The Opinion /Editorial Page

CHANGES IN THE ENTERTAINMENT VOCABULARY

                                    Allen Johnston – The Music Specialist

                                                www.asha.com

I want to tell you today about some changes that have occurred without notice within the music business.

RELEASE DATE - Once upon a time this was a cherished word ultimately meaning that a date had been planned when your music would be released to the stores for sale. To make this happen there would be thousands of dollars spent in marketing plans, sales programs, advertising and salaries. Tour expenses had been approved and the artist probably al ready had a major budget video shot with airplay and TV advertising run.

Today the Internet has made the term Release Date virtually disappear by offering direct access to the consumer. Most independent artists are trying to get as many songs as possible in front of as many people as possible so they can start selling themselves doing shows, merchandise and anything else that can make them a living. Sales programs have been regulated to the major 4 stores, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target & Best Buy and this doesn’t even take into consideration iTunes and the Internet.

INDEPENDENT PROMOTER - This is a real lost to many within the recording industry. Here were the Kings & Queens of the record business. The people actually dealing directly with the radio station personnel and making the deals that would get records played, promoted on-air and eventually place the artist in the market doing a show. A good record promoter could command a 6 figure salary for themselves and a 7 figure budget for the promotion of the product. These were the Knights Templar of the recording business not only bringing airplay home to the major labels, but also being able to rectify problems between artists, labels and radio.

Consolidation, National & Regional consultants, corporate advertising and governmental politics made this job start to dry up. Add onto that the unscrupulous individuals that take your money promise you a group of stations or an individual radio station and then find reasons to say that you are at fault for making the song NOT get played. The Independent promoter is now history totally ineffective at creating radio spins on any major chain of radio stations.

RECORD POOL –Pools were created to receive music FREE from the record labels and charge the DJ’s to have access to the music. As part of the service of being the mediator from streets to corporate the record pool had each one of its members give written feedback on every song that they attained. For this the pool directors were treated royally by the record labels, given trips, free admission to conferences, and other perks.

This phrase has not disappeared but only morphed into something entirely different than its original context.   Now record pools charge the RECORD COMPANIES to place their music within the clubs of the specific membership. Record pool directors and upper echelon pool personnel have become quasi Independent promoters and are charging enormous fees to place music on radio mix shows and occasionally on the air for a limited time. (Make it or Break it) This is really a travesty for many of these people have no business acumen, formal training or scruples.

CHARTS – A sacred word among major label executives and a magical word for independent record companies. Being on the charts meant that you were popular, making spectacular sales and probably had a record that was destined to give the artist the ability to perform in regional and national tours. The bible of the Industry was Billboard with R&R running a close 2^nd.

Chart position today is a farce at best, not signifying massive sales. For example this weeks #1 album in the country sold 166,000 a far cry from the weekly sales of over 600,000 common just a few years ago. The #5 record on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart only sold 55,000 and has a grand total of 551,749 for 18 weeks worth of sales. I don’t even know anyone outside of a major company that evens subscribes to any of the trade magazines. But even more critical is the concept that new artists still believe that if you are on the charts than you will get some type of preferential treatment within the entertainment industry. There are now Chart Promoters that will take your money and promise you position on a major record chart, even though you don’t deserve anything. Please don’t think that your record is the only “hyped” record on the charts and this helps make the charts useless.

The business is changing rapidly and a few smart executives are making the change with joy and intelligence. Sometimes it is wrong to think that you have talent when you have never done anything to prove your talent in your life.

It is always wrong to try and fool the people, especially when the people are intelligent and aware.

================================

INDUSTRY STANDARD

Allen L. Johnston – The Music Specialist

www.asha.com

In the music business “taking the money” is not always the best way to do business. During the course of my 40 years within the industry I have prepared countless contracts, witnessed numerous deals, and heard about horror stories galore. The normal term used in almost every one of these situations is the INDUSTRY STANDARD. The industry standard has created a major label monster that has hidden transparency, executive clutter and under accountability or no accountability.

Let’s take publishing for example. In the past publishing deals were approximately 2-3 pages long and had basic short clauses listing which rights were licensed and the percentage of revenue the publisher or sub-publisher was entitled to retain. There were one or two short clauses dealing with accounting (50%-100%) and territory (the world) and that was about it. Normally there was NO express termination date. So what happened? Publishers got a signed contract, placed it in a filing cabinet and waited for the money to start coming in. They never promoted the songs they had contracted or felt any need to even contact the writers unless they wanted additional catalog to license. This was the industry standard and horror stories abound based on these contracts.

The life of one of these “industry standard” contracts, based on copyright law, was the life of the writer PLUS 70 years, meaning that a company could easily hold a contract for over 100 years. Because certain writers took the advance from the publisher and signed a contract, they literally gave up ALL of the income derived from the music that they created.

Recently I have been asked “How can I get out of this type of contract?” The answer is not easy at all. The courts have no way of enforcing a contract without an express right of termination unless the publisher has been found to be so negligent in their duties that by their conduct they have indicated an intention not to be bound by the contract terms. As you can see this is not an easy thing to prove, for if the publisher is collecting money they are doing exactly what they need to be doing.

The other alternative is to reach a new voluntary agreement with the publisher based on some of the following concepts. Creation of a specific termination date established on a shorter time frame that sets specific duties and obligations for the publisher to perform centered on that specific termination date. This can probably be accomplished if the writer is still current and has new non-published material that can be offered for a new contract. Royalty rates should be the first thing to be renegotiated for “industry standard” contracts gave the lion’s share of the royalties to the publisher.

Record label and artist contracts are even worse. The normal INDUSTRY STANDARD contract only gives the label or artist a maximum 18% revenue AFTER taking out deductions for advances, marketing, promotion, video, studio and manufacturing. Once again artist and labels are “taking the money” up front as an advance and are not seeing any return on the real profit made on their creations.

Historically major labels have made deals with independent labels, ultimately taking their acts and doing with them as they please. After the initial advance and the marketing, promotion, video, tour support, publicity and packaging deductions are calculated many acts are left in a negative cash position. The new “standard” has become a label deal where the major funds the label startup costs. Very few companies have been able to stay afloat from this type of deal based on the inability to run successful office structures and the change within the industry itself. Artists get the label deals but in a majority of cases, the artists’ management created the direction, marketing and promotion that caused the major label to present a deal.   Once this direction is gone so is the act.

Major labels created a system that was run by executives who promoted music to radio chains, sold music to record chains and utilized videos on television. This system made huge amounts of money for the system and NOT for the music makers. Today’s industry has almost totally eliminated this system for the majors and has absolutely eliminated it for the independent.

One of the first things I noticed as I ran my own label was that radio, store and television people ALL told me when they decided that my record was over. Many times I heard people tell me that the song I was promoting was off their list or too old for them to work. I never listened to any of this nonsense and continued to work my records to the public. I was extremely successful in building a story for my music and delivering sales for my company. This is where the industry has gone back to today. The advent of the Internet coupled with ALL of the new technology is making radio obsolete. Television audiences are drying up and we ALL know what is happening at the store level. Options are popping up at an alarming rate, via iPhone, iPods, DVD’s, mobile phones, online social networking, p2p, b2b and many others. No longer is it necessary to deal with an industry standard for the standard has disappeared.

Today you can now reach the consumer directly through a multitude of different avenues and ONLY the independent artist or label will know who their market is. Major labels will still be looking for that HOT independent label but now you no longer need them to be successful.

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       BLACK MUSIC HISTORY
                    Allen L. Johnston

          The Music Specialist
                     www.asha.com

Has it ever occurred to you to teach a youngster WHY they make music?

It is historically known that we as a people have used music as a tool for various reasons. Upon our forced migration to this country the 2 main sources of communication among our people were removed, our tribal language and the DRUM. Our combined creativeness coupled with the need to subversively communicate among one another started the musical work song tradition. Songs that were sung to the swing of the hoe, pick or axe and helped set a pace for combined work efforts, but also allowed subversive communication between families, and plantations.

Between 1660 – 1860 one of the greatest influences upon Black music was the religion that the slave masters forced on our ancestors. As slaves our ancestors were not able to meet in any groups outside of the workforce unless it was church. The first series of hymns that slaves were legally able to sing were songs created by Dr Issac Watts of England. The poetry of Dr. Watts took the religious world of dissent by storm. It gave an utterance, till then unheard in England, to the spiritual emotions, in their contemplation of God's glory in nature and his revelation in Christ, and made hymn-singing a fervid devotional force, something that fit right in with our people. With the onset of Dr Watts hymns came the camp meetings where our music developed tambourines, banjoes and the occasional drum. From these poor beginnings came the Spirituals, music that was made to describe the feelings of a group of individuals.   This music also morphed into a version of music that describes a large portion of our culture the foundation of the Blues.

After slavery two main influences helped shape the global convergence of American Black music. The first was the opening of Fisk University and the Fisk Jubilee Singers. These singers were the first internationally acclaimed group of African-American musicians who attained first recognition, then fame, and along the way, financed their school. The talented vocal artists introduced "slave songs" to the world and, in many opinions, preserved this music from extinction. The second was the creation of blues by post-slavery Blacks in Texas, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, everywhere, which led to the first written blues, "The Memphis Blues," published in 1912, and great blues singers like MA RAINEY and BESSIE SMITH. February 14, 1920. MAMIE SMITH recorded the first major "race record," "That Thing Called Love" and "A Good Man is Hard to Find," for Okeh Records. BESSIE SMITH and other artists sold a phenomenal number of records and ensured the survival of Columbia and other recording companies.

Gospel and Blues developed along very similar lines and in fact several major contributors to Black music were known to play both styles. One of the most prolific writers and performers was Thomas Dorsey. Reverend Dorsey as he was known in his later years was a composer and pianist for Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey, plus he wrote some of the most performed Gospel songs in history.

In the late 1890’s a new sound was created by Blacks in Louisiana, Texas, Missouri and other places, followed by creative syntheses by great individual performers like BUDDY BOLDEN, JELLY ROLL MORTON, LOUIS ARMSTRONG and others. This was the collective creation of Jazz music. On November 11, 1925, Louis Armstrong recorded the first of the Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings that defined the rhythmic and improvisational foundation of jazz. Once again music had been created that attempted to describe the emotional and spirit filled aniexity of our race.

The first all Black owned record company based in Harlem and founded in May of 1921 Black Swan Records was created by Harry Pace. Fletcher Henderson was the recording manager and played piano accompaniment, while William Grant Still was arranger and later musical director. Artists on this label included
• C. Carroll Clark, baritone, made the label's first record.
• Four Harmony Kings, vocal quartet
• Henry Creamer and J. Turner Layton, vaudeville duo
• Katie Crippen, vaudeville singer
• Kemper Harreld, violinist
• Revella Hughes, soprano
• Alberta Hunter, blues singer
• Trixie Smith, blues singer, was second only to Ethel Waters in Black Swan sales.
• Florence Cole Talbert soprano
• Ethel Waters, blues and pop song singer. She had the label's first commercially successful records, and remained their best seller.

This company produced several firsts that can be seen manifested today.

1. Publishing house that became a record label
2. Created mutiple genres of music, classical, instrumental, gospel and blues
3. "Mamie Jones" was actually a pseudonym on Black Swan for singer Aileen Stanley, perhaps the only Caucasian artist to record for the label (she was "passing for colored" on these records).
4. The company declared bankruptcy in December 1923. As a result, in March 1924 Paramount Records bought the Black Swan label.

White owned record companies began to recognize the demand for black artists to the point that major companies began publishing music by these performers. In addition, the Chicago Defender credited Mr. Pace with bringing major companies to begin targeting the black audience and advertising in black newspapers. Paramount discontinued the Black Swan label a short time later, but kept the artists recording under their label.

Several other advents helped Black music ‘s popularity, on May 23, 1921. Shuffle Along, the first of a series of popular musicals featuring Black talent, opened at the 63rd Street Musical Hall in New York and Blacks began to invent Broadway or, at a minimum, Broadway musical culture. Two years later, on October 29, 1923, Runnin' Wild opened at Colonial Theatre on Broadway, introducing America's first dance hit, the Charleston, to the world.   In 1925. PAUL ROBESON made his debut as a bass-baritone in the Greenwich Village Theatre singing the first concert consisting solely of Negro spirituals. On December 4, 1927. DUKE ELLINGTON opened at the Cotton Club, Harlem's Jim Crow musical magnet, marking the formal beginning of the Swing Age and the Age of the Big Bands of COUNT BASIE, ERKSKINE HAWKINS, JIMMY LUNCEFORD and, later, BILLY ECKSTINE. Ellington, who was arguably America's greatest composer, extended the harmonic and structural dimensions of jazz, which has been called America's classical music.

The 1930’s gave rise to an entire new era of Black Music. New Black urban migrants from the south to the north redefined church music, giving it a rhythm and passion that THOMAS DORSEY, the "Father of Gospel Music," put down on paper and SALLIE MARTIN and, later, MAHALIA JACKSON sang. In addition to inventing a name for the new sacred music of black Americans, organizing its first chorus, its first annual convention, and founding its first publishing house, Dorsey is credited with establishing the tradition of the gospel music concert.

In the 1940’s Jazz took another divergence when CHARLIE PARKER and DIZZY GILLESPIE brought their musical groups to New York's 52nd Street, inaugurating the Be-Bop age and changing the structure and harmonic foundations of modern jazz. Still Black music in all of its forms attempted to describe the feelings and spirituality of not only its creators but of its listeners as well.

The 1950’s saw an explosion of Black music, RICHARD (LITTLE RICHARD) PENNIMAN recorded "Tutti Frutti," and CHUCK BERRY recorded "Maybelline," followed by other recordings by Black artists (BIG MAYBELLE, WILSON PICKETT and others) who influenced the Beatles and Elvis Presley and played major roles in the development of rock `n' roll. SAM COOKE, a well-known gospel singer, crossed over into what some then called "rhythm and blues," recording "You Send Me," which marked the beginning of soul music. MILES DAVIS recorded Kind of Blue, "a milestone in jazz history," which changed the directions of modern American music. Motown Records was founded by BERRY GORDY JR., who gave the world the JACKSON 5, the SUPREMES, STEVIE WONDER and MARVIN GAYE, and who helped change the understanding, marketing and promotion of American music.

And the biggest phenonemon of the 1950’s was FREEDOM MUSIC based on the whoops, hollers and affirmations of the Black Spiritual-gospel-blues-jazz tradition, annealed and transformed African-Americans and their allies in the UNCOUNTABLE mass meetings, marches, vigils and protests of the Freedom Movement, which was the biggest U.S. social movement of the 20th century and which influenced singers in Soweto, Eastern Europe and Tiananmen Square. Major Black singers sang in the chorus or the choir of the Movement, notably MAHALIA JACKSON ("I Been 'Buked and I Been Scorned"), HARRY BELAFONTE ("Matilda"), Aretha Franklin ("R-E-S-P-E-C-T"), SAMMY DAVIS JR. ("Mr. Bojangles"), JAMES BROWN ("I'm Black and I'm Proud"), CURTIS MAYFIELD ("Keep on Pushin'"), SAM COOKE ("A Change Is Gonna Come"), NINA SIMONE ("What are we going to do now, now that the King of Love is Dead?"), BERNICE REAGAN ("Before I'd be a slave, I'd be buried in my grave and go home to my Lord and be free").

Music created for a purpose that touched the spirit and spoke about the injustices of the world.

The 1960’s brought us ERNEST (CHUBBY CHECKER) EVANS recording "The Twist," setting off the biggest dance craze since the Charleston craze of the 1920s. The craze changed the patterns of American dance and changed, perhaps forever, the dominant patterns of men and women dancing together. Plus a new gospel music with a more worldly sound and a catchy, pop-flavored beat flowed out of urban Black churches and was given form and passion by JAMES CLEVELAND and SHIRLEY CAESAR, leading to ANDRAE CROUCH and the EDWIN HAWKINS SINGERS and contemporaries like KIRK FRANKLIN, the many WINANS and a new growth industry, White gospel singers.

The 1970’s brought us synthesizers and over-dubbing and detailed preparation of albums all epitomized by STEVIE WONDER. The end of the 70’s introduced THE SUGAR HILL GANG who produced the first rap hit, "Rapper's Delight," introducing the world of rap and hip-hop with implications that are still reverberating in the music world.

In 1984 MICHAEL JACKSON'S Thriller video premiered on TV, and revolutionized the making and marketing of pop music, leading to MTV and the new pop technology. The 90’s popular crossover success of singers like WHITNEY HOUSTON and JANET JACKSON started new merchandising, marketing trends and led to numerous White imitators like Britney Spears.

Success stories abound but the biggest change in Black music has come about in the 2000’s. Hip Hop originated as an expression of individuality, a description of anger and distrust against the unjust governmental systems we now live under. Just as Slave work songs, Gospel, Blues, Jazz, Be Bop and the majority of our cultural music had done. Now this new music is made only to make certain individuals wealthy and unfortunately the wealthy are not the artists making the music. This new breed of music is designed to make both Black & White consumers / listeners controlable and ignorant. It is now promoting unbridled loveless sex, drug usage, murder and mayhem.

Isn’t it time to let your child know WHY they make music?

?

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                                                PODCASTING 2006

                                    Allen Johnston - The Music Specialist

                                                    www.asha.com

Let’s start with a basic definition. PODCASTS – are MP3 recordings that allow anyone with the available technology to transfer audio programs to listeners with an Apple iPOD or other portable MP3 players.

A good basic definition but in this nuclear world that we live in; already this definition has been expanded.

Witness the evolution of the revolution. First it played songs. Then photos. Then podcasts. Now iPOD plays video, changing the way you experience your music and more. Again. In lighter, thinner 30GB and 60GB models starting at $299, the new iPOD is music to your eyes. With support for up to 150 hours of video and a 2.5-inch color display, the new iPOD lets you take music videos and TV shows on the road. All you have to do is download music, podcasts or video podcasts into your device and go

The name PODCAST is a play on the word “broadcast” combined with the “pod” that refers to Apples unbelievably popular digital music player. Once again content is king in our society and currently the playing field for “podcasts” content development is level but not for long. Podcasting is a term used to describe a collection of technologies for automatically distributing audio and video programmes over the internet using a publisher/subscriber model. It differs from earlier online collections of audio or video material because it automatically transfers materials to the user's computer for later consumption; it is one example of push technology. Podcasting enables independent producers to create self-published, syndicated "radio shows," and gives broadcast radio or television programmes a new distribution method.

The U.K./Canada based software company Lionhardt Technologies has released Webpod Studio for Windows, a software application for creating both Podcasts and Videocasts. WebPod Studio is easy enough for beginners yet is comprehensive enough for more experiences users. Besides recording audio and video, WebPod Studio handles creation of RSS feeds, has a built-in ftp upload feature, and final creations can also be quickly burned onto CD or DVD disc.

Now we have a basis for the creation of content in all of its varied styles, and content is desperately needed for the MP3, iPOD buying public.

From the Online Journalism Review: "Last summer, the folks running National Public Radio started to get a clear message from their listeners and member stations: Give us podcasts!” According to Maria Thomas, vice president and general manager of NPR Online, it took only six days after launch for NPR's 'Story of the Day' podcast to reach the coveted No. 1 spot on iTunes for most downloaded podcast. Within 2 months NPR had over 4 million downloads.

Podcasting has no bounds other than one’s imagination. There are so many podcasts being created that YAHOO has opened a brand new podcast search engine. (http://podcasts.yahoo.com) specifically designed to assist the public in locating, downloading and creating podcasts.

Here are some of the most popular podcasts available today:

            This Week in Tech

            NPR All Songs Considered



            ChinesePod.com – Learn Mandarin with daily podcasts

            Ebert & Roeper

            Science Fridays

            Z100 Phone Pranks – (recorded radio broadcasts)

            Open Source Sex

            Nerd TV

            Today Show

            Slate Magazine

As you can see the content is varied in style, education & entertainment value and not divided along ethnic lines. This is not to say that there is not room for ethnic podcast, to the contrary, there is a huge need for ethnic content that is narrowcasted and targeted.

Now is the time for African American educational shows, talk shows, interviews, soap operas and much more. The burgeoning Hispanic market also has immediate needs to be fulfilled as does the business marketplace.

Cerado is the first company to use the emerging technology of podcasting to deliver competitive information to sales professionals by way of MP3 audio files. Cerado's unique offering enables sales and marketing teams to receive and listen to customized competitive information while in the car, while traveling, or anywhere else a portable audio player can be used (great for those times when an individual doesn't have time to read a printed competitive analysis document).

As an educational tool Podcasts and Videocasts can reach the student, employee or consumer wherever they can access a MP3 player, iPOD, computer or cell phone.

Try downloading a podcast to your computer today, it’s fun & easy.

The following list is available for your Podcast / Video cast research:

http://podcasts.yahoo.com/       YAHOO PODCAST SEARCH ENGINE

http://audio.weblogs.com/         WEBLOGS.COM

http://www.podcastalley.com/index.php           PODCAST ALLEY

http://www.podcast.net/                                    PODCAST.NET

http://www.podcasting-tools.com/                     PODCASTING TOOLS

http://radio.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2004/10/17/161695.html

I LOVE RADIO .ORG – PODCASTING 101

http://www.podshow.com/                                POD SHOW

http://video.google.com/                                    GOOGLE VIDEO (BETA)

http://www.veoh.com/               VEOH NETWORKS - INTERNET TELEVISION PEERCASTING NETWORK

********************************************

IT PAYS TO TELL THE TRUTH THE SONY/BMG

TECH TALE

Allen Johnston – The Music Specialist

www.asha.com

As of today the state of Texas and the Electronics Frontier
                  Foundation are just the latest to file lawsuits against Sony/BMG for installing a CD rootkit based
                  DRM technology, "spyware" on users’ computers without their knowledge.

They join at least six other nationwide, class action lawsuits against Sony/BMG for similar violations.

This simple quote from Solutions Broadcast weekly newsletter is just the tip of a nasty problem that record and movie companies are creating ALL in the name of security.

Here is the Sony/BMG issue.

Sony/BMG wanted to stop people from copying their CD’s and making personal compilations or sharing the music they own with other people, so they hired a British firm First 4 Internet which had developed a new process called XCP copy protection. The software, ostensibly "protects" the music from illegal copying. But in fact, it blocks a number of legal uses--like listening to songs on your iPOD. The software also reportedly slows down your computer and makes it more susceptible to crashes and third-party attacks. And since the program is designed to hide itself, users may have trouble diagnosing the problem.

This software installs itself upon your computer the first time you attempt to listen to one of these CD’s. The software then hides itself using a controversial programming tool called a "rootkit," which takes over high-level access to some computing functions. The rootkit blocks all but the most technically savvy users from being able to detect its presence. The software uses a program that hackers and viruses use to take over your system. Once installed, the Sony software can relay data, which indicates what CDs are being played, to an outside server. To relay the information, the software has to find its destination by contacting the Internet's domain name system address servers, where a publicly available record of that request is left behind.

Here’s where the story gets interesting.

Mark Russinovich couldn't understand how the rootkit had sneaked onto his system. An expert on the internals of the Windows operating system, he was careful when it came to computer security and generally had a pretty good idea of what was running on his PC at any given time. And yet the security tool he was using to check his PC was pretty clear: It had found the "rootkit" cloaking software typically used by virus and spyware writers.

After a bit of detective work, Russinovich eventually tracked down the source: a Sony BMG Music Entertainment CD entitled "Get Right with the Man," performed by country music duo Donnie and Johnny Van Zant. Although the Van Zant CD software came with an end user license agreement (EULA) informing him that he would be installing software that would reside on his PC until removed, Russinovich, who works as chief software architect with systems software company Winternals Software LP, said he never expected to be installing a product that would then prove to be virtually undetectable and extremely difficult to remove. Robert McMillan, IDG News Service.

Now the truth had been found by a computer expert and Sony/BMG had been called on it.

(1) The first response was “Sony has been using First 4's XCP (Extended Copy Protection) software since early 2005 as a copy protection mechanism for some of its music CDs”, according to Sony spokesman John McKay. He could not say how many of Sony's CDs currently use the XCP software, but he said it is one of two digital rights management products used by the company. The other is SunnComm Inc.'s MediaMax software, he said.

“The XCP software prevents users from making more than three backup copies of any CD, and Sony puts an XCP notification on the back of CDs that use the mechanism”, according to Mathew Gilliat-Smith, First 4's chief executive officer.

(2) The next response was to have you uninstall the program from your computer. “The First 4 software does nothing malicious and can be uninstalled, should the user want to remove it,” John McKay said.

Nice try, but that uninstall process is not exactly straightforward, and cannot be done through the Windows "Add or Remove Programs" utility in the Windows control panel. When asked for instructions on how to uninstall the software, you were directed to a section of the Sony/BMG.com Web site where users could ask Sony customer support for uninstall directions. Princeton University computer science professor Ed Felten wrote on his blog that he and a fellow researcher had confirmed that Sony's initial Web-based uninstall tool--designed to uninstall the copy-protection software deposited by Sony's CDs--actually exposed a critical vulnerability on computers. The tool downloaded a program that causes a user's hard drive to accept instructions from Web sites. But the program remained active on the user's hard drive after it had been instructed to uninstall the Sony software. The program could then be triggered by almost any code from any Web site, including malicious instructions, the Princeton researchers said.

"Any Web page can seize control of your computer; then it can do anything it likes," Felton and fellow researcher J. Alex Halderman wrote on their blog. "That's about as serious as a security flaw can get." By the way, once uninstalled you can no longer play the disk..

(3) Then Sony/BMG said that there were only about 20 titles with this software embedded into them

The reality is that going into the biggest selling season of the year Sony/BMG has listed over 50 titles from there catalogue which includes Neil Diamond, Ray Charles, Burt Bacharach, Bette Midler, Vivian Green, Celine Dion, Louis Armstrong, Van Zant and others. Sony reported that over the past eight months it shipped more than 4.7 million CDs with the so-called XCP copy protection. More than 2.1 million of those discs have been sold.

(4) Sony BMG announced an exchange program that allows consumers to return XCP titles for unprotected CDs of those titles posted at its Web site.

So after affecting, at the very least, hundreds of thousands of computers Sony/BMG wants the consumer to go back on the web and apply for an exchange of music. What happened to getting your MONEY BACK? And any type of payment for the time, expense and worry you put in to get this software OFF of your computer.

Sony's troubles with XCP still seem to be growing: experts dissecting the XCP software have uncovered evidence XCP's developer First 4 Internet included code from the LAME open source software product in the Sony music player, which was the only software permitted to play back XCP-protected CDs on Windows computers. LAME is audio encoding software licensed under the Lesser GNU Public License, which permits other developers to use the code under specific conditions, including that any products including it be licensed at no charge to third parties and include both source code and prominent notice of any changes. If code from LAME is in fact included in the XCP software, First 4 Internet (and possibly Sony itself) could be liable for copyright violation—a bitter irony considering Sony's position that it included the software on its music CDs to protect itself (and its artists) from copyright violations due to CD burning and online file sharing.

Now there are multiple suits against Sony/BMG.

The states of Texas, California and New York all have class action suits against Sony/BMG. Texas is seeking civil penalties of $100,000 per violation of the state's Consumer Protection The country of Italy now has filed a criminal suit against them and Australia, and Japan are looking into what they should do. The Electronic Frontier Foundation said it filed a class action lawsuit against the record label in Los Angeles. The EFF's suit goes beyond the rootkit and includes SunnComm DRM used by Sony as well

Even the Military are assessing a possible security threat that could result if the software is installed on government computers, according to Tom Ryan, an information assurance manager with the 5th Signal Command based in Mannheim, Germany.

So Sony/BMG woes seem to be increasing exponentially, but are they really? Here is the largest entertainment content provider, hardware manufacturer and technology Research Company on the planet. Making, what seems on the surface, to be a huge blunder and media nightmare. Take into consideration that the time has come to stop using cd’s as a major source of music sales. MP3, MP4 and the next generation of online games (Play station), in conjunction with cell phones and iPOD may make this Sony/BMG scenario a smart way to start the transition to the next development in audio/video delivery.

Don’t be surprised if you can no longer listen to music on your work computer. Just thank Sony/BMG. Maybe IT PAYS TO TELL THE TRUTH.


				*The Opinion /Editorial Page*



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