“The spyware controversy won’t go away for Sony. On Thursday, it came to light that the state of Texas is expanding its claims against the company. It’s now saying that some of Sony’s products — using a different technology altogether from the one that caused the first controversy — secretly downloaded programs onto users’ machines even if they rejected license agreements,” Alyce Lomax reports for The Motley Fool. “Back in November, the Sony BMG unit got into hot water over its XCP technology included on some of its musical CDs, that planted what are called “rootkits” to users’ computers without their knowledge. The situation reached a high profile — and incited some degree of consumer outrage — when it was discovered that the technology made users’ PCs vulnerable to hackers.”
Lomax reports, “The new charge from Texas, as reported by CNET, pertains to Sony’s MediaMax technology, which some say allows Sony to keep tabs on what users are doing with their music (which, of course, is the goal of copy protection — to prevent users from making too many copies), even if the users rejected the license agreement upon installation. Furthermore, the attorney general from Texas said that both the XCP and the MediaMax technologies can make users’ computers vulnerable to attacks.”
“It’s not lost on anyone that the once-famed creator of the Walkman lost the portable musical crown to Apple and its iPods,” Lomax writes. “It seems that many investors still retain a lot of belief in electronics giant Sony, given that its stock price continues to go up. And get this — it currently has a forward P/E ratio of 73. I just can’t help thinking there’s bad news ahead for this electronics giant, especially when it comes to this spyware controversy, which suggests a lack of concern about customers or their rights. It seems to me that these concerns should be enough to make at least some shoppers cast a jaundiced eye toward many of Sony’s products. Some are likely going to avoid them altogether.”
Full article here.
Sony has lost its way so badly, we don’t know if they’ll ever be able to find their way back to their roots again. We are continuing to boycott all Sony products until this and other “copy-protected CD” issues are addressed appropriately by Sony and recommend that our 2.2+ million unique visitors per month from 136 countries worldwide do the same.
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