Dear DRM, you suck.

Today I received this CD from Lala.com, a completely legit and legal CD-swapping site. I placed the CD into my CD drive, intending to rip it through iTunes onto my computer-- again, completely legal. However, the folks at Sony BMG had plans otherwise: they a) encrypted the data on the CD so that it cannot be ripped onto a computer by making all the ripped files skip b) made me agree to a EULA and download some skeezy software of their own (which I didn't do) just to freaking keep a godamn CD on my computer. I don't want to go P2P the file; I don't want to make copies and hand them out; I WANT TO LISTEN TO SONGS ON MY COMPUTER! Now they have driven me to go find a way to illegally circumvent the data protection all so I can add this CD to my digital collection. It shouldn't be this much work: I legally own the CD! Sony tried to pull this crap recently, and they got into trouble. It's ridiculous. This is what causes people to pirate CDs. If people can't own the stuff they buy, they might as well steal it (not saying that I would). The RIAA is probably going to send me a cease and desist letter now for justifying illegal downloads. Whatever, I should really start supporting iTune Plus or eMusic.

Update: After three hours, thank you, Princeton!

Holiday Cheer (or lack thereof)

Oh, the holidays. The special time of year when B-list celebrities put out horrible Christmas albums and everyone pretends that small children sitting on a over-aged, over-weight stranger's lap is totally not creepy. It's the time of year when Hallmark movies tell us that the holiday spirit can save us from our abusive husbands and alcoholic daddies. Yet, I've recently come to notice that there's something ingenious about this time.

It seems that during these days, everyone is dutifully obligated to put on a farce of happiness. For one season, we are told to pretend we do not fully detest those with whom one is with. Oh, of course, gifts are given, but only to those to whom it is assumed the gift will be reciprocated. We have put so much meaning into the gift itself and the whole "aura" of the holidays, that we have become puppets of joy. Puppets who do what is normal and what is expected from claymation Christmas movies.

Of course, there are those exception to which my gripe does not apply-- those true moments when we give to who we care and the effort is appreciated. I am not saying that I hate the holidays, nor am I saying that our materialism is the fall of humanity. All I would just like to convey is that we can not wrap our apathy and irksomeness in a pretty bow and call it holiday magic.