Nickname: firewallbill

Review: Sony lost me as a customer - However Sony may settle this financially, the fact that their management would consider these actions shows a corporation out of control and out of touch with reality. I will never buy another Sony product of any kind, ever again. This is one of the most unconscionable acts by a corporation in recent memory. Sony's actions were nothing but a slimy attack on their customers - period. I wish and hope their artists will go elsewhere. I'll miss them, but not enough to ever risk my computer and data to a Sony product.

Date reviewed: Jan 20, 2006 9:26 PM

Nickname: dvan

Review: Sony should not have gotten off so easy. With the CIA spying deal is small potatoes compared to Sony taking control of your computer. This justs shows that big companies are the true threat to our society.

Date reviewed: Jan 6, 2006 3:09 AM

Nickname: xsonyfan

Review: I too was once a big Sony fan until I heard about this. Yes, I believe Sony (and other companies) should protect their content while allowing the legal owner of the CD to burn a copy or two. But let's be frank. Sony crossed the line twice here. Once, by allowing this so-called protection to install on their customers PC's without their knowledge. And twice, by denying it existed when they were confronted by the party who discovered it! Smugly telling the consumers that "We're Sony and we'll do what we want!" I am just appalled at Sony and their attitude in this matter! I too have sold every Sony product that I owned (and there were many) and will never purchase another Sony product! Let's not lose focus here of what this was really about.

Date reviewed: Jan 4, 2006 8:00 AM

Nickname: Zeus

Review: Sony also has to do away with the stupid ActiveX requirement to remove the XCP rootkit software. Not everyone wants to use Internet Explorer, the very technology that's made even weaker by the XCP and MediaMax technologies.

Date reviewed: Jan 2, 2006 6:06 AM

Nickname: alexthe

Review: The hidden software is actually a benign trick that puts a financial risk to anyone who is unlucky enough to have a hacker find it. We pay good money for our PC's, software and personal content. What really irks me is that Sony takes the same position as credit card companies that declare that you are in default to them if you are late for any payments to other creditors. Sony says that they can take back what you already have paid them in full for a financial situation completely independent of Sony. I refuse to buy anything with the Sony name on it.

Date reviewed: Jan 2, 2006 5:13 AM

Nickname: RAML

Review: I was one of the many who had their hard drive trashed by Sony. I and my family will never purchase anything with the Sony brand on it. Period.

Date reviewed: Jan 2, 2006 2:55 AM

Nickname: Mackleo

Review: I think this copyright protection has gone too far. I love old technology. In fact, my New Year's resolution is to not listen to a CD (except in an educational environment) for two months straight. Back in the days of analog, copying was possible. If we continue to support digital 100% instead of using wonderful analog as well as digital, these record companies couldn't keep slapping us in the face.

Date reviewed: Jan 1, 2006 11:40 PM

Nickname: i guy who knows

Review: The funny part is that back in '99, the labels could have owned it all if they'd listened to and bought from the guys who developed this technology. But in typical music business style, they thought they knew it all. Don Ienner, you too.

Date reviewed: Jan 1, 2006 11:21 PM

Nickname: not_the_man

Review: Sony damaged my computer. It cost me time, anger, destroyed data, aggravation, and just plain high blood pressure. Multi-billion dollar corporations must be held accountable for their actions and their products. They clearly broke the weak laws in place. They did not verify their products met the law. The should be severely punished and should pay restitution for all the people that purchased their defective and illegal products. Any sort of settlement is a sham.

Date reviewed: Jan 1, 2006 9:22 PM

Nickname: Guillermo

Review: We have now twice witnessed what happens when the pendulum swings too far in a particular direction. The first time we witnessed this was with the birth of Napster, and similar methods of free music distribution on the Internet. And with it came wholesale, mass theft of commercial material. The pendulum had swung too far in one direction--that of mass theft. We are now seeing the inevitable, predictable reaction from the entities that are having their goods stolen in mass quantities: a draconian crackdown. Did anyone doubt that the mass theft of commercial music would eventually bring this sort of response? And so we see companies reacting strongly--most definitely too strongly--in an attempt to stop the mass bleeding. The pendulum thus swings much too far in the opposite direction. It needs to swing to the middle, and this will take effort from both sides.

Date reviewed: Jan 1, 2006 5:55 PM