What WAS Sony thinking?

For your own protection, do not buy or play music CDs from Sony BMG Music Entertainment. Ever. That's the only reasonable conclusion you can draw, following the revelation that Sony's CDs install a rootkit on your PC as part of their so-called "Digital Rights Management" scheme. The company is backpedaling and posting fixes, but it's way too late for that. Some companies are just too stupid to live.You wouldn't knowing access a Web page or open an e-mail attachment that installs a rootkit that could destroy your PC, steal your identity, or ruin your personal finances. Why does Sony think you should pay it money for something that actually makes it easier for every snot-nosed 14-year-old on the planet to do the same thing?

What did the guys who run this company think, they could do it and not get found out? Did they think they were somehow doing the right thing, something praise-worthy? The weren't. They were, in fact, allying Sony with the ranks of the criminal hacker class. Sir Howard Stringer, newly elevated to run Sony, is going to have some explaining to do.

As the articles point out, a rootkit is just like anthrax spores in an envelope -- there is no legitimate use for it, either technically or legally. It's only purpose is to hide code from the operating system so you can't remove it from your PC.

I've written before about why everybody hates the music industry. This is just more evidence. The good news (and maybe the reason Sony is trying to clean up its mess) is that the company may actually be criminally liable for this.