Hey Kevin,

I was pretty worked up last night when I posted that. I have heard that Macs are having fewer problems, and for some reason the DualDisc version is reportedly able to open in iTunes.

I hope Sony appreciates the irony that honest people are now learning all about breaking copy protection, just so they can get the cd onto their iPods. Thanks, Sony. Necessity has turned me into your definition of a pirate. Yargh!

I agree that this is more Sony's fault than Switchfoot's, but you nailed it perfectly when you wrote: "artists can't just sit back while record companies screw over fans. The artists will get the fallout of fan hatred, and that's not cool." I'd hope that the band is as upset about this as the fans are. Some sort of statement from Switchfoot would appease me.

As for those exclusive tracks, the Revenge of the Sith soundtrack came with a special website address and serial number system you could use to log in and get extra content. Something like that should have been implemented. As it stands, Switchfoot shouldn't mind people using the internet to find "pirated" versions of these tracks. They can't honestly expect fans to pay another $20 just for two additional songs, can they?

OK, the iTunes controls at the bottom of this window totally freaked me out. I saw them and thought, "Wait... I'm in Safari! What the... and I don't have Airport Express!" Then I looked more carefully and scrolled down slightly more. D'oh.

OK, time to get to the point. If there's one thing I've learned watching the tech industry incredibly closely for the last three years, it's this: Security doesn't exist. There is no secure system. There are systems that are more secure than others, but none is perfect. Someone recently developed "secure" audio CDs at a cost of millions, and a week later the copy protection had been circumvented by a method that used only a common sharpie marker. The stupid ones are the ones that think they can actually protect their content.

My belief: don't try. Don't make it convenient for people to steal but don't try to put up roadblock after roadblock to keep them out, either. It's pointless. There will always be a way around it. And as soon as one person gets the protection off, they can hand it out freely and everyone else benefits from that one person's cleverness.

Josh, to kind of dovetail with what you wrote: This type of security can do nothing but keep the honest people honest. Sony's anti-piracy software is forcing honest people to learn how to beat this stuff just so they can do something legitimate with it like put it on an iPod.

Stupid, stupid.

Here's the latest update on this stuff: a post on Sony Music's forums. If you wanted a message from the band, wait no longer.