WTF is Wrong With Sony?

Wednesday, November 16, 2005
In case you haven't heard, Sony released a CD that has a rootkit on it. Basically a rootkit is a virus that attempts to mask itself from standard means of detection. It can basically hide from antivirus and malware. It is a truly insidious tactic.

Now there is news that Sony may have lead a price-fixing scheme to charge online retailers more than brick-and-mortar stores. Granted, a few other companies are named and this is only a complaint and not a conviction, but even so Sony isn't making a very good name for itself lately.

I love Sony products. But I don't like companies that do nefarious things. I will have to think long and hard the next time I am going to make a major electronics purchase. Treating your customers like criminals and trying to ensure they can't get a good deal is pretty much a recipe for losing any sort of customer loyalty it took years to cultivate.

1 comments:

Ryan said...

Not only that, but the company Sony paid to make the rootkit used LPGL code in violation of the license.

And it's not just one CD. Many. There are a number of sites which identify infected CDs, but Sony will not disclose the full list (as far as I've heard, at least).

So, they use price-fixing to sell CDs infected with a rootkit DRM made of stolen code. If corporations were held accountable like real people this would be multiple felonies and a nice chunk of time in jail.