On my work computer (the one with Windows :)), i usually play my music using iTunes or Winamp (due to their scrobbling capabilities) and as a test, i installed Jajuk (because of its network qualities, and because i’m a geek). Everythings been nice and fine. 

The other day, i stumbled across SF-Anytime, an online movie rental site supposedly run by Svensk Filmindustri, though they don’t make a lot of fuss about that. SF-Anytime streams movies across the net, legally and for a compensation between zero and four € per flick.  I thought i’d test the service and if they’d got Office Space, i could even rent it. Hadn’t seen that flick before anyway.

SF-Anytime uses Windows Media Player to show the movies. It requires version 9 or 10 to work, so i installed version ten (carefully avoiding version 11, which SF-Anytime doesn’t say is supported, plus that there was some important software at work which ceased to operate once WMP 11 is installed — i forget which).  To enable playback of those films, the rather uninformative and not very well translated help text says that i need to enable something that identifies me (”yksilöi”) uniquely. I got as far as taking a few deep breaths, promising myself that i will never, ever use WMP for anything but SF-Anytime and enabling that flag (unique identifying on anything, anywhere, behind my back is Red Alert to me). Still the testing feature of SF-Anytime says my media player still ain’t up to the job.

Then two things happened. Windows media player ten says it’s got some updates for me. I assume it’s some security update but lo and behold, WMP10 is downloading WMP version 11. “Some updates” indeed. I hit Cancel, get no serious error messages, and get to configure what file types WMP 10 (phew) is going to be the default player for. Which ain’t many. Sorry, Bill, but i don’t trust you or your guys.

What i noticed next was even more alarming. Windows Media Player starts renaming my files. Yup. What used to be a carefully laid out scheme of <track number> <song name>.mp3 now has turned to <Song Name>.mp3, loosing the track number and using high-bit characters to denote that the song’s named Hasta Mañana and the such. Hey, WMP! The song names and the high bit characters belong to the song metadata, not the file name! If i want my file names to be a serial number, the MD5 hash of the file itself or consecutive one-liners from Bruce Willis’ movie career, that’s my decision. You do not go and rename my files. Not without my explicit permission. Which i do not remember giving. And if i happened to give that persmission (which i could not find in the settings anywhere, so either it’s very well hidden or i’m very incompetent — from a usability perspective, the option is hidden and the software should hinder me from accidentially committing stupid actions) you should still warn me before doing something that inexplicably stupid. Remeber: i’ve studied usability. I’m entitled to blame you for my stupid actions.

What happens now?  My Winamp library will need to be rescanned, same goes for the Jajuk library. My iTunes library will also need to be rescanned but since it ain’t amaroK, which intelligently adds a GUID in the song metadata or uses some other form of clever hashing so the song can be recognized even if the song is renamed or moved, i’ll end up with a bunch of songs that are marked as missing and an equal bunch of songs that are completely new to the system, lack the extended iTunes metadata, and will have to be synchronized again when i connect my wife’s iPod to this computer.

Thank you, Windows media player. And thank you SF-Anytime. Is there any question on why illegal movie and TV show downloads make up for the majority of the current Internet traffic?