...So reads a customer review on the Amazon product information page for the "Content/Copy-Protected" version of Ricky Martin's new CD, Life. As the customer reviewer explains to fellow Vida Loca enthusiasts, "the CD cover is only labeled with the copy protection software notice, but the CD itself DOES NOT contain any hidden root-kits. SO DON'T BE AFRAID TO BUY AND ENJOY RICKY'S FABULOUS NEW MUSIC!"
Personally, I'm glad to hear that Ricky's music is immmune from the dreaded "list of 52" - the CD titles containing spyware-contaminated Sony copyright protection technology. As Chris Rock so memorably stated at the 1999 Video Music Awards, "Ricky Martin needs another hit like a crackhead needs a hit." Still, a visit to the Amazon pages of other, less-fortunate, Sony artists whose CDs were indeed contaminated indicates that Sony may soon have to contend with lawsuits from more than just angry CD purchasers vulnerable to viruses, system failures, and unauthorized personal data collection. Take the Van Zant brothers of Lynyrd Skynyrd fame, for instance. The group Van Zant's recent release, Get Right With the Man, was the CD on which the dreaded Sony XCP technology rootkit was first uncovered. According to BusinessWeek, within a matter of days of the rootkit being made public, the CD plummeted from from #887 on the Amazon music sales charts to #25,802. And, the CD's Amazon product detail page is chock-full of customers' maligning comments sure to impact sales of even the "clean" versions of ths CD. (Click to read what the customers had to say.)
--"I had to take my computer to repairs which cost me 60 $ to get my cd-rom drive working again :( thanks a lot sony...WARNING ! DO NOT BUY THIS CD UNLESS YOU WANT TO BREAK YOUR CD ROM AND PAY FOR REAPAIRS !"
--"Like thousands of others, I've spent thousands on this corporation's products - BUT NO MORE. Televisions, electronics, cameras, etc. - NEVER, EVER AGAIN. . . . What has happened here is nothing less than a frightening herald of future privacy invasion . . . Sony's death knell is hereby rung with the unleashing of these horrible infestations. A pox on them."
--"It's too bad that the ill-advised strategy by Sony/BMG will forever cast a bad note over some good music making artists. . . . Sony screws it up for this artist and others by creating a CD that rightfully no one will ever want to buy. I see some lawsuits by artists whose careers and royalties will be affected by the stupid mistake from Sony."
Van Zandt and their management team are most definitely on notice of the situation. While Sony now offers a "contaminated for clean" CD exchange program, Van Zandt's management alleges in today's BusinessWeek Online that Sony has been unable to produce clean CDs in sufficient quantities to meet demand, particularly right after the Country Music Awards aired . Meanwhile, rootkit-infected CDs have been pulled from stores altogether. As a result, Van Zant's CD, along with many others, had a minimal presence on store shelves during the year's biggest shopping weekend . Van Zant's management vents to BusinessWeek that "[t]here's going to have to be some commitment made on Sony's side to their artists."
Another notable artist who may well consider legal action is former Phish frontman Trey Anastasio. His new CD Shine was released on Nov. 1, the same week as news of the rootkit scandal swept the Internet. Not surprisingly, Anastasio's weekly sales declined by over fifty percent in just one week. Anastasio's management similarly vented to BusinessWeek: "It's been damaging, and certainly we're going to discuss that with the label." As one customer review on Amazon's product page for Shine notes, "I apologize for giving it one star--I hate to do it because this isn't based on the content of the disc. . . . I'm all for supporting Trey, but please don't support Sony's terrible copy protection scheme."
Take a look at the Amazon product pages of XCP-impacted artists both well-established (e.g., Bette Midler, Neil Diamond, Celine Dion) and brand-new (Julia Roberts' niece and teen actress Emma Roberts), and it is clear that music fans are seething with anger and that it will be virtually impossible for the artists to escape unscathed.
Meanwhile, for those looking for music to spread the holiday cheer, all is not completely lost. Ricky Martin's new CD is apparently clean as a whistle, as is William Hung's ageless rendition of "She Bangs."