Sony, the well-known manufacturer of consumer electronics products, likes to plant rootkits in your (Windows-based) computer without asking for permission first. You see, they assume that you are a crook, they assume that you live for stealing other people’s intellectual property whenever given the opportunity. They assume that you need to be controlled, and they think it’s their duty to do so.
Groklaw’s put up a page gathering all Sony-related information to one place so please, don’t take my word for it, read for yourself.
If you really are like that, if you agree with Sony, then by all means, continue buying their products. But if not, boycott everything Sony. Start now!
I went to “read for myself”, and finally found the story of hte guy who figured it all out, and read it with my mouth open at the sheer degree of incomprehensibility (to me) of what he was doing to get at the truth. I stopped understanding what was nominally English by the end of the first paragraph. This man is an alien plant and don’t tell me otherwise…
I might have all kinds of weird software on my computer that I don’t know about. I have no clue about the viscera of it all – and I’m fascinated by(if a little scared of) people who can do the kind of thing this guy did…
The simple version is this: Sony tampers with your property without asking for your permission. In this case, what they’ve done is pretty esoteric and certainly beyond the grasp of the average computer user, but the basics are nevertheless simple:
Would it be OK for them, a privately held company, to eavesdrop on your bedroom conversations, tap your phone line, monitor your TV use or keep a list of the books you read?
If not, then make sure that they know it.