November 9th, 2005
Sony: Open Mouth, Insert Foot
By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews
Perhaps thinking before speaking would help.
In an interview with NPR late last week, Sony BMG’s Global Digital Business President Thomas Hesse downplayed the recent DRM fiasco saying he objected to terms such as malware, spyware and rootkit. “Most people, I think, don’t even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?” he said.
Hesse acknowledged that the controversial First 4 Internet technology that installs and “cloaks” the DRM software without a user’s permission shipped on about 20 CDs. But “no information ever gets gathered about the user behavior,” he claimed. “This is purely about restricting the ability to burn MP3 files in an unprotected manner.”
Source: BetaNews
We Say: Most people may not understand a rootkit, but they do understand the way a story is presented on, oh say, NPR, national TV news, local TV news … Sony needs to open its eyes and realize this is a PR nightmare.
Keith says:
“Most people, I think, don’t even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?”
Hmmm. This guy lives by the motto, “what you don’t know can’t kill you.” Substitute any nasty, relatively unknown word in for “rootkit” to have a little fun with such absurdity. I’m thinking lots of medical conditions, pathogens, spyware, adware, etc.
November 9th, 2005 at 8:15 am
David Johnston says:
Rolling with that idea:
Most people, I think, don’t even know what [defenestration] is, so why should they care about it?
I think they’d care if they got thrown out a window, myself.
November 9th, 2005 at 11:09 am
Bose says:
It’s just another example of how these people(CEO’s, celebrities, and the like) lose a sense of reality and begin to think that they are superior to everyone else.
November 9th, 2005 at 2:12 pm
JPVann says:
What do you expect - NPR is the home to socialism on the radio anyway. What’s one more restrictive collar on freedom?
November 9th, 2005 at 2:50 pm
JDMann says:
Ummm… JPVann apparently thinks that NPR is promoting the acts of Sony in its restriction on his/her freedom? Perhaps he isn’t aware that the current President and his administration have called music piracy “Domestic Terrorism” and have acted to make it a federal crime and have taken on suing people FOR the RIAA. Yeah, NPR is the problem. Read the Patriot Act, moron.
November 11th, 2005 at 12:32 pm
blane says:
Most people don’t even know what DRM/DMCA is, so why should the care about it?
November 17th, 2005 at 3:47 am