OT, but needs atention!!!

[Batz Goodfortune]

Y-ellow Rob.

At 11:10 AM 12/11/99 -0500, Rob wrote:
>WEll, lets put it this way..
>
>Sony took my company to court (RCA) to FORCE us to GIVE THEM the codes for
>sattelite TV, AND the court MADE us not ONLY give the codes, BUT ALSO HELP
>THEM DEVELOP THEIR RECEIVER!!!!!
>They tried to say we had a monopoly! How the hell do you have a monopoly?
>Sony should have been made to set up their OWN goddamn system!
>
>WTF?!!?
>
>Sony are a bunch of underhanded sleazeballs. This isnt the only technology
>that they have stolen or litigated ppl out of in the courts.
>
>I cant say enough bad things about those weasels.. If you work for them, are
>affiliated with them, love them, etc, then I say "good luck to you, sucker",
>cuz they WILL screw u.. Its only a matter of time.

And so say all of us... Amen.

I'm no apologist nor defender of Bill Gates and his band of merry pirates
but I think, in comparison to Sony, what the US justice department are
doing to Microsoft is grossly unfair. Sony have gone round and bought up
and crushed so many competitors to the point where in some instances, like
the (already mentioned) professional video market and music industry to
some extent, there just is no choice but to buy Sony.

Take the case in Australia. The music industry is overwhelmingly dominated
by SONY. If you buy a CD here, chances are Sony had a hand in it. And
recently when the new laws governing CD exclusivity (read monopoly) was
proposed, Sony forced all their artists to come up and toady for them. Even
the Great Peter Garret of Midnight Oil fame was up there towing the line.
What a wanker!. After years and years of telling us about environmental and
social issues in song and in deed, he comes out and defends his Japanese
masters like the good little toad he really is. Be cause he knows, if he
doesn't, his Japanese masters will crush him like a bug.

Fortunately the law got passed. Only because one of the independent
senators became ill and left. Therefore there was only one idiot senator,
our beloved looser, the dishonorable Brian Harradine, ol' sardine boy, left
to defend the corporate giants. He lost. As usual.

When you buy a CD here you might think your buying from an independent. Say
Mushroom records. Still touted as the largest independent record company in
the world. Yea? So how come it's now 51% owned by Sony. I don't mind a bit
of "Severed Heads." now and then. But their record company, the so called
independent "Volition Records" run by a pair of bastards in Sydney are
actually just a front for Sony. And all of Sony's sub-lables around the
world who tow the line in fear of their Japanese masters taking complete
control of their operations. Everyone who's signed with Sony has become
slaves to them.

Remember the strange case of George Michael. He said. "I don't want to make
music for a company that manufactures transistor radios." And he got out of
his contract by the skin of his teeth. But sony vowed to crush him. And
they almost did.

Sony bought into the Music, software and Film industries supposedly so that
they would be able to ensure sales for their delivery products. In fact
this was to ensure that no matter how much a dud their systems were, they
could strangle consumers into buying them. Does the name "Mini Disk" mean
anything to you?

Here's a product which is so inadequate that no-one really wants to buy
them yet sony are still aggressively marketing them. Why is that? And why
are people still actually buying them. Look at the pressure that Sony
exerted via the RIAA to get MP3 products banned in the US. Why is that?

The funniest thing is the Microsoft/sony collusion to sell their crappy
music on-line. The compression technology isn't actually as good as MP3 but
it's close. It's encrypted and only if you buy the keys can you decrypt and
hear it. Some one said it would take  hackers 3 months before it was
cracked. It actually took them 2 weeks. The program is called, and get
this... "UN-FUCKED" I had to laugh.

My only regret about this is that the crackers didn't wait till after Sony
and microsoft had spend millions investing in the technology and had all
their feeble music out on the market before they released it. It would have
been funny to see them dump all their precious catalog on the net where
anyone with a bit of nouse could download for free.

But here's the bottom line. And I've had to say this again and again. Buy
independent. I mean truly independent. With no ties to major record
companies. The music is generally better. At least it has meaning. Well Ok
Sony music has meaning too. It means. "Our music makes a lot of suits very
rich please be gullable and buy it."

If you support independent music you are supporting that 2 percent of the
market who will one day support you. If you're still dreaming of getting
signed by a major, forget it. And if you do get signed, be prepared to sign
your life away at the same time.

Those who make it big in the music industry do so because of corporate
dealings. It is music made and marketed by the marketing departments of big
corporations where at the very least, it is selected and rejected according
to what they think they can market to the most number of gullable people.
All of which ends it's useful product life as  "Easy Listening hits and
memories." on some inane FM radio station. Who's primary purpose is selling
retirement plans to old folk. The day I heard Led Zeplin on easy listening
radio I knew there was something wrong.

The rest of them usually end up earning less for their efforts than we do
in the independent movement. Where we can sell 500 CDs and earn as much as
someone signed to Sony who sells 10,000. And and to work 15 times as hard
to do it.

I can't stress this enough. If you want to support the artist and not the
Suit, support Independent music.

Sony now own so much of many industries that Microsoft's monopolies in the
computer market looks pretty insignificant. And yet no-one's pursuing Sony
with an anti-trust suit. And yet they are far worse.

Disclosure: I'm embarrassed to say that I actually own 3 sony products. 2
Cassette decks and a pair of headphones. Both Cassette decks are crap and
were crap from the day I bought them. The cans are Ok but only just. for
the money I paid I would have  expected them to be much better.

When we, as a retail outlet wanted to sell Sony pro products, Sony Aust
placed so many terms and conditions on us that we just told them where they
could stick their dealership. This despite the potential for us to become
SA's largest Sony outlet for those products. In fact in some cases, SA's
only outlet for those products. Pete, the guy who owns the retailer, took
one look at the contract and realized that as huge as his company was, it
basically gave sony the right tell us what and how we should do business.
Not just for the sony products but over all.

Sony want to own and control everything. that's their only purpose in
existence it would seem.

Sony. Just say NO!

Be absolutely Icebox.

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