I should tell you that over the years I've been a big fan of your hard drives. It's been two decades since I purchased a branded computer. I prefer to use a "white box" builder and to specify the parts I buy. Since I've had great luck with WD hard drives, I've gotten into the habit of simply requesting whatever WD product comes closest to my estimated requirements whenever I need more storage.
Unfortunately, unless and until the rest of the hard drive manufacturers start doing this crap I'll be breaking that habit and giving my business to someone else. It's not that I share any of those file formats. It's just that I have no intention of giving you money so you can stick your fucking nose in my business and play copyright cop.
By the way, did I mention that I'm self-employed and that some of my customers rely on me to advise on their hardware purchases? I may not cost you much but I intend to cost you a little.
It's been nice knowing you,
pogge
(Hat-tip to Saskboy.)
WD are one of my least favourite drives simply because, aside from a Seagate back about 1990, they are the only drives I have ever had die on me. I haven't used a Seagate since because that failure was caused by a problem Seagate knew about but didn't seem their customers had any right to know about.
This box is the only one of my several running any WDs (2) and these are the first in 10 years. Unfortunately, in my part of the world WD and Seagate are about the only games in town.
From reading the article and comments, it seems this stupidity is contained in the included software rather than the hardware itself. It appears that people stuck with WD can solve the problem by not installing the included software (that is typically junk anyway) and/or by wrapping the files in a zip or rar archive format. That's the way most of my copyright violations arrive anyway ;-)
Unfortunately, this is the shape of things to come and we'll either have to find ways to combat it case by case or accept Big Brother increasingly looking over our shoulders.
That move by WD really pissed me off. I run four computers in my house on a network. Each one has a different purpose but if I'm away from my office and I want to access that computer I do it through a notebook.
This thing by WD would effectively prevent me from accessing files on my own network.
As this effort by the mass storage manufacturers grows we're going to find network file sharing becomes more difficult when the effort should actually be to speed it up.
From reading the article and comments, it seems this stupidity is contained in the included software rather than the hardware itself.
Yes, and there's a workaround. And I actually had no intention right now of buying an external drive product. But I have to wonder how far away WD is from turning this kind of software into firmware that's resident on the drive and from added DRM to internal hard drives. This is a pre-emptive move on my part.
The author of the article mentions that he has files that represent his own musical compositions which the WD product won't let him share. From the point of view of people in his position, this product is purposely broken. That's just ridiculous.
And besides, in order to function the software would have to monitor your activity to compare the files you're moving around with the internal list of controlled file formats. That uses up CPU cycles which the drive is essentially stealing from the computer's owner so it can enforce Big Music's copyrights.
As I wrote in the original post — and apparently unlike you — I've had great luck with WD products and I've been faithfully buying them and recommending them to others for years. No more. They've now demonstrated a contempt for their paying customers that's unacceptable.
Thanks for pointing this out. I was about to buy some WD drives for my work machines, but now, not a chance. This continued and insidious erosion of personal privacy by corporations will have to be addressed in the marketplace.
Am I missing something here?
Given that others don't do it, what the heckfire is WD's motivation for going down this (twisted) road?
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It's possible that the other manufacturers are planning to roll out the same crap and WD thinks it has accomplished something by getting there first. Maybe if the others hear us screaming they'll think twice.
I am not suggesting that people shouldn't be offended at WD's actions and retaliate with a boycott or any other action they choose.
This is simply the latest in a long line of assaults on privacy. We shouldn't have to work around this kind of software from a hard drive manufacturer. We also shouldn't have to encrypt our emails and hard drives, worry about having government eavesdrop on our phone conversations or use proxy servers. But we do.
The assault on privacy along with the concurrent rise in police statism may become the most important issue we have to face simply because it may well become impossible to fight against any other problems without the capacity to freely exchange ideas because we are under assault from governments and corporations (to the extent there is a difference between the two).
About the only silver lining in this particular cloud is that it is a uniting issue. While some people can be persuaded to support this kind of intrusion ostensibly in the service of fighting some ill defined terrist threat, a majority of people representing a broad cross section of the population have no fondness for either the record companies or the movie studios. Real conservatives - as opposed to neo-cons - are as angry about this kind of intrusion into our lives as we are.
Pogge has brought out the two most important aspects of what WD has done - the possibility of this software winding up as firm wear in all of their products and the possibility that other drive manufacturers are planning on doing the same thing.
Unless the people running WD are complete idiots (I know. I know.),there was no reason for them to come up with this idea in a vacuum. They had to know - or at least should have known - it was not going to ingratiate them with their customers. There is no business case to be made for offending their customers unless they were simply trying to be first to take the jump.
With a trojan operating system in Windows Vista and a viral hard drive, the computer industry is looking a lot like a small improvement over the aids virus. Privately, I have suggested forming a local chapter of Luddites 'R' Us. Maybe we should be going national.
"this software winding up as firm wear "
I like that spelling mistake. :-)
Firm Wear, as in a digital straight jacket.
Honestly, I really do know better than to post something in the wee hours about 18 hours into a day. Not that that is likely to stop me - ya post 'em when ya can.
Of course, I could just claim that I did it on purpose and you were really perceptive to pick up on it. But that would make me either a politician or a Micro$oft PR flack claiming it was a feature not a flaw ;-)
It appears there are more HD problems - albeit of a different kind - this time with Seagate. New Seagate Drives Have Real Difficulties With Linux
I too have concerns with this whole issue... and despite your uneducated conception mahigan, many of us "neo-cons" have issues with it too.
As a Christian, I have issues with stealing, so much of the music I have is bought. However, once I've bought it, I should be able to actually use it in a useable format... my Palm won't play most DRM files, just MP3's. I bought a couple of songs, but had to jump through hoops to convert them into a useable format. GRRRR...
As for sticking DRM firmware directly into equipment, I have serious issues with that... 1) I buy drives for performance, so to have that performance stolen by needless programs running deep in the background is dishonest of them, 2) it will interefere with people like me who have legitimately bought the music and then want to use it in another useable format, 3) it sets a dangerous precident.
Start a Facebook group, then let me know... we should get a real movement started here in Canada to send a message loud and clear to the HDD manufacturers and the Government
I have issues with stealing
I take this to mean that you have issues with people who "share" music they haven't purchased. But that's exactly why we pay a levy on every blank audio tape, CD and DVD we buy - to repay copyright holders. That's one of the reasons why the exceptions that currently exist in Canadian copyright law are there.
I'm like Christion C, and I didn't understand what rights the levies on blank media gave us.
So I did some research and uh... learned that I did not and still don't know squat about what constitutes illegal copying and what doesn't.