The Texas State Attorney General is seeing $100,000 in fined for every CD sold with the XCP copy protection system on it. This is great. It is normally the RIAA trying to put the beat-down on regular people and fine them.

According to the Reuters article Texas sues Sony BMG for spyware violations, staff from the Texas Attorney General’s office was able to still purchase the CDs, even though Sony claims that they have been recalled. I hear that the RIAA even says that Sony did nothing wrong, that the action was a legitimate action to safeguard their rights (read “charge you more money”). Since the EULA for the software made you agree that you will re-buy the CD if your laptop gets stolen or you lose the CD. If you lose the CD, you no longer have the right to play the tracks on your computer. Its downright draconian.

I was working out an issue with the Oregon state Department of Taxation a few months ago regarding a contractor that I was using. She stated something that sounded pretty obvious, and that is you cannot agree to terms in a contract that aren’t legal. In other words, if you agree to a contract that has items in it that are illegal, those items are not binding. Some of the items in the DRM software EULA aren’t legal and aren’t binding. I think Sony should also be sued for attempting to pressure people into accepting terms that are not legal.

I really feel that Sony should have their britches burnt off for this one. They should be prosecuted under the RICO act, under the COPA, and anything else we can think of, and it should be done in every state individually–no large federal settlement. I hope that this has set back DRM by years, and opened the eyes of some politicians. Copyright law is to ultimately provide benefit to the citizens of the country, and the consumers. I don’t see how this is benefiting any one other than the recording labels themselves. Yes, some musicians are insanely compensated for their acts, but many are not. The best paid should get a little less, and the least paid should get a little more–I’m not advocating a socialist record-label payment system, mind you, just a more equitable one.

The funny part is that I have not personally purchased a single one of these CDs, and I probably won’t for the time being. I am almost tempted to go buy one of each that has this DRM on it, simply so that I can sue too. I could even get my 9-year old to install it and use COPA against SONY myself. If I only had the time and the bad taste in music.

Lastly, I am not against Sony directly. Sony is a large conglomerate and they do lots of good things too–except where music is related. Their AAC-based, portable music players are awful too.

Sony, like the other record labels, need to get with the program and adopt a more realistic and equitable distribution system. The purchased CDs in the stores are going the way of the carrier pigeon. The Internet medium is less expensive to use and we should be paying less for music, not more.

As if there is much that I’d buy now anyway.