RIAA President Cary Sherman gave a recent college press-conference where he addressed Sony’s rootkit fiasco (among other things — the whole trascript is worth reading for a quick visit to the planet greed). His take? Other companies do the same thing all the time!
“They have apologized for their mistake, ceased manufacture of CDs with that technology,and pulled CDs with that technology from store shelves. Seems very responsible to me. How many times that software applications created the same problem? Lots. I wonder whether they’ve taken as aggressive steps as SonyBMG has when those vulnerabilities were discovered, or did they just post a patch on the Internet?”
Um, Cary? We have a name for the kind of company that installs a rootkit on your computer. We call it “a criminal enterprise.” It’s hardly the kind of “bug” that your average software vendor has to patch.
Link, Sony Rootkit Roundup Part I, Sony Rootkit Roundup Part II
(Thanks, Robert!)