It’s unfortunate that the Van Zant brothers are suffering the fallout caused by Sony’s shortsighted DRM rootkit. Take a look at the customer rating of their “CD” Get Right with the Man: 5 stars: 17 / 198 (9%) 4 stars: 1 / 198 (½%) 3 stars: 1 / 198 (½%) 2 stars: 5 / 198 (3%) 1 star: 174 / 198 (88%)
Many of the recent reviews of the disc take Sony to task for forcing users to install a rootkit. In response, some comments claim that it’s inappropriate to slam Van Zant: “Voice your objections against SONY not against the Van Zant brothers!!!” (reviewer M. Mize of Fort Lauderdale, FL). I hate to be the one to tell M. Mize, but hitting Sony on their bottom line is probably the most effective way to criticize them. (All this negative publicity isn’t doing them any good either.) This is also going to affect Van Zant, but not nearly as much as you might think — of the $15-20 spent on each “CD” I’d be surprised if they get as much as $1.00 of it. (By the way, I keep quoting “CD” on purpose. It doesn’t conform to the audio CD standard, so it shouldn’t be labeled with the CD logo.)
Of course, Van Zant could publicly denounce Sony’s shady business practices. If they did this, I’m pretty sure that they would come out of this debacle with a vastly enhanced reputation, at least among those of us who are offended by Sony’s actions.
