teeth of Sony, examining the software it was found that used cother people's software, including, ironically, software written by DVD Jon himself... Although the software was free, anyone who uses it is legally obliged to acknowledge the author, suddenly Sony found itself possibly guilty of copright violation with some people commenting that the RIAA itself set a precedent of seeking a few thousand $ per offence when it went after girls, so taking into account the millions of CDs sold, the copyright violation would bankrupt Sony many times over.
Finally the US government stepped in and several states are suing Sony over the incident. A worldwide boycot of Sony products was called over Christmas, which thanks to the power of the internet has possibly actually affected Sony's profits. In response, Sony have aborted the development of copy protection schemes. All we need now is a mssive public outcry over this, or else a lot of music fans are going to be fined for daring to publish the lyrics to their favorite songs on the net...
Whatever happens it's clear that the record companies cannot go on like this. Go into HMV or Virgin and try to find any back catalogue release - it'll be at least £15.99. dd on the possibility of not actually being able to play the CD even if you buy it and you can see why people download music. Even those that pay for it and use iTunes are facing a price rise from the standard 99c/track. Song for song, the industry makes much more profit on digital music since it doesn't have to produce CDs and inlays, so pressurising Apple to increase the pricing is pure greed. Afor the artists themselves - those who the RIAA claim to represent - are they seeing an increase in income? All it would take is for a few well established acts such as Radiohead, Coldplay and U2 to start releasing albums themselves without record labels and the the whle industry could changefor the better.
This has been my first proper rant and I'm sorry it was a bit geeky, but then I am a geek. I feel that I should warn people that if they industrgets it way - you won't own the music you buy, you'll merely be renting it. In the next few days, I'll put up some more positive stuff, such as lists of the best films and music of the year.
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