E-Scribe News : a programmer’s blog

About Me

PBX My name is Paul Bissex, and e-scribe.com is my consulting business. I build web applications using as much open source software as possible. From September to June I teach web design and other important non-photographic professional skills to photographers. In the '90s I wrote technology commentary and reviews for magazines, newspapers, and web publications, including Wired, Salon.com, FamilyPC, the late lamented Web Review, and the Chicago Tribune. Feel free to email me.

Book Project

I'm co-authoring a book, "Python Web Development with Django", with Jeff Forcier and Wesley Chun. It will be published by Prentice Hall in July 2008, but is available for pre-ordering on Amazon now.

Colophon

This site is built on a fresh trunk checkout of Django, running on Python 2.5.1, served by Apache and mod_python. The database is SQLite. The operating system is FreeBSD, on a VPS hosted at Johncompanies.com. Comment-spam protection by Akismet. Vintage topo imagery from the Maptech archive.

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Stuff I Use

Akismet, del.icio.us, Django, dpaste.com, Emacs, FreeBSD, Freenode, jQuery, LaunchBar, MacPorts, Markdown, Mercurial, OS X, Postfix, Python, SQLite, Subversion, TextMate, Trac, Ubuntu Linux, wmii

A Django site.
(Finally!)

Copyright 2008
by Paul Bissex
and E-Scribe New Media

The fall of Sony

This evening I was pointed to a blog posting from yesterday about Sony's foray into malware distribution. The author gives a heavily technical blow-by-blow account of uncovering sleazy copy-protection software that has come along with his latest purchase from the Sony BMG record label:

...At that point I knew conclusively that the rootkit and its associated files were related to the First 4 Internet DRM software Sony ships on its CDs. Not happy having underhanded and sloppily written software on my system I looked for a way to uninstall it. However, I didn’t find any reference to it in the Control Panel’s Add or Remove Programs list, nor did I find any uninstall utility or directions on the CD or on First 4 Internet’s site. I checked the EULA and saw no mention of the fact that I was agreeing to have software put on my system that I couldn't uninstall. Now I was mad.

Today a co-worker and I were discussing the iPod, and Apple's rise to dominance in that market, and wondering what it might take to break their grip. Who could possibly compete with them? I mentioned Sony, which I think struck my colleague as funny. The stock prices of Apple and Sony, respectively, have been on opposite trajectories in recent years. At thirty, he's younger than I am, so he doesn't remember Sony the 800-pound Sumo of the consumer electronics world; he sees Sony the OK company that makes a lot of stuff he doesn't buy.

I doubt I'm alone in thinking that Sony could have owned the portable digital media player market. Unfortunately for them, they blew it. What I said to my colleague was this: their blowing it is, in my mind, entirely attributable to the effort they have invested (and continue to invest) in pushing DRM and proprietary formats and proprietary media over open access. Check out this amazing quote from a 1999 CNET story on the "Digital Walkman":

Sony's U.S.-based record company, Sony Music Entertainment, last year joined the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in a group that is fighting MP3 and working on a format for selling copyright-protected music over the Internet. The group, called the Secure Digital Music Initiative, formed soon after the RIAA failed to gain a court injunction to keep an MP3 portable player from being sold.

Granted, a certain amount of weirdness is to be expected with a record company and a consumer electronics company under the same roof. But, damn, ban MP3 players? This from the company that beat the MPAA and brought "time shifting" to the world? The shame.

Tuesday, November 1st, 2005
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Some related posts: Steve Jobs to Music Industry: Drop DRM • International Freedom From Stupid Software Patents Day • Yahoo offers DRM-free music, sort of • Songbird, open source competition for iTunes • Sony DRM news roundup • Sony gets spanked • Burn all JPEGs?

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