SONY POND SCUM, THE STORY

Sony has been gutted by the seizure and abuse of its personal and private data. The data was stripped off their networks without any alarms or flags popping up and then the organization that stole the data used it punish Sony executives and share holders. I find it amusing that the other motion picture studios are holding their breath waiting to see what slime floats to the surface when their private files are leaked. I'm OK with whatever comes next. You see, these guys deserve it.

The entertainment industry calls for:
spyware on your computer that detects and deletes infringing materials;
mandatory censorware on all Internet connections to interdict transfers of infringing material;
border searches of personal media players, laptops and thumb-drives;
international bullying to force other countries to implement the same policies;
and free copyright enforcement provided by Fed cops and agencies (including the Department of Homeland Security!).

Remember who started the cyberwar. It was SONY.

The Sony BMG CD copy protection rootkit scandal of 2005–2007 concerns deceptive, illegal, and potentially harmful copy protection measures implemented by Sony BMG on about 22 million CDs. When inserted into a computer, the CDs installed one of two pieces of software which provided a form of digital rights management (DRM) by modifying the operating system to interfere with CD copying. Both programs could not be easily uninstalled, and they created vulnerabilities that were exploited by unrelated malware. Sony claims this was unintentional. One of the programs installed even if the user refused its EULA, and it "phoned home" with reports on the user's private listening habits; the other was not mentioned in the EULA at all, contained code from several pieces of open-source software in an apparent infringement of copyright, and configured the operating system to hide the software's existence, leading to both programs being classified as rootkits.

Sony BMG initially denied that the rootkits were harmful. It then released, for one of the programs, an "uninstaller" that only un-hid the program, installed additional software which could not be easily removed, collected an email address from the user, and introduced further security vulnerabilities.

Following public outcry, government investigations, and class-action lawsuits in 2005 and 2006, Sony BMG partially addressed the scandal with consumer settlements, a recall of about 10% of the affected CDs, and the suspension of CD copy protection efforts in early 2007.

The details are graphic and well worth a quick read. Sony deliberately, with malice aforethought, attacked 22 million computers in America and loaded them up with spyware.