Fine and Full - What's up with Jay and Anastasia

You’ve probably heard that Sony’s recent music CD releases contained computer code that hacked into / damaged the computers that played them. Fortunately, the EFF and other organizations brought class action suits against Sony, and Sony agreed to a settlement and to stop selling these malicious CDs.

While this is the kind of thing I care a lot about in general (e.g., music, and technology that increases access to music, vs. technology that cripples or interferes with access to music), this specific Sony case effected Anastasia and me directly in two ways:

1. There were CDs we wanted to buy that we couldn’t, because they were only available as infected CDs. (We eventually gave up waiting for a clean versions of the CDs to be released, and ended up buying mp3s of these from the Russia-based music site, AllofMP3.)

2. We received a CD as a gift, and it turned out that this CD was from Sony and it infected one of our computers (which then took a lot of effort to clean up).

So, the Sony brand is definitely at an all-time low, in my opinion. And, at the very least, I fart in their general direction.

BUT, the reason for this post is to make sure all of our friends and family know to watch out for these infected CDs from Sony (they have still been on the shelves in stores, every time I’ve looked), and, if you’ve recently purchased a CD on any of the Sony record labels, to participate in the class action settlement. The EFF have a page where you can get information on the settlement and file a claim.

If you have been affected by this issue, filing a claim is an important way to get these record companies to stop breaking our music.