Rick Rubin Discloses Sony Rootkit Called Home 249
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."
Re:Slashdot proves you're wrong. (Score:2, Interesting)
BTW, i just read an article about Rubin (was it linked here yesterday?) that said he had never heard of Simon Cowell from American Idol up till last year or whatever. Now...not saying that Simon Cowell is anything great, but for a top record producer to have never heard of someone that familiar to everyone else...that's just weird. Rubin may well be a genius at what he does, but his knowledge of the rest of the world seems spotty at best. I wouldn't be surprised to hear him say that he's never used the internet or something.
A brontosaurus standing on its head. (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:A simpler solution (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Re:Slashdot proves you're wrong. (Score:2, Interesting)
Just because you *might* have doesn't mean the industry has...
Re:music producer, or coder? (Score:3, Interesting)
"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. The spyware became public knowledge, and people freaked out. There were some lawsuits filed, and the CD was recalled by Columbia"
Is what he said as written in the article.
He's angry and bitter coz something was put on the CD that caused people to panic and not buy it. After spending 2 years getting the album together he doesn't care what it did technically, its effect was to cause the CD to bomb.
Public perception was something like - this thing Sony put on its CD infected your computer and spied on you, kinda Like a virus and thats bad isn't it...
He doesn't know, I doubt he would ever want to know, how it worked or what it did exactly- it killed his album sales thats all that matters.
The only insight we really get is that a producer produces the album not the CD. I feel sorry for him, Columbia took his baby and grafted horns on.
Re:Clip of text from page 4 (Score:3, Interesting)
"The CD debuted at No. 4," Rubin told me at Hugo's, still sounding upset. "It was the highest debut of Neil'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. The spyware became public knowledge, and people freaked out. There were some lawsuits filed, and the CD was recalled by Columbia. Literally pulled from stores. We came out on a Tuesday, by the following week the CD was not available. Columbia released it again in a month, but we never recovered. Neil was furious, and I vowed never to make another album with Columbia."
What Rubin didn't get is the fact SONY had a hand in the same bad management. He won't produce with Columbia, but WTF is he doing with SONY? Maybe he is just not informed.
clip from bottom of page 4;
As a kind of test, Rubin made some unusual demands. "Oh, God, I would have liked to have heard those negotiations," Natalie Maines exclaimed. "Rick knows what he's worth, and I can just hear him telling them, 'You might never see me, I may never wear shoes, you're not the boss of me.' And I'm sure they were saying, 'Whatever you want, Mr. Rubin.' I was surprised Sony made such a smart decision: someone who knows music should be running the company."
I hope he is able to get SONY to drop all the attempted DRM & anti-copy junk starting with mini disk and CD's and ending with DVD's and thumb drives.
I caught that as well (Score:3, Interesting)
The record companies have concluded the only way to do business is essentially through getting rid of music that you "own". All music will be streamed to you via industry approved devices and if you want it, you have to pay your $20/month. What a deal.... for the record companies.
This does two things... it guarantees them a stream of money for essentially doing nothing, and it locks small artists and labels out of the distribution channels.
The chances of this happening, however, are pretty close to zero. This is just a pipedream of an industry that is about dead. Their dreams about every man, woman and child paying them an annuity are the same dream where I win $300M in the lottery, but a huge house on Maui, and have swimsuit models working as cabana girls for me at the mansion.