People who create copyrighted work have a right and obligation to ensure that their works are protected. However, no law is absolute and few if any laws or rights operate in a vacuum. That is, there are usually competing rights. For example, my right to throw my fist ends at your right to keep me from injuring you. One right trumps the other.
Similarly, although authors have a right to protect their works, that does not mean that right trumps all other rights.
J. Alex Halderman of the "Freedom to Tinker" website is reporting that the recent Sony rootkit debacle isn't the only Sony DRM in the wild. It seems Sony is also using something called MediaMax (it is reportedly also used by other music labels).
Mr. Halderman is saying
MediaMax phones home whenever you play a protected CD, automatically installs over 12 MB of software before even displaying an End User License Agreement, and fails to include an uninstaller.
Part of the software that MediaMax installs is a driver meant to interfere with ripping and copying from protected discs. I had believed that MediaMax didn't permanently activate this driver-set it to run whenever the computer starts-unless the user accepted the license agreement. As it turns out, this belief was wrong, and things are even worse that I had thought.
You can read the rest of the gory details at his site but it is becoming clear that certain companies wish to own your PC and don't take into consideration competing rights. All I can say is vote with your pocketbook by avoiding these companies and by spending your money on people who treat you and all the laws with respect. YMMV. IANAL. Insert disclaimer here.
