Record People Are Shady VI: Don't Mess with Texas

A couple days ago I mentioned how it was reported that Sony was putting in spyware embedded into their CD that would be transferred to anyone who put it into their computer’s CD drive (see Record People Are Shady V). I mentioned that that a layer should write up a class action lawsuit and apparently the Attorney General of Texas Greg Abbott was reading because of a new Texas law forbidding hidden tracking tools like the ones found on Sony’s CD’s. Says Abbott:

“Consumers who purchased a Sony CD thought they were buying music. Instead, they received spyware that can damage a computer, subject it to viruses and expose the consumer to possible identity crime.”

Now Sony claims to recall the affected CD’s last Friday but according to the Houston Chronicle they could still find the CD’s in question in local record stores. But that still doesn’t account for the 2 million CD’s that have already been sold. Abbott is seeking $100,000 for each infraction and if that includes all 4.9 million CD’s that were made, that would be (where’s my handy calculator) $490,000,000,000. God bless Texas. And if Ohio, or any other state for that matter, law makers need some quick cash, start up your lawsuits now.

Texas isn’t the only people getting in on the action, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit-free speech advocate, has joined in with a class-action suit. The EFF claims that the CD’s,

“degrades the performance of the (computer), opens new security vulnerabilities, and installs updates through an Internet connection to Sony BMG's servers. The software transmits data about users to [the software's maker] SunnComm through an Internet connection whenever purchasers listen to CDs, allowing the company to track listening habits — even though the [user agreement] states that the software will not be used to collect personal information and SunnComm's Web site says 'no information is ever collected about you or your computer”

And this lawsuit also includes not just the previously mentioned spyware but also includes CD’s with the anti-piracy software, MediaMax, which disallows the ability to rip your songs onto your iPod and most notable on the Dave Matthews Band’s Stand Up (and started my Record People Are Shady rants) and affects 20 million other CD’s.

To add insult to injury, their was a Newsweek article out this week decrying everything surrounding the Song debacle and essentially called the record people morons, “Punishing paying customers by giving them broken product is… insanity.”


Speaking of insanity, I happened to catch bits and pieces of the American Music Awards during the commercials of My Name Is Earl. Going into it I had no desire to watch the show because typically no one shows up to the AMA's (MIA this year were winners Green Day, Kelly Clarkson, Black Eyed Peas, Coldplay, Eminem, 50 Cent, and 2/3rds of Destiny’s Child) and there are no good performances because of the Grammys long standing rule that anyone who performs at the AMA’s won’t be asked to do so on the Grammys. At this point the AMA’s need to pack it up, back thirty years ago they may have been relevant being number two behind the Grammys but not they have slipped behind the Video Music Awards, Billboard Awards, Teen Choice Awards, Kids Choice Awards, and are barely above VH1’s Big in (insert year) Awards in terms of relevance.

I did seem to catch the worst of the worst with Lindsay Lohan’s performance of her new song that made Ashlee Simpson’s performance at the Orange Bowl last year sound like Pavarotti. Then inexplicably, she started to go into Stevie Nicks' Edge of Seventeen which was only listenable because Lohan was drowned out by her backing choir. But at least he went red again and is starting to get her breasts back. Maybe Lohan should have went the Hilary Duff root and just lip-sync. At least I think she was lip-syncing because I was unaware that someone was able to layer their voice live. The Grammy Awards can’t come soon enough. At least they have a ban on lip-syncing and piss-poor singing.