85-427: Sony BMG Music Entertainment was an American record company owned as a 50–50 joint venture between Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann . The venture's successor, the revived Sony Music , is wholly owned by Sony , following their buyout of the remaining 50% held by Bertelsmann . BMG was instead rebuilt as BMG Rights Management on the basis of 200 remaining artists. Sony BMG Music Entertainment began as
170-551: A "record group" which is, in turn, controlled by a music group. The constituent companies in a music group or record group are sometimes marketed as being "divisions" of the group. From 1929 to 1998, there were six major record labels, known as the Big Six: PolyGram was merged into Universal Music Group (UMG) in 1999, leaving the remaining record labels to be known as the Big Five. In 2004, Sony and BMG agreed to
255-405: A 50% profit-share agreement, aka 50–50 deal, not uncommon. In addition, independent labels are often artist-owned (although not always), with a stated intent often being to control the quality of the artist's output. Independent labels usually do not enjoy the resources available to the "big three" and as such will often lag behind them in market shares. However, frequently independent artists manage
340-562: A US Senate committee, that the Byrds never received any of the royalties they had been promised for their biggest hits, " Mr. Tambourine Man " and " Turn! Turn!, Turn! ". A contract either provides for the artist to deliver completed recordings to the label, or for the label to undertake the recording with the artist. For artists without a recording history, the label is often involved in selecting producers, recording studios , additional musicians, and songs to be recorded, and may supervise
425-479: A bigger company. If this is the case it can sometimes give the artist greater freedom than if they were signed directly to the big label. There are many examples of this kind of label, such as Nothing Records , owned by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails ; and Morning Records, owned by the Cooper Temple Clause , who were releasing EPs for years before the company was bought by RCA . If an artist and
510-408: A conventional cash advance to sign the artist, who would receive a royalty for sales after expenses were recouped. With the release of the artist's first album, however, the label has an option to pay an additional $ 200,000 in exchange for 30 percent of the net income from all touring, merchandise, endorsements, and fan-club fees. Atlantic would also have the right to approve the act's tour schedule, and
595-594: A deal with a proper label. In 2002, ArtistShare was founded as the Internet's first record label where the releases were directly funded by the artist's fans. Extended Copy Protection Extended Copy Protection ( XCP ) is a software package developed by the British company First 4 Internet (which on 20 November 2006, changed its name to Fortium Technologies Ltd) and sold as a copy protection or digital rights management (DRM) scheme for Compact Discs . It
680-621: A joint venture and merged their recorded music division to create the Sony BMG label (which would be renamed Sony Music Entertainment after a 2008 merger); BMG kept its music publishing division separate from Sony BMG and later sold BMG Music Publishing to UMG. In 2007, the remaining record labels—then known as the Big Four—controlled about 70% of the world music market , and about 80% of the United States music market. In 2012,
765-476: A label want to work together, whether an artist has contacted a label directly, usually by sending their team a demo, or the Artists & Repertoire team of the label has scouted the artist and reached out directly, they will usually enter in to a contractual relationship. A label typically enters into an exclusive recording contract with an artist to market the artist's recordings in return for royalties on
850-462: A large international media group , or somewhere in between. The Association of Independent Music (AIM) defines a 'major' as "a multinational company which (together with the companies in its group) has more than 5% of the world market(s) for the sale of records or music videos." As of 2012 , there are only three labels that can be referred to as "major labels": Universal Music Group , Sony Music , and Warner Music Group . In 2014, AIM estimated that
935-621: A modified version from Jon Johansen 's DRMS software which allows to open Apple Computer 's FairPlay DRM is included. He found the code to be inactive, but fully functional as he could use it to insert songs into Fairplay. DRMS, mpg123 and VLC are licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). The other software found, like LAME, is licensed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), also as free software . If
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#17327727053531020-425: A remark clearly aimed directly at Sony and other labels, Stewart continued: "It's very important to remember that it's your intellectual property - it's not your computer. And in the pursuit of protection of intellectual property, it's important not to defeat or undermine the security measures that people need to adopt in these days." According to The New York Times , Sony BMG said "about 4.7 million CDs containing
1105-538: A report by the BitDefender antivirus company. Follow-up research by Felten and Halderman showed that the Web-based uninstaller Sony later offered for the software contained its own critical security problems. The software installs an ActiveX component which allows any Web site to run software on the user's computer without restriction. This component is used by First 4 Internet's Web site to download and run
1190-605: A return by recording for a much smaller production cost of a typical big label release. Sometimes they are able to recoup their initial advance even with much lower sales numbers. On occasion, established artists, once their record contract has finished, move to an independent label. This often gives the combined advantage of name recognition and more control over one's music along with a larger portion of royalty profits. Artists such as Dolly Parton , Aimee Mann , Prince , Public Enemy , among others, have done this. Historically, companies started in this manner have been re-absorbed into
1275-460: A rise in reports of "missing" CD-ROM drives, a symptom of unsuccessful attempts to remove XCP. Security researcher Dan Kaminsky used DNS cache analysis to determine that 568,000 networks worldwide may contain at least one XCP-infected computer. Kaminsky's technique uses the fact that DNS nameservers cache recently fetched results, and that XCP phones home to a specific hostname . By finding DNS servers that carry that hostname in cache, Kaminsky
1360-418: A version of id3lib's source code on its web site, but unrelated to XCP. On a National Public Radio program, Thomas Hesse , President of Sony BMG's global digital business division asked, "Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?" He explained that "The software is designed to protect our CDs from unauthorized copying and ripping ." Sony also contends that
1445-665: Is inserted, AnyDVD blocks the PC from accessing any session but the audio, rendering data sessions unreadable and preventing the installation of malware such as XCP. There is much speculation to what extent the actions taken by this software are a violation of various laws against unauthorized tampering with computers, or laws regarding invasion of privacy by " spyware ", and how they subject Sony and First 4 Internet to legal liability. The States of California, New York, and Texas, as well as Italy, have already taken legal action against both companies and more class action lawsuits are likely. However,
1530-454: Is often marketed as a "unit" or "division" of the parent label, though in most cases, they operate as pseudonym for it and do not exist as a distinct business operation or separate business structure (although trademarks are sometimes registered). A record label may give a musical act an imprint as part of their branding, while other imprints serve to house other activities, such as side ventures of that label. Music collectors often use
1615-684: Is owned by Sony Group Corporation ). Record labels and music publishers that are not under the control of the big three are generally considered to be independent ( indie ), even if they are large corporations with complex structures. The term indie label is sometimes used to refer to only those independent labels that adhere to independent criteria of corporate structure and size, and some consider an indie label to be almost any label that releases non-mainstream music, regardless of its corporate structure. Independent labels are often considered more artist-friendly. Though they may have less sales power, indie labels typically offer larger artist royalty with
1700-610: Is provided. Attempting to remove the software by deleting the associated files manually will render the CD drive inoperable due to registry settings that the program has altered. However, it was soon discovered that the software could be easily defeated by merely using a permanent marker to draw a dark border along the edge of the disk. Following Mark Russinovich's publication of his findings, other security researchers were quick to publish their own analyses. Many of these findings were highly critical of Sony and First 4 Internet. Specifically,
1785-446: Is that "users lose... A dangerous and damaging rootkit gets introduced into the wild, and half a million computers get infected before anyone does anything." Beginning as early as August 2005, Windows users reported crashes related to a program called aries.sys , while inexplicably being unable to find the file on their computers. This file is now known to be part of XCP. Call for Help host Leo Laporte said that he had experienced
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#17327727053531870-531: The ActiveX component used for removing the software exposed users to far more significant security risks, including arbitrary code execution from websites on the internet. The version of this software used in Sony CDs is the one marketed as “XCP-Aurora”. The first time a user attempts to play such a CD on a Windows system, the user is presented with an end-user license agreement (EULA). If they accept it,
1955-543: The Federal Trade Commission Act and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act . Sony did not restrict minor children's participation in its websites. Sony paid a $ 1 million fine. Record company [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos , or
2040-553: The Kazaa file-sharing network. Thomas, who made US$ 36,000 a year, was ordered to pay US$ 222,000 in damages. Thomas had allegedly shared 1702 files in total; the court upholding the award called it an "aggravated case of willful infringement". In 2008, the Federal Trade Commission sued Sony BMG for collecting and displaying personal data of 30,000 minors without parental consent via its websites since 2004, violating
2125-534: The PestPatrol anti-spyware software, characterize the XCP software as both a trojan horse and a rootkit : XCP.Sony.Rootkit installs a DRM executable as a Windows service , but misleadingly names this service " Plug and Play Device Manager", employing a technique commonly used by malware authors to fool everyday users into believing this is a part of Windows. Approximately every 1.5 seconds, this service queries
2210-597: The chilling effect of the anti-circumvention clause of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act . Shortly after independent researchers broke the story, security software vendors followed up, releasing detailed descriptions of the components of XCP, as well as software to remove the $ sys$ * cloaking component of it. On the other hand, no software has yet been released to remove the CD-ROM filter driver component. Computer Associates , makers of
2295-463: The free software and open source movements and the success of Linux . In the mid-2000s, some music publishing companies began undertaking the work traditionally done by labels. The publisher Sony/ATV Music, for example, leveraged its connections within the Sony family to produce, record, distribute, and promote Elliott Yamin 's debut album under a dormant Sony-owned imprint , rather than waiting for
2380-473: The "component is not malicious and does not compromise security," but "to alleviate any concerns that users may have about the program posing potential security vulnerabilities, this update has been released to enable users to remove the rootkit component from their computers." An analysis of this uninstaller has been published by Mark Russinovich - who initially uncovered XCP - titled "More on Sony: Dangerous Decloaking Patch, EULAs and Phoning Home". Obtaining
2465-663: The "legalese rootkit." One of the primary reasons for the XCP experiment lies in the issue of adding on DRM to a legacy standard. These problems are explored by Professor Randal Picker, Professor of Law for the University of Chicago Law School , in his article, "Mistrust-Based Digital Rights Management", published in Volume 5 of the Journal on Telecommunications and High Technology Law . CDs by themselves are incapable of updating legacy hardware such as stand-alone CD players, and lack
2550-510: The "parent" of any sublabels. Vanity labels are labels that bear an imprint that gives the impression of an artist's ownership or control, but in fact represent a standard artist/label relationship. In such an arrangement, the artist will control nothing more than the usage of the name on the label, but may enjoy a greater say in the packaging of their work. An example of such a label is the Neutron label owned by ABC while at Phonogram Inc. in
2635-483: The CD. (Some discs involved in the Sony scandal contained a competing technology, MediaMax from SunnComm , which attempts to install a kernel extension on Mac OS X. However, because of the permissions of Mac OS X, there were no widespread infections among Mac users.) Although Russinovich was the first to publish about the rootkit, other researchers had discovered it around the same time, but were either still analyzing it or chose not to disclose anything sooner due to
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2720-575: The DRM entirely, negating the effectiveness. The third problem lies in the legal response. The EFF, as well as state attorneys general, investigated and brought suit against Sony for the XCP program. Picker does not analyze the legal merits of such suits, but the cost of litigation potentially outweighs the benefit of attempting to add-on DRM. The fourth and final problem lies in the End User License Agreement attempted to be enforced by
2805-493: The F4IRootkit malware. The somewhat slow and incomplete response of some antivirus companies has, however, been questioned by Bruce Schneier , information security expert and author of security articles and texts, including Secrets and Lies . In an article for Wired News , Mr. Schneier asks, "What happens when the creators of malware collude with the very companies we hire to protect us from that malware?" His answer
2890-841: The Sony BMG software. This is commonly referred to as rootkit technology. Furthermore, the rootkit does not only affect XCP.Sony.Rootkit's files. This rootkit hides every file, process, or registry key beginning with $ sys$ . This represents a vulnerability, which has already been exploited to hide World of Warcraft RING0 hacks as of the time of this writing, and could potentially hide an attacker's files and processes once access to an infected system had been gained. Computer Associates announced, in November 2005, that its anti-spyware product, PestPatrol , would be able to remove Sony's software. One month later, Microsoft released an update for its Malicious Software Removal Tool which could clean
2975-504: The UK. At one point artist Lizzie Tear (under contract with ABC themselves) appeared on the imprint, but it was devoted almost entirely to ABC's offerings and is still used for their re-releases (though Phonogram owns the masters of all the work issued on the label). However, not all labels dedicated to particular artists are completely superficial in origin. Many artists, early in their careers, create their own labels which are later bought out by
3060-429: The United States (US) declined from 33% to 26% according to Nielsen SoundScan . This, and Lack's negotiation of what some called an "ill-conceived" deal with Bruce Springsteen led to Bertelsmann informing Sony that it would not renew Lack's contract. The company signed a content deal with the popular video sharing community YouTube. On August 5, 2008, Sony Corporation agreed to buy Bertelsmann AG's 50 percent stake in
3145-546: The United States would typically bear a 4th & B'way logo and would state in the fine print, "4th & B'way™, an Island Records, Inc. company". Collectors discussing labels as brands would say that 4th & B'way is a sublabel or imprint of just "Island" or "Island Records". Similarly, collectors who choose to treat corporations and trademarks as equivalent might say 4th & B'way is an imprint and/or sublabel of both Island Records, Ltd. and that company's sublabel, Island Records, Inc. However, such definitions are complicated by
3230-671: The XCP system: "As a precautionary measure, Sony BMG is temporarily suspending the manufacture of CDs containing XCP technology," it said in a statement. "We also intend to re-examine all aspects of our content protection initiative to be sure that it continues to meet our goals of security and ease of consumer use," Sony BMG added. This followed comments by Stewart Baker , the Department of Homeland Security 's assistant secretary for policy, in which he took DRM manufacturers to task, as reported in The Washington Post : In
3315-414: The ability to change or upgrade the firmware in order to read DRM. Thus the DRM must be added on so as not to interfere with the function of the legacy players yet still work when the same CD is placed in a computer. Picker analyzes the four main issues with add-on DRM. The first problem, as demonstrated in the XCP example, is that capable consumers can simply bypass the DRM. Turning off autorun prevented
3400-579: The add-on DRM. The ability to actually enforce these agreements on add-on DRM is limited by the mere fact that without active registration and tracking of the CDs, the company will have no one to enforce against. Therefore, the expected benefit of enforcing the EULA against violators is actually non-existent; the costs, however, of implementing the add-on DRM scheme, in the form of state and federal investigations, private lawsuits, negative publicity, consumer backlash and
3485-407: The album will sell better if the artist complies with the label's desired requests or changes. At times, the record label's decisions are prudent ones from a commercial perspective, but these decisions may frustrate artists who feel that their art is being diminished or misrepresented by such actions. In other instances, record labels have shelved artists' albums with no intention of any promotion for
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3570-411: The artist from their contract, leaving the artist in a state of limbo. Artists who have had disputes with their labels over ownership and control of their music have included Taylor Swift , Tinashe , Megan Thee Stallion , Kelly Clarkson , Thirty Seconds to Mars , Clipse , Ciara , JoJo , Michelle Branch , Kesha , Kanye West , Lupe Fiasco , Paul McCartney , and Johnny Cash . In
3655-415: The artist in question. Reasons for shelving can include the label deciding to focus its resources on other artists on its roster, or the label undergoing a restructure where the person that signed the artist and supports the artist's vision is no longer present to advocate for the artist. In extreme cases, record labels can prevent the release of an artist's music for years, while also declining to release
3740-425: The artist is established and has a loyal fan base. For that reason, labels now have to be more relaxed with the development of artists because longevity is the key to these types of pact. Several artists such as Paramore , Maino , and even Madonna have signed such types of deals. A look at an actual 360 deal offered by Atlantic Records to an artist shows a variation of the structure. Atlantic's document offers
3825-484: The artists may be downloaded free of charge or for a fee that is paid via PayPal or other online payment system. Some of these labels also offer hard copy CDs in addition to direct download. Digital Labels are the latest version of a 'net' label. Whereas 'net' labels were started as a free site, digital labels represent more competition for the major record labels. The new century brought the phenomenon of open-source or open-content record labels. These are inspired by
3910-406: The audio section of the CD, the filter driver inserts seemingly random noise into the returned data, thus making the music unlistenable. XCP.Sony.Rootkit loads a system filter driver which intercepts all calls for process, directory or registry listings, even those unrelated to the Sony BMG application. This rootkit driver modifies what information is visible to the operating system in order to cloak
3995-495: The catalogue of The Echo Label to Sony. Epic Records , one of their labels, was specifically cited for using fake contests in order to hide the fact that the gifts were going to disc jockeys rather than listeners. On 31 October 2005, a scandal erupted over digital rights management (DRM) software produced and shipped by Sony BMG that automatically installed itself on people's computers and made them more vulnerable to computer viruses . The scandal and attendant controversy about
4080-650: The circular label in the center of a vinyl record which prominently displays the manufacturer's name, along with other information. Within the mainstream music industry , recording artists have traditionally been reliant upon record labels to broaden their consumer base, market their albums, and promote their singles on streaming services, radio, and television. Record labels also provide publicists , who assist performers in gaining positive media coverage, and arrange for their merchandise to be available via stores and other media outlets. Record labels may be small, localized and " independent " ("indie"), or they may be part of
4165-407: The claims are correct, then Sony/BMG was distributing copyrighted material illegally. Jon Johansen wrote in his blog that after talking with a lawyer, he thinks that he cannot sue; however, there are opinions that the advice he was given is wrong. The LAME developers have put an open letter to Sony/BMG online. Copyright violations which Sony could be accused of include: Sony already provides
4250-471: The company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture , distribution , marketing, promotion, and enforcement of copyright for sound recordings and music videos, while also conducting talent scouting and development of new artists , artist financing and maintaining contracts with recording artists and their managers. The term "record label" derives from
4335-403: The company. Some independent labels become successful enough that major record companies negotiate contracts to either distribute music for the label or in some cases, purchase the label completely, to the point where it functions as an imprint or sublabel. A label used as a trademark or brand and not a company is called an imprint , a term used for a similar concept in publishing . An imprint
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#17327727053534420-469: The computer user as a security threat to computer users, saying that a Sony-provided uninstallation option also introduced computer system vulnerabilities. US-CERT advised, "Do not install software from sources that you do not expect to contain software, such as an audio CD." In its "Top Flops of '05" issue, the enterprise newsweekly eWeek had to create a new category for the "Sony BMG root-kit fiasco." Peter Coffee of eWeek Labs reported, "The Sony brand name
4505-400: The corporate mergers that occurred in 1989 (when Island was sold to PolyGram) and 1998 (when PolyGram merged with Universal). PolyGram held sublabels including Mercury, Island and Motown. Island remained registered as corporations in both the United States and UK , but control of its brands changed hands multiple times as new companies were formed, diminishing the corporation's distinction as
4590-416: The early days of the recording industry, recording labels were absolutely necessary for the success of any artist. The first goal of any new artist or band was to get signed to a contract as soon as possible. In the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, many artists were so desperate to sign a contract with a record company that they sometimes ended up signing agreements in which they sold the rights to their recordings to
4675-512: The end of their contract with EMI when their album In Rainbows was released as a " pay what you want " sales model as an online download, but they also returned to a label for a conventional release. Research shows that record labels still control most access to distribution. Computers and internet technology led to an increase in file sharing and direct-to-fan digital distribution, causing music sales to plummet in recent years. Labels and organizations have had to change their strategies and
4760-450: The installation of XCP or any DRM software relies on the CD being multi-session, the application of ink (via an ordinary felt-tip marker) to the outer edge of the disk renders the data track of the CD unreadable, thereby causing the PC to treat the disc as an ordinary single-session music CD. Slysoft 's AnyDVD program, which removes copy protection from DVDs and Blu-ray discs, also defeats DRM on audio CDs. When active and an audio CD
4845-734: The major divisions of EMI were sold off separately by owner Citigroup : most of EMI's recorded music division was absorbed into UMG; EMI Music Publishing was absorbed into Sony/ATV Music Publishing; finally, EMI's Parlophone and Virgin Classics labels were absorbed into Warner Music Group (WMG) in July 2013. This left the so-called Big Three labels. In 2020 and 2021, both WMG and UMG had their IPO with WMG starting trading at Nasdaq and UMG starting trading at Euronext Amsterdam and leaving only Sony Music as wholly-owned subsidiary of an international conglomerate ( Sony Entertainment which in turn
4930-433: The major labels (two examples are American singer Frank Sinatra 's Reprise Records , which has been owned by Warner Music Group for some time now, and musician Herb Alpert 's A&M Records , now owned by Universal Music Group). Similarly, Madonna 's Maverick Records (started by Madonna with her manager and another partner) was to come under control of Warner Music when Madonna divested herself of controlling shares in
5015-537: The majors had a collective global market share of some 65–70%. Record labels are often under the control of a corporate umbrella organization called a "music group ". A music group is usually affiliated to an international conglomerate " holding company ", which often has non-music divisions as well. A music group controls and consists of music-publishing companies, record (sound recording) manufacturers, record distributors, and record labels. Record companies (manufacturers, distributors, and labels) may also constitute
5100-469: The mere act of attempting to view or remove this software in order to determine or prevent its alteration of Windows would theoretically constitute a civil or criminal offense under certain anti-circumvention legislation such as the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the United States. The Electronic Frontier Foundation 's Fred von Lohmann also heavily criticised the XCP EULA , calling it
5185-401: The music company for $ 1.2 billion to get full control. The music company was renamed Sony Music Entertainment and became a unit of Sony Corporation of America. This allowed Sony the rights to artists on the current and historic BMG roster and allowed Sony Corporation to better integrate its functions with its PlayStation 3 and upcoming new media initiatives. As part of the buyout, Bertelsmann kept
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#17327727053535270-549: The original uninstaller requires one to use a specific browser (Microsoft Internet Explorer ) and to fill out an online form with their email address, receive an email, install the patch, fill out a second online form, and then they will receive a link to the uninstaller. The link is personalized, and will not work for multiple uninstalls. Furthermore, Sony's Privacy Policy states that this address can be used for promotions, or given to affiliates or "reputable third parties who may contact you directly". It has also been reported that
5355-507: The output of recording sessions. For established artists, a label is usually less involved in the recording process. The relationship between record labels and artists can be a difficult one. Many artists have had conflicts with their labels over the type of sound or songs they want to make, which can result in the artist's artwork or titles being changed before release. Other artists have had their music prevented from release, or shelved. Record labels generally do this because they believe that
5440-582: The practice of software auto-installation spawned several lawsuits. Sony BMG eventually recalled all of the affected CDs. On November 16, 2005, US-CERT , the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team , part of the United States Department of Homeland Security , issued an advisory on Extended Copy Protection DRM, citing the XCP use of rootkit technology to hide certain files from
5525-417: The primary executables associated with all processes running on the machine, resulting in nearly continuous read attempts on the hard drive. This has been shown to shorten the drive's lifespan. Furthermore, XCP.Sony.Rootkit installs a device driver , specifically a CD-ROM filter driver, which intercepts calls to the CD-ROM drive. If any process other than the included Music Player (player.exe) attempts to read
5610-548: The record label in perpetuity. Entertainment lawyers are usually employed by artists to discuss contract terms. Due to advancing technology such as the Internet , the role of labels is rapidly changing, as artists are able to freely distribute their own material through online radio , peer-to-peer file sharing such as BitTorrent , and other services, at little to no cost, but with correspondingly low financial returns. Established artists, such as Nine Inch Nails , whose career
5695-614: The result of a merger between Sony Music (part of Sony ) and Bertelsmann Music Group (part of Bertelsmann ) completed on August 6, 2004. It was one of the Big Four music companies and includes ownership and distribution of recording labels such as Arista Records , Columbia Records , Epic Records , J Records , Mchenry Records, Jive Records , RCA Victor Records , RCA Records , Legacy Recordings , Sonic Wave America and others. The merger affected all Sony Music and Bertelsmann Music Group companies worldwide except for Japan, where it
5780-539: The rights to master recordings by 200 artists, which formed the basis for a second version of BMG . Sony and Bertelsmann last teamed up in 2013, in a failed bid to acquire Parlophone from Universal Music Group . BMG would administer the label's back catalogue, while its current artists would sign with Sony. While Sony BMG failed to win Parlophone (which ultimately went to Warner Music Group ), BMG acquired Mute Records ' back catalogue and licensed Depeche Mode and
5865-420: The rootkit installation and thus invalidated the DRM scheme. The second problem is consumer reaction. Adding DRM to a legacy product like music CDs, which traditionally had no rights management scheme, will infuriate consumers. Picker points out that in the wake of the negative publicity surrounding the Sony add-on DRM, Amazon.com began alerting customers as to which Sony CDs contained XCP. Customers could avoid
5950-418: The salaries of certain tour and merchandise sales employees hired by the artist. In addition, the label also offers the artist a 30 percent cut of the label's album profits—if any—which represents an improvement from the typical industry royalty of 15 percent. With the Internet now being the dominant source for obtaining music, netlabels have emerged. Depending on the ideals of the net label, music files from
6035-419: The selling price of the recordings. Contracts may extend over short or long durations, and may or may not refer to specific recordings. Established, successful artists tend to be able to renegotiate their contracts to get terms more favorable to them, but Prince 's much-publicized 1994–1996 feud with Warner Bros. Records provides a strong counterexample, as does Roger McGuinn 's claim, made in July 2000 before
6120-534: The software had been shipped, and about 2.1 million had been sold." 52 albums were distributed by Sony-BMG that contained XCP. On 14 November 2005, Sony announced it was recalling the affected CDs and plans to offer exchanges to consumers who purchased the discs. The Electronic Frontier Foundation published its original list of 19 titles on 9 November 2005. On 15 November 2005 The Register published an article saying there may be as many as 47 titles. Sony BMG says there are 52 XCP CDs. Amazon says it's treating
6205-455: The software is installed, otherwise the disc is ejected. The EULA did not mention that it installed hidden software. The software will then remain resident in the user's system, intercepting all accesses of the CD drive to prevent any media player or ripper software other than the one included with XCP-Aurora from accessing the music tracks of the Sony CD. No obvious way to uninstall the program
6290-441: The software was found to conceal its activity in the manner of a rootkit and expose users to follow-on harm from viruses and trojans . XCP's cloaking technique, which makes all processes with names starting with $ sys$ invisible, can be used by other malware " piggybacking " on it to ensure that it, too, is hidden from the user's view. The first malicious trojan to hide via XCP was discovered on 10 November 2005 according to
6375-415: The story on his Sysinternals blog, where it gained attention from the media and other researchers. This ultimately led to a civil lawsuit and criminal investigations, which forced Sony to discontinue use of the system. While Sony eventually recalled the CDs that contained the XCP system, the web-based uninstaller was investigated by noted security researchers Ed Felten and Alex Halderman , who stated that
6460-526: The technical limitations, far outweighs the benefits. Researcher Sebastian Porst, Matti Nikki and a number of software experts have published evidence that the XCP software infringes on the copyright of the LAME mp3 encoder, mpglib , FAAC id3lib ( ID3 tag reading and writing), mpg123 and the VLC media player . Princeton researcher Alex Halderman discovered that on nearly every XCP CD, code which uses
6545-400: The term sublabel to refer to either an imprint or a subordinate label company (such as those within a group). For example, in the 1980s and 1990s, 4th & B'way Records (pronounced as "Broadway") was a trademarked brand owned by Island Records Ltd. in the UK and by a subordinate branch, Island Records, Inc., in the United States. The center label on a 4th & Broadway record marketed in
6630-606: The uninstaller might have security problems which would allow remote code execution. Sony's uninstall page would attempt to install an ActiveX control when it is displayed in Internet Explorer. This ActiveX control was marked "Safe for scripting," which means that any web page can utilize the control and its methods. Some of the methods provided by this control were dangerous, as they may have allowed an attacker to upload and execute arbitrary code. On 11 November 2005, Sony announced they would suspend manufacturing CDs using
6715-424: The uninstaller, but it remains active afterward allowing any Web site the user visits to take over the computer. Since it is specific to Microsoft Windows, XCP has no effect on all other operating systems such as Linux , BSD , OS/2 , Solaris , or Mac OS X , meaning that users of those systems do not suffer the potential harm of this software, and they also are not impeded from ripping the normal music tracks on
6800-433: The way they work with artists. New types of deals called "multiple rights" or "360" deals are being made with artists, where labels are given rights and percentages to artist's touring, merchandising, and endorsements . In exchange for these rights, labels usually give higher advance payments to artists, have more patience with artist development, and pay higher percentages of CD sales. These 360 deals are most effective when
6885-552: Was able to approximate the number of networks affected. After the release of the data, Kaminsky learned that an as-yet undetermined number of "Enhanced CDs" without the rootkit also phone home to the same address that rootkit-affected discs use, so infection rates are still under active investigation. According to analyst firm Gartner , XCP suffers from the same flaw in implementing DRM as any DRM technology (current or future) that tries to apply DRM to audio CDs designed to be played on stand-alone CD players. According to Gartner, because
6970-469: Was already in trouble—it lost 16 percent of its value between 2004 and 2005.... Now it has taken a blow among tech-product opinion leaders. "We've never done it before, and we hope we'll never have [an] occasion to do it again but, for 2005, eWeek Labs awards a Stupid Tech Trick grand prize to Sony." eWeek Vol. 22, No.50 In October 2007, Sony BMG, alongside other large music firms, successfully sued Jammie Thomas for making 24 songs available for download on
7055-455: Was developed with major label backing, announced an end to their major label contracts, citing that the uncooperative nature of the recording industry with these new trends is hurting musicians, fans and the industry as a whole. However, Nine Inch Nails later returned to working with a major label, admitting that they needed the international marketing and promotional reach that a major label can provide. Radiohead also cited similar motives with
7140-433: Was felt that it would reduce competition in that country's music industry significantly. Financial analysts covering the merger anticipated that up to 2,000 jobs would be cut as a result, saving Sony BMG approximately $ 350 million annually. The company's chief executive officer (CEO) was Rolf Schmidt-Holtz , who succeeded Andrew Lack on February 10, 2006. In the first half of 2005, the company's share of new releases in
7225-532: Was used on some CDs distributed by Sony BMG and sparked the 2005 Sony BMG CD copy protection scandal ; in that context it is also known as the Sony rootkit . Security researchers, beginning with Mark Russinovich in October 2005, have described the program as functionally identical to a rootkit : a computer program used by computer intruders to conceal unauthorised activities on a computer system. Russinovich broke
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