That Time Sony Secretly Installed Rootkit Software on Hundreds of Thousands of Computers

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[@zata1197]

Anti-piracy measures have always screwed over paying customers more than they ever stopped pirates

[@maltardraco9555]

That's why I call them pro-piracy measures. People are sailing the high seas just because they don't want the denuvo rootkit.

[@fckuyo3918]

Apparently it also screwed over Sony lol

[@evilsdemise1287]

I have a suspicious feeling that some of these pirates are working for the corporations to create the "problem" so that the corporations can implement the "solution", which "coincidentally" is anti-consumer. Just a thought that popped into my head . . . . . .

[@V3ntilator]

Sadly a fact. Same for physical gaming on AMIGA And PC back in the days. If you paid for the games, you got a inferior copy vs the pirated one.

[@adam.maqavoy]

#ZTO_- *Nope* It Was an Consumer issue in early 2000s. Now its Even Worse, Than that.

[@amberkat8147]

"We put a backdoor in your computer any malicious program could use without your knowledge or permission and we don't see the big deal because you probably don't understand it" is an INCREDIBLY poor take by Sony.

[@danielharvison7510]

They continue to have foot-in-mouth disease, and no-one seems to have told them. Many companies suffer from such things.

[@rotwang2000]

They act like they have every right to manage your life, but the second somebody so much as raises a finger they fall to the ground and scream murder.

[@danielharvison7510]

@@rotwang2000 You gotta...you gotta think of the shareholders, man! They gotta pay for those Tuscan villas somehow, right?

[@spvillano]

Well, they paid dearly for that nonsense, as the US government sued them for damages to their computers, as each infected system had to be wiped and reloaded.

[@TheXev]

The worst part in all of this, is the response from Sony was VERY VERY slow. There were far more reliable third party tools for removing the rootkit at the time then anything they eventually pulled out of their ass. They also tried suing the person who released the simple fix of "hold shift while inserting the disc" which was Windows 95+ feature to disable auto-play. Scum bags.

[@Evocatorum]

To think that there was someone in my life as a kid that, while they may not know me, thought I was important enough to protect that they would take time out of their incredibly busy shooting schedule to testify in front of congress still gets me choked up... and I'm 45. The world needs more people like Mr. Rogers.

[@KORUPTable]

30 here and same, I feel like that was what the internet started out as, people just sharing. Now that all of these companys hopped on the internet it's just people useing other people.

[@drewt1717]

@@KORUPTable and because of that, the equilibrium between sharing and using online grows ever more elusive. Now we have to raise kids to be wary, untrusting infonauts when introducing them to the internet. The joyful, exciting, liberating, and empowering possibilities of the Internet back in the 90s continues to grow ever more dull, tedious, and taken for granted by this current generation of kids. It's so sad what humanity does in the name of control/influence over others.

[@beyondfubar]

It really is crazy how awesome certain people are/were. Mr. Rogers was definitely one of the greats.

[@broadcastliveTV]

What???

[@timothyoswald8618]

Yeah, I might be a bit misty. Just... how he expresses himself and how thoughtful and kind he was.

[@critter42]

I think it should be noted that Russinovich wasn't just some "security researcher" - he developed the famed "Sysinternals" suite of utilities used by any Windows admin worth his salt - so useful, in fact, Russinovich's company was acquired by Microsoft shortly after the Sony debacle and he is now CTO of Microsoft Azure.

[@haroldz123]

Wow, nice bonus fact

[@ellenmacpherson361]

It's an hilarious underselling of Russinovich. He's been a big player in tech for like what? 20 years now 🤣

[@GrandPrixDecals]

This is not a biography on Russinovich, I think Simon gave him plenty of credit in a very respectful way.

[@Stettafire]

@@GrandPrixDecals Nah, "researcher" is not his job title

[@davidioanhedges]

Mark's company was bought by Microsoft when they repeatedly found that he was more knowledgeable about Windows than most of their own engineers, and maybe he might just stop revealing their secrets ...

[@mosespray4510]

Mr Rogers was a really good man, and unlike so many who are later found to be evil behind the scenes, he just keeps looking better.

[@AaronLitz]

@Richard king That was _absolutely uncalled for,_ Comparing Mr. Rogers to an infamous pedophile is _repugnant._ Fred Rogers was a wonderful man, and was a comfort and inspiration to a _lot_ of children who grew up without otherwise having many (or_any)_ kind adult male figures in their lives, and even just a snide, subtle _implication_ that he ever did anything like that to any children is an insult not just to Rogers, but to every one of the thousand and thousands of people who looked up to him as children. I can only assume that you thought you were somehow being clever and "subversive," but in truth you were just being crass and insulting to a decent, wonderful man who never did _anything_ to deserve it, and dedicated his entire life to helping children. In the true good spirit of Mr. Rogers I will not throw any insults at you or attack you, but instead I will merely kindly ask you to re-think your momentary misjudgement, and remove your repugnant comment.

[@NeoNeoNeo]

Fox News called Mr. Rogers evil... really tells you a lot about those people

[@Antiguan2222]

@richard king Obviously ur being sarcastic? At least I sincerely hope so!!

[@chitlitlah]

@@Antiguan2222 You think he wasn't a good man? Are you a commie?

[@Antiguan2222]

@@chitlitlah Jimmy Saville a good man 😂🤣 ur hilarious buddy

[@Charles-js3ri]

So, Sony got fined to hell and executives were thrown in prison for a couple decades.... oh wait.

[@lyngruen8607]

😂😂RIGHT?!!!😂

[@gomahklawm4446]

Of course not. It's capitalism....nothing at all happened.

[@Wooargh]

These actions against Sony obviously worked because now companies like Microsoft, Facebook, and Google have to respect our privacy.

[@Charles-js3ri]

@@Wooargh mhm totally.

[@Machtyn]

If every eligible person put in for their $7.50 maybe they would have been fined to hell... oh, wait. Nevermind. That wouldn't have made a dent.

[@lordzallen]

this kind of shit happens because we don't hold corporate executives criminally responsible for it... a prison sentence for ALL of sony's board via RICO for hacking charges would have been appropriate.

[@truecrimelover2022]

yeah but if you're super rich sadly the rules don't apply to you at most a slap on the rich the consequences are for the rest of us plebes

[@TDurden527]

The formation of vigilante groups would help.

[@BigMobe]

@@TDurden527 If I can't have justice I'll settle for vengeance.

[@murderbunnies]

Agreed! Lets find the sony execs to okayed this and hunt them down with giant spiders from Strom Thurmonds old island where he used to hunt down his illegitimate grandchildren.

[@JimmyJoeBob]

Consequences are for the poor. What a time we live in.

[@charlescrocco7896]

The bonus fact is yet another reminder how Fred Rogers is a Legend and who needs a Biographics video if one has not already been produced.

[@dottyjyoung]

Absofreakinglutely.

[@jarekmace1536]

It's called "A beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" and it was released in'19.

[@AaronLitz]

Simon did a video about him a few years ago, but I don't think has ever done a full _Biographics_ on him.

[@ablemagawitch]

There have been several, Both with Fred Rodgers as Fred Rodgers and Tom Hanks playing him. Then you could find all the clips of him speaking on youtube, not mention all the youtube creators (harder to find one who hasn't yet...) reacts to MR Rodgers videos...

[@charlescrocco7896]

@@jarekmace1536 As good as it was, Tom Hanks is not Simon Whistler. That said, it would be interesting to see a bald Mr. Rogers.

[@BlackburnBigdragon]

I remember running into the Media Max software when I tried to simply play one of my CD's. I think it might have been the first Evanessance album. You couldn't play the CD without installing that software. I refused to play that CD in my computer because I refused to install their software. It's nice to know that even though I refused, that Sony still pretty much malwared my PC anyway. I remember that because of this, I actually snagged the album from a pirate site. It's sad to think that getting the files from a pirate site made you less likely to get malware in this case (With proper protection like anti-virus/malware blocking software). There's so many companies out there who think that, "They're using my stuff on their computer, therefore I should control their computer.". This is STILL the thinking process of these companies to this day. I could probably name multiple examples of this off the top of my head. And I'm sure that I'm not the only one.

[@SpiffingNZ]

Gabe Newell said it best: "...piracy is not a pricing issue. It’s a service issue."

[@SuprousOxide]

This is often the risk of DRM software, making the illegal product higher quality and more attractive than the legal one

[@TheCimbrianBull]

Ah yes, Evanescence! I remember the trouble of getting that album onto my very first mp3-player.

[@LegendStormcrow]

@@SpiffingNZ I have only pirated games that I couldn't find, and when I do, I often buy them because I pirated them. I won't buy EA games ever again because of the service issues.

[@andriandrason1318]

Honestly deserve a virus/malware, just for buying a evanescence cd.

[@leandervr]

This is the best example of how insanely stupid the music industry's reaction to piracy has been. Their supposed anti-piracy practices harmed the people who paid for the music while pirating meant you could enjoy the music without getting malware. They literally incentivized pirating.

[@danielharvison7510]

The really dimwit icing-on-the-cake bit is that any idiot who bothered to think ahead could have seen this coming! It's pretty damned obvious, what with the Sony exec's contemptuous attitude to customers at the time. I'd have sailed the high seas just to spite him, back in the day. Completely preventable damage that they did to themselves, with no one else to blame. The only lesson learned was "be more subtle next time, see what we can get away with", and little else.

[@angulion]

It certainly is not limited to the music industry - we have absolutely unnecessary encryption on DVDs, Bluerays and even in-transit signals in an HDMI-cable that only increases prices for consumers and causes incompatibilities and headaches in addition to more energy requirements and generated e-waste. All this is totally unnecessary and needs to be gotten rid of.

[@RobertK1993]

@@angulion They are entitled to protection copyrighted IP.

[@angulion]

@@RobertK1993 of course, I am not arguing that. I am just saying that totally failed draconian messures are not the way to go and often times has even made the "legal" way of obtaining and consuming content a hassle and poor experience. Making content easily available at reasonable cost is the way to go. Spotify is a great example of this and I bet has had massively more impact on music piracy than some technical messure ever had.

[@robsku1]

@@RobertK1993 Yes, but none of the copy-protections actually work, they cause unnecessary harm for customers who can't or wont pirate stuff (not even pirate copies of what they have paid for), while those willing to pirate are not affected the slightest by them. So, it's nonsensical. Harmful to law abiding paying customers. Incentivizes piracy. Is ineffective in preventing piracy. But they have a right to place DRM and other copy protection systems on their stuff, whether it makes any sense to do so or not.

[@msmoniz]

Sony's rootkit fiasco did more to encourage people to learn how to use bit torrent and illegal file share, than any other action, thereby having the EXACT OPPOSITE effect they wanted! 🤦‍♂

[@AaronLitz]

It's funny how treating all of your customers like criminals will lead to something like that.

[@LegendStormcrow]

*Insert Joker "You get what you deserve!" meme*

[@euj0]

I think you're wrong. Or you are a shill. I don't know any one who when presented with Sonys rootkit was like, "you know what? Im gonna learn how to pirate". The people who purchased CDs and played them on PCs, and people who are savvy with file sharing dont share much overlap. I call you a shill because you know who does think the way you do? The record companies and movie companies, and video game companies who pull out the "lost revenue figure" using your logic that these customers would have purchased them if not for piracy. Pirates were never going to purchase it. Sonys rootkit had no bearing on their decision to pirate, or encouragement.

[@msmoniz]

@@euj0 Ok dude, you tell me who I am since it makes you feel better about yourself🙄

[@KWHCoaster]

Also stopped me from buying / installing anything with (c)Sony on the CD/DVD package. To this day...

[@Jimorian]

You forgot to mention that the Department of Homeland Security actually called Sony's software a major national security issue as part of their statement.

[@walnzell9328]

Sony in the US being labelled a foreign agent because it's a Japanese company that just caused a national security risk. If only.

[@eurosonly]

Companies are not your friend. This needs to be on bill boards everywhere.

[@ramkitty]

Yet hactivism is being shunned as conspiratorial and governments seek back door encryption breaks to fight 'terrorism' all while rights to repair are being rapidly erroded

[@Spencer-wc6ew]

If your relationship with a person/group is based off money, assume they can only think of themselves. I'm surprised at how many people don't get this mentality. It would stop so many scams.

[@ericleef1319]

Neither are lawyers

[@hulkgqnissanpatrol6121]

WAKE UP......

[@DeadManSinging1]

They Live

[@BarryTGash]

Sony: We'll sell you a vcr and a cd and tape deck, then bemoan the fact that you use them.

[@Rammstein0963.]

Naturally. 🤔

[@goffrd137]

Fred Rogers was a great man from an era we often learn that our hero were flawed at best and more often monsters at worst

[@jamesslick4790]

I met Fred several times over the years (I'm from Pittsburgh,PA). He was 100% the same in real life as he was on TV!

[@CartoonHero1986]

I was working for a record store during this. To avoid liability and to make sure customers knew what was going on we had to include a info card explaining what to look for and which CDs would have it.

[@SmilingKratosTheGodOfWar]

If this was done by a normal person they would have gotten a minimum sentence of 1 year for every computer that it was installed on. Just shows that the us legal system has been broken for a long time.

[@gomahklawm4446]

#capitalism......of course nothing happened.

[@davep8221]

@@gomahklawm4446 Well, they did have to suffer with the stock price going up.

[@LegendStormcrow]

Dude, it took hundreds of thousands of people to stop monopolies and to create the EEO laws. Money walks, man.

[@UlshaRS]

Crime, it's quite profitable when you are already rich

[@myusernameisrighther]

@@davep8221 man, I wish I could “suffer” with more money.

[@ehrichweiss]

Not only do I remember it, I haven't had a Sony product(new or used) enter our house since this. Yes, that includes all of the playstations, etc.

[@iamepimethus]

I applaud your efforts but the simple fact is every company does this to some degree and the events that unfolded with Sony just paved the way for the rest. They’re all doing it and unless we live like one of the people from “below zero” they’re doing it to you.

[@knurlgnar24]

@@iamepimethus Sony is still as bad as they ever were Ding Dong. This is not an industry wide problem - it is a Sony culture problem. I am with OP. No sony products have been in my home in the last 15 years.

[@shadowwynd6641]

Same. While I know there’s all sorts of corporate malfeasance out there, Sony crossed the line that day - this was not a bug, or a glitch, or planned obsolescence or spying- this was a deliberate attack by Sony against their paying customers. I have avoided Sony BMG and Sony Electronics ever since. Yes I was able to remove it. Yes, I was able to remove the root kit from my own system and for many other people. I should not have had to do any of this. There is probably $20k in lost sales just from me - not much, but I know many other techs with exactly the same perma-ban and for the same reason.

[@parthsavyasachi9348]

You are not using smartphones too i guess because they give companies far worse than what sony could've taken from you.

[@fluffycritter]

The thing is that nearly everyone within Sony were also against this rootkit (particularly everyone involved with Playstation). It was really just Sony BMG who were doing this crap, and Sony isn't really a single unified company so much as a bunch of warring factions that all have the same top-level corporate ownership.

[@KogentaSama]

I remember running in to this rootkit on the Velvet Revolver CD I got back in my high school days. You know the best thing about Linux is that it looked at the exe and had no idea what to do with it. The music CD played and ripped just fine XD (gotta have that backup, just in case). The $7 check from the settlement was a joke though since the disc was $18.

[@nebula0024]

I remember this!! My attempts to remove that software left my computer unable to boot into Windows. Lucky for me, I was tech savvy enough to simply wipe my boot drive and reinstall everything. Unfortunately, back in those days that was a LONG and annoying process, and having to reinstall all my applications was a major pain in the rear.

[@davep8221]

You say not being able to boot into Windwoes like it's a bad thing.

[@dracoslayer16]

Reminds me of back in the day when EVE Online screwed up a line of code in an update that deleted everyone's Boot.ini files. I still remember the sheer panic that swept across the gaming world when suddenly thousands of PCs suddenly forgot how to boot.

[@LegendStormcrow]

I flinched when he said it wouldn't install. Not a lot of people had a way to reset their computers back then.

[@UlshaRS]

Used to buy CDs from the pawn shop in huge stacks so I came across a few of these but only put one in my computer once. I already knew media company were doing scummy stuff to keep their hands on every penny of potential profit, from artists and consumers, so of course I refused compliance and BOOM hard crash. Thankfully I was backing up the disks that replaced 3.5s habitually and had no trouble doing a boot and reinstall. Before that day all the music was ripped from a disk I had

[@imgladnotu9527]

@@davep8221 BASED and GNUPILLED.

[@thepsychicspoon5984]

Sony VP at the time Steve Hecker also gave a public statement, before the incident that kinda gave clues he was about to do something shady. Seriously, his statement made him sound like a angry man. I have seen a picture of him. He looks like the kind of boss that would flip tables, throw objects at his employees and and create a toxic hissy fit, bc he "only" made 4 million that month.

[@zenon459]

J. Jonah Jameson

[@noeldown1952]

Are you sure you've got the name right?

[@MMuraseofSandvich]

Ah, so like a Steve Ballmer, but extra frustrated.

[@batsonelectronics]

as an IT guy since the 80's, I always disabled Autoplay in Windows and told everyone else to do it also. Back in the days of AOL discs I had seen some Malware get put on and then AOL copied on after, all with a semi legit looking AOL sticker on the disc. Turning off auto play fixed the issue.

[@TheInternetHelpdeskPlays]

I remember this back at the time, the whole thing could be stopped by using a sharpie on the cd edge and I remember telling everyone I knew. It covered the File allocation table so couldn't be read as a data disk, only an audio cd and oddly, that meant it could be ripped and copied loads

[@Whimpy13]

That's a neat trick. I'm still amused that you could cut a hole in a 5.25" disk to double it's capacity. 😄

[@kstricl]

@@Whimpy13 Ahh jeez, hadn't thought about that in years. I even tried with some success with 3.5" disks, but that was more of a mixed bag. I kept a hole punch handy, it was about the right size to notch the disks.

[@LegendStormcrow]

@@Whimpy13 I've heard that, but when I was a kid old enough to use a PC floppies were useless. They would immediately try to format the floppy whenever you put them in.

[@robsku1]

Or you could just have disabled the Autorun feature from Windows settings - that way you wouldn't end up buying a CD you didn't know had this kind of BS on it, the Autorun feature was a huge security flaw beginning to be abused just like Sony did, but luckily it could be easily disabled. Still, the sharpie thing is an interesting trick I had not heard before :)

[@TrineDaely]

I still love that a program that cost them millions could be bypassed with a $1 sharpie.

[@zenkim6709]

@Trine Daely > I still love that a program that cost them millions could be bypassed with a $1 sharpie. ...or a single keypress. Starting w/ Windows 95 (the 1st release to feature the AutoPlay system) Microsoft included a "disable AutoPlay" option: by pressing & holding down Left Shift on the keyboard, a Windows user could temporarily prevent AutoPlay from operating while loading & scanning any disc (CD or DVD) into the drive. This simple key command was only documented in the Windows 95 installation files (probably in the README.TXT file) so many users probably never knew the option existed, plus many of them had gotten spoiled by the convenience of "fire & forget" AutoPlay installation of software disc's ... but those in the know could defeat the Sony rootkit just by holding down a single key while loading up a Sony/BMG music CD. A local publication (the OC Weekly) went so far as to make this the focus of its tech column ("Machine Age") during the time of the rootkit scandal, emphasizing both the insidious nature of the software installer (which would embed the rootkit into the system files regardless of whether or not the user agreed to the deal) as well as the absurdly easy way to prevent the rootkit from ever getting its claws into your computer (just press & hold Left Shift while loading any Sony CD) -- assuming that it hadn't already been infected, of course. If your system remained "clean" U could then proceed to rip CD tracks, copy them all to your hard drive, even burn them onto a blank disk, then do whatever the hell U wanted w/ them ... thereby accomplishing exactly what the Sony/BMG rootkit was designed to prevent.

[@TrineDaely]

@@zenkim6709 Most of us were not that computer savvy back then, and there's just something satisfying about the Sharpie method.

[@zyoninkiro]

If memory serves me correct, that root-kit BS also played havoc with many in-car CD players and other systems as they used computer CD-ROM drives rather than standard "Red Book" compliant audio CD readers. You could not play those discs in your car as the software would be detected by the drive's firmware and the CD would be rejected. Eventually, Philips, one of the major developers of the CD standard, ruled that those CDs with copy protection software could not be sold with the "CD Audio" logo printed on them as they were not "true audio CDs".

[@M3PH11]

0:52 As a computer scientist that is old enough to have lived through this era, I can assure you just about every home pc on the planet was infected with it. 1:56 The piracy measure that encourages piracy. Why would I buy something I can not use as I wish when I get it without the limitations and for free and in a format that is more convenient to store and move around. While knowing that it will be basically impossible to prove I broke the law?

[@knurlgnar24]

I agree M3PH. After this fiasco many people decided it was safer to pirate music than purchase CDs. Like many others I have never purchased a CD after this came out in the early 2000s. It doesn't sound like a big deal today but the music industry lost billions in revenue due to this.

[@jonathansturm4163]

@@knurlgnar24 Rather than that I made a policy decision to only purchase either my music direct from the musicians, or in the case of Sony/BMG titles, 2nd-hand. The owner of the music store who sold me the rootkit very rudely refunded my money by throwing the banknotes at me. Needless to say he lost a valuable customer. As an avid audiophile my collection now numbers ~2,500 titles...

[@ablemagawitch]

this anti-piracy crap has caused me to have to go raise the Black Flag to get copies of what I bought legally just so I can enjoy it. Making your paying customers suffer just doesn't seem to yield results of keeping them as paying customers.... No one keeps buying broken products... The worst part is the pirated versions work decades later , while the versions that were bought do not. And yet they wonder why piracy is the preferred options..... Remember COD "GHOSTS" where they deliberately bricked the install if you didn't have 6 gigs of RAM? Pirates cracked the game and found the code and saw the game worked fine on 4 gigs and released it to a large market the company didn't want to sell it to(while else make so they couldn't and wouldn't buy your game?) but then cried how it hurt their sales (sales they weren't willing to make)... They eventually caved and released the game with a patch allowing 4 gigs of ram to be acceptable only after loosing how many millions in sales for that 1st golden month of sales? Worst part the requirement was a "liar , liar , pants on fire " marketing ploy to make people thing the game was better and had more quality then it really did by saying it needed more advance systems to work...

[@davep8221]

"Just about every" along with the word "planet" is too much. Numerically: Google says 22-25M CDs were involved (across ~100 other countries.) Google also says the number of PCs in the world at the time was ~800M. So ~3% max. Another source, for the US only in 2000, says there were >168M. So at most, ~14% not including the PC growth over 5 years. But even just logically: Not every PC ran Windwoes. By then, I was only using Windwoes to run games. Admittedly, a small(ish) percentage overall. Of those, not everyone used it for music (ripping or playing). Of those, not everyone owned one of the infected CD titles* (

[@jonathansturm4163]

@@davep8221 25 million music CDs from Sony were sold with the rootkit. It affected more than 550,000 networks in more than one hundred countries, including thousands of US military and defence networks. I was a MS Certified Solution Provider and it infected a dozen computers in my control. Likely there were more PCs infected with the rootkit than running Linux as a desktop OS at the time.

[@dam7ri]

I remember when this happened. My GF's granddaughter bought a Demi Lovato CD and messed up my GF's computer when she tried listening to it. Fortunately for me, I had done a backup of the computer the day before, and after restoring the computer from the backup, the first thing I did was give the cd a 1 star rating on Amazon because "it installs computer damaging software."

[@rossk7927]

I was in my mid-teens when that happened. They repeated this type of crap over the following decade. I still stay away from everything Sony to this day. I suspect they have only stopped getting caught - for now.

[@wisteela]

This is the most detailed coverage of this that I've seen.

[@m2pt5]

Agreed. It's the first time I've heard that the rootkit hiding was triggered simply by prepending the file name with $sys$.

[@pokepress]

It’s also covered in several books that cover this era of the music industry.

[@rkvkydqf]

I think I saw more detailed versions of this story, but it's still a nice and quick explanation that doesn't sound scary to less tech-savvy people.

[@karenhaller9988]

So you're telling me that 16 year old me (I owned that Switchfoot CD!) put malware on the family PC and my brand new for college laptop and had no idea until now?!

[@carsonm7292]

No, *Sony* did and you had no idea until now.

[@djgeorgetsagkadopoulos]

SME (Sony Music Entertainment) is still one of the bigger offenders when it comes to "copyright protection". I mean, three or four years ago I uploaded a short video on KZbin that I shoot with my phone from within the window of my car. I was shooting a nice rainbow and some landscapes after a spring rain storm. However the radio (that was not even loud) was playing a tune in the background. Guess what ? The video stayed "live" on KZbin for 3 days before SME blocked it worldwide because of "copyright violations". Unfortunately among other things I'm also a DJ and therefore I can't avoid SME entirely. But if it wasn't for that I would never support any artist under their label. And as many others, I don't own any Sony products anymore. Last Sony product I owned was a Mini Disk (MD) back in 1997 to 2003-2004 I think.

[@mistermaumau]

Now remembering why I felt a bit justified about my piracy habits back then, and just supported artists by going to live shows and things like that

[@producerevan88]

Still should feel that way, your favorite artist makes more off a t-shirt sale than 1,000 cd's sold. not to mention how it's even worse for digital downloads or god forbid streams of a song.

[@YourMomsFavoriteCommenter]

@@producerevan88 Only if your favorite artists get a percentage of their merchandise sales, some actually get NONE. 360 deals make sure the artists aren't earning the majority for their own work, so I guess it depends on how much you understand about the record industry.

[@producerevan88]

@@YourMomsFavoriteCommenter I have friends who are at different levels of the industry. That's how it works for them

[@dansanger5340]

Sounds like post-hoc rationalization. Not every artist got swindled by the record companies. Some artists even retained the rights to their music. I doubt many people researched the legal arrangements of every artist they listened to.

[@autobotstarscream765]

@@dansanger5340 Metallica was infamous for siding with the companies against piracy.

[@Dloweification]

The sad part is that the software is on the CD and not the mp3, meaning only the people who bought a CD got screwed, and not the people pirating the mp3s lol.

[@jonslg240]

It's hilariously sad and appalling how the lessons society learned from this were forgotten almost immediately. Just look at what's happening nowadays.

[@tiffanyross9313]

Hilariously sad? Maybe more detrimentially sad, right.

[@UlshaRS]

With the Sony being slammed for predatory harmful anti-consumer practices targeting children just last month. They never changed they only quiet down until it's time to try a new exploit on humanity.

[@RobertK1993]

@@UlshaRS Apple products are worse for it then Sony.

[@majorskepticism7836]

A few years ago I let a friend use my VISA card to buy a controller for his Sony PlayStation, from Sony PlayStation. It was in the neighborhood of $50, I think. That was okay. What was not okay was the $10 membership fee Sony charged my credit card that month, and another $10 membership fee that was charged the following month, while I was still disputing the first $10 charge. It was impossible to get through to Sony because I did not have a membership, even though they were charging me for one. I had to start fraud charges against them to get their attention. I got my money back, and now ANY attempt by Sony to place a charge on my VISA account will result in rejection and automatic fraud charges. It gets worse - I spoke to my friend’s mother, telling her to check her credit card statements for charges from Sony, as I knew sometimes she would let him pay for games with her card. Sure enough, for over two years Sony had been putting a $10 membership fee on her credit card, in addition to the $10/month they were charging to his own credit card. She had an attorney take care of it. I believe Sony knows damn well what they are doing, figuring they will get away with it most of the time, and if they get caught they’ll just have to refund the money. This is the kind of shit that provokes unstable individuals to do irrational things. Probably a good thing for Sony they never tried to put a charge on Ted Kaczinski’s VISA card…

[@jerrynadler2883]

You let friends use your credit card? what's wrong with him? Is he an invalid? He can't put the controller down and get a job? I know this isn't the point but I found it too strange not to ask....

[@majorskepticism7836]

​@@jerrynadler2883 Yes, he is. He is crippled, never been able to walk or work, major medical issues, isn’t going to live long. He has mental problems - playing video games is like a window for him to look out of his small world. He does have a credit card, which is how he gets a small amount of evil socialist aid from Big Brother. His mother is the daughter of a friend of mine who died when a drunk piece of shit ran over his motorcycle at a red light on his way home from work, and I’ve been helping them pay the bills for over twenty years. So yeah, it’s not the first time I’ve let him or his mother use my goddamned credit card. I almost did not respond, because it’s none of your business. And if you think it is strange for a 70 year-old man, who doesn’t have to answer to anybody, to pay for a birthday present for an “invalid,” I would not want to know you. By the way, his mother is an attractive, intelligent, *very* hard-working woman, and I think the only reason she remains single is because of all the assholes out there who think she’s okay to fuck, but don’t want the baggage of a crippled step-son.

[@teighan7829]

@@jerrynadler2883 Uncalled for

[@teighan7829]

If you still wanna get playstation games but can't buy them you can mod a PS4, PS3, PSP, PS2, and PS Vita easily Shame Sony sucks so much

[@jerrynadler2883]

@@teighan7829 no i get it, personal responsibility doesnt exist in your vocabulary

[@gernhartreinholzen3992]

Punishing your costumers for buying your product legitimately, while pirates don't have to deal with all of that stuff. GENIUS!

[@RobertK1993]

Every company does it.

[@pamelamays4186]

Fred Rogers, taking on The Man in "neighborly" way. The man was a legend. And a boss! Fred testifying in from of The Supreme Court: "This is my neighborhood now!"

[@kaltaron1284]

"ultimate showdown of ultimate destiny" 'Nuff said.

[@StageRight123]

@@kaltaron1284 The Ultimate Showdown!

[@kaltaron1284]

@@StageRight123 Ups. Corrected.

[@ablemagawitch]

He owned congress better , he went in to fight all of PBS funding being gutted, to only come of it with increase in funding. They way he owns the congress critter that has it in for him with respect and love is true battle of wits and congress critter was unarmed......

[@natesmodelsdoodles5403]

@@ablemagawitch dude came in dismissive, Mr. Rogers had him wanting to watch The Neighborhood in just a couple of minutes.

[@beyondfubar]

Media companies will go to crazy lengths, especially when the mp3 craze hit. Mr. Rogers though, what a Chad.

[@blisterbeetle01]

What did he do?

[@beyondfubar]

@@blisterbeetle01 advocated recording his program to make it easier for parents to provide it to their children during hours that they were able to watch. Quite the opposite of the rest of the industry, who at the time decided when you got to watch something and if it was inconvenient to you then you can always get bent.

[@drewt1717]

@@blisterbeetle01 Rogers was vocal in his opinion that technology's core driving responsibility is to improve the lives of people as much as possible. An understandable (if archaic) view, though. By now, everyone knows the true purpose of technology is to keep the rich getting richer and the poor under control.

[@atk05003]

Maybe we should change the slang to "What a Fred" or "What a Rogers". Fred Rogers was an excellent example of treating everyone well.

[@SeekingTheLoveThatGodMeans7648]

@@drewt1717 never fear though, there is a loyal following of folks who use it for other purposes

[@Piratevirus]

Mr Rogers did so much for the medium than any other person on tv

[@LTKK]

I wonder what happens if you unknowingly stumbled across one of those CDs in current time. They recalled a bunch, but there's still the used music market.

[@DMS-pq8]

Does anyone still rip CDs?

[@chilanya]

@@DMS-pq8 Yes, as cd-players are increasingly hard to get by I need to convert my collection to mp3 or wav or flac.

[@DMS-pq8]

@@chilanya Do you still buy CDs?

[@chilanya]

@@DMS-pq8 Not sure if you're mocking me, but yes, I still do sometimes. i don't want to depend on an internet connection to listen to my collection or a streaming service ripping off my fav artists. and the old fashioned cd is the best way i can think of how to do that.

[@DMS-pq8]

@@chilanya Not mocking you in the least, I was generally curious

[@beefgoat80]

Google had to build a new server farm thanks to Simon and all his channels.

[@thomasburke7995]

The root kit that was foisted on to my PC via a Sony CD was the reason I now totally support linux based PC's.. the open source OS prevents intrusive codes like this from being installed AUTOMATICALLY.

[@God-ld6ll]

Had one once, an apple tree grew out of my system.

[@AaronLitz]

No no, that must have been the Mac rootkit. This one only grew Sony trees.

[@danielreuben1058]

I think there should be a National Holiday called Mr. Rogers' Day. A day of reflecting on how to help all children be as independent as possible. What a great human being.

[@aitorbleda8267]

Time to also remember LENOVO and their bios rootkit malware.

[@drewt1717]

Gawt dangit! Back to therapy I go... thanks a lot...🤣

[@no_fb]

Very interesting case, thanks! Sony has a record of invasive and harmful DRM: XCP, Securom, Denuvo (also known for installing itself permanently deep into the system). That's why I always check what DRM is included in software I want to buy, and stay away when I see those names (or anything coming from that infamous legacy).

[@rtist9281]

This is one of the best of these videos I’ve seen in a long time 👍

[@GuppyCzar]

Its about time you got another channel, Simon.

[@jaspr1999]

... AND... The man's man Mr. Rogers strikes again on behalf of those who couldn't strike back themselves. A different type of warrior he was but a warrior nonetheless.

[@tomshepherd4901]

I remember it well. The first time I discovered this issue was when a friend was trying to rip a CD for use on his mp3 player and the audio was coming out scrambled. He didn't even get a prompt. I tracked down what was happening and discovered that some unknown drivers had been installed by the CD. I removed them and fixed the registry. I also made changes to block auto execution of inserted CDs. (Always a good idea) and the problem was fixed. I then researched it to see if there was any news on the forums and was completely agast. The US Congress had actually passed a law authorizing large corporations, (not just SONY), to hack peoples computers, provided that the damage was limited. WTF? The resulting lawsuits cost SONY millions, but not enough to matter. They never cared about hacking their customer's computers. I bet they cared whan North Korea did it to them....

[@GeekGinger]

I remember the Sony rootkit scandal very well. I had played a copy of Velvet Revolver's CD, in my work computer. It was years before I bought another piece of Sony hardware.

[@YodasTinyLightsaber]

I caught my Sony Rootkit with a Velvet Revolver CD. I actually send BMG a paper letter thru the mail chastising them. The world was so different then.

[@spacecase0]

I still have a Windows XP machine that is hacked with their software. I use it for programming radios and other things like that. I really wish instead of finding Sony they would have been required to write software to fix the problem. I leave this comment without watching any of the video first. To this day I will not buy a Sony product

[@SpencerLemay]

just dban the hard drive and reinstall windows xp

[@rmsgrey]

The problem is that that would require trusting Sony to competently produce a fix. Considering their history...

[@Stettafire]

TBF windows XP isn't supported anymore. So you ain't gonna get a fix now

[@ooooneeee]

I hope your Windows XP is not connected to the Internet. It hasn't gotten security updates for years.

[@spacecase0]

@@ooooneeee I haven't connected it to the internet for years now

[@usernameONBEKEND]

I was already against anything Sony did so didn't buy sony music. I would go out of my way, needing a lot more effort, to get it from other sources. I'll end with this: "DRM (Digital Rights Management) manages your rights as prisons manage freedom."

[@jonathansturm4163]

Er… DMA means Direct Memory Access. The acronym for Digital Rights Management is (unsurprisingly) DRM.

[@usernameONBEKEND]

@@jonathansturm4163 no clue why I mixed up those two. Updated. Thank you.

[@jonathansturm4163]

@@usernameONBEKEND Lack of DMA? You have my sympathy… My 71 year-old brain has become quite unreliable of late...

[@Stettafire]

@@jonathansturm4163 covid did that to my head too.

[@melodeeaaron]

I assure you this sort of thing s still going on. Why? Because there are no ramifications. This is easy to solve... If a company displays this king of behavior, then: 1) One half of the company assets and net worth is taken as a fine. 2) Every investor in that company loses one half of their investment value. 3) Every company employee from the VP level up to the Chair of the BoD goes to jail for 10 years. This crap would never happen again. Keep Loving!

[@almostfm]

The problem with " Every investor in that company loses one half of their investment value." is that you're going to catch out a lot of people who own a couple of shares, possibly as part of a mutual fund. They don't have any control or even have knowledge of what the company is doing. It would be like finding out that GM did something wrong, so everybody who drives a Chevy gets their car confiscated.

[@melodeeaaron]

@@almostfm That's the idea. Wake people up so they DO pay attention to what the companies they enable are actually doing. Ditto for the assorted investment agents and brokers. Simply put, investors SHOULD know what they are investing in and how ethical the companies are. Turning a blind eye is exactly how/why we get to this point. Again, all that would need happen is for just ONE major corporation to go belly up and their entire management team do some hard time, and all of this would come to an end.

[@TDurden527]

@@melodeeaaron Ya. I gotta agree with you. People who invest through mutual funds and the like cannot in my opinion evade responsibility for such things. The solution is to amend the Laws of Incorporation so that executives of the companies can be held criminally liable for their crimes. But this is america and is owned by corporations so that is never going to happen. When the revolution happens just put the corporate executives up against the wall.

[@ooooneeee]

@@melodeeaaron investors aren't the ones making the criminal decisions. The CEOs and managers are. I can understand fining big corporate investors, but not everyday retail investors.

[@SeekingTheLoveThatGodMeans7648]

@@melodeeaaron It would never get by a congressional vote be it GOP or Democrat. And it's incredibly malicious. To bring back the old sense of reputation and shame is the only true hope. Was this a Japan thing? That's a place where if you do a public baddie, you have to grovel. I'm wondering if Japan saw a single byte of this malware. Sony USA is, by comparison to this, worse than Hello Rabid Kitty. Is this how it's getting even with us for those atom bombs? Entertain up and pitch to the rubes who are happy to stay rubes for all eternity if they could?

[@danieldavis2055]

Came for a fascinating piece of info, left with yet another amazing quote from Mr. Rogers. Thank you for this, Simon. My day has been brightened.

[@crowman943]

Thank you for the MC Lars reference at the beginning. Love his music.

[@boatright3000]

Simon (and team) - I got this shit on my machine waaay back in the day. It was a pain to remove fully, which required editing the registry and removing orphaned files/folders after uninstalling. All from a damned Neil Diamond CD I was given out of all things. But at this point I was solidified in IT, and it was a welcomed challenge to remove it without reimaging. Thank you for bringing up decade’s old memories! 👊

[@joho0]

Mark Russinovich is currently the CTO of Microsoft Azure. He's been one of my IT heroes for over 25 years.

[@demofighter]

This was used as an example of an ethics problem at my university during my software engineering program. For many of the reasons you've laid out here. It's super interesting to hear more detail on the subject.

[@olderbutwiser4076]

I remember it well, I had to wipe and reinstall on two computers after the removal program stopped the the machines from booting up. Sony lost a customer that day and all these years later i have not even considered buying a Sony product except for some music and even then if there is an alternative source available i will use it

[@MrSpengler1234]

Isn't that a bit like saying "I once got food poisoning after eating egg mayonaise I bought at Tesco and have never considered buying anything from Tesco ever again... Except for their egg mayonaise"?

[@olderbutwiser4076]

@@MrSpengler1234 Yes, exactly if Tesco had said,we do not understand why people are upset because most people do not know what food poisoning is so it does not matter. Also I would only purchase the egg mayonnaise from them if it was the only source for it, which it is not. Whereas the only legal way to purchase some artists music is to get from Sony unfortunately. Additionally if the medicine Tesco supplied to cure it only made it worse.

[@joshm3484]

I was a huge fan of Sony minidiscs back in the day, but abandoned them due to Sony's heavy-handed copyright protections and buggy software, making it far easier to just pirate Sony music. Brilliant business strategy all around.

[@auro1986]

that time when chip shortage was never a concern

[@Komainu959]

Mr. Rogers was such a good guy. Back in the day I just loved his show. Now as a grown adult I can appreciate just how great a person he was.

[@DudeMcBro]

Excellent and succinct video on XCP.

[@hpd6119]

Just an FYI, you might want to add "Decoding the Unknown" to your other channels list as the links don't come up for those watching on an LG TV. Thanks for the great content!

[@TonyHammitt]

The rootkit was never a problem on my Linux system..

[@carrolleaslat4341]

Nice one fact boi!! I'll record this on my VCR

[@mc_lars]

Thanks for the shout out!

[@shammons556]

Sony being anti-consumer... So nothing has changed after all these years

[@Tornado1994]

I would tell those stumbling over themselves trying to buy a PS5 exactly the same thing. Sony is ANTI Consumer.

[@RobertK1993]

Sony not as anti costumer as Apple or Microsoft

[@RobertK1993]

@@Tornado1994 How it's hard to manufacture PS5 in large quantities due to Covid

[@Zelmel]

Man, Mr. Rogers was the best.

[@Wypipo]

Great episode, mate.

[@bes03c]

0:26 I love the MC Lars reference. I have been a fan of his for years.

[@davidgermain]

and this is the reason i dont buy Sony any more. that and the massive customer data breach that they did not give a hit about.

[@Machtyn]

Yes, that class action lawsuit award was a complete insult and put me off of any class action lawsuit since. It was completely worthless to jump through the hoops for $7.50 or a "free" mp3 download from a company that already proved they hate their customers. I'm surprised this didn't hurt their Playstation sales more.

[@danielharvison7510]

Too many customers who just want to play online with mates, and too few rational, mature adults who know when a company has total contempt for them and won't indulge that company. Sadly, this won't change anytime soon. Too big a market, and too easy to fleece people.

[@johnchedsey1306]

I kinda remember being on various message boards at the time where people really embraced the "F Sony, I'm now definitely going to pirate this music" ethos. If they want to drive people to downloading MP3s through bittorrent or soulseek or whatever else was being used at the time, that sure did the trick.

[@benellis8844]

Once again Mr Rogers proves he was an OG. Dude was too ahead of his time

[@ZeoViolet]

Mr. Rodgers was an amazing man. And NO, he was never in the military, never killed anyone, was not a sniper, and he HAD NO TATTOOS. Jesus! He was a Presbyterian Minister, ordained, people!

[@AaronLitz]

Are people actually dumb enough to really believe all that garbage? I guess some people are just eager to tear others down, or desperate to believe that only they know a "truth" that the rest of the world doesn't acknowledge. It's the same combination of arrogance, ignorance, and delusional thinking that fuels conspiracy theorists.

[@ZeoViolet]

@@AaronLitz Those that looked into it believed those rumors started because so many people could not believe that there was someone out there who'd been truly, actually, truthfully GOOD all his life. Mr. Rodgers was just that. Wholesome, kind, and inclusive to everyone from day one.

[@ZeoViolet]

@Ovis Militaris I hear there's a rousing game of Russian Roulette next door; why don't you go play?

[@RobertK1993]

Mr Rogers?

[@adedayod-one7470]

Yeah I remember that....brings back memories...I almost threw my walkman CD player away because who knows what creepy sony had been doing behind my back....lol

[@inhumanfilth681]

Thanks for reminding me im old lmao

[@adedayod-one7470]

@@inhumanfilth681 [cough cough] Did you just call me old by calling yourself old...I challenge thee to a duel at dawn..

[@Jon.......]

All the while, Sean Fanning could be heard laughing maniacally in the back ground!

[@conroyfan22official]

I love the MC Lars reference in the beginning!

[@dottyjyoung]

Simon Whistler, slowly taking over the entirety of KZbin, while the rest of us eagerly click, "Subscribe". 😍

[@stuffandthings6188]

He makes channels faster than most KZbinrs make videos.

[@drewt1717]

@@stuffandthings6188 seriously. He gonna burn out at this rate

[@narlynarwhals27]

@@drewt1717 been doing it for years now.

[@EricWall]

I just posted how I feel like a stalker because of the amount of channels I follow with the Fact Boy in them. Some ppl would say it’s a quantity not quality approach, but every channel from murders to how to get away with murder (casual criminalist) are all high quality entertainment!

[@dottyjyoung]

@@EricWall My husband & I are both information junkies, & we both agree that Fact Boy *helped keep us sane* through the early days of the pandemic. Every day, there may not have been anything to look forward to, but at least we could learn something fascinating & intriguing while we were doing all these monotonous home/cleaning/building tasks.

[@jim4859]

ha. i remember this. i still say "root kit sony" and I've never purchased anything from Sony since it happened. I probably still won't

[@hemberger91]

Decoding the Unknown. Where Simon entertains with rambling. It’s fantastic

[@JustinAH]

Thank you Mr. Rogers for reaching out of the past and shocking me with your depth of knowledge that's very relevant today. You were not running on, sir

[@Digitalhunny]

Simon, are _you_ the adult version of Mister Rogers? You with _all_ your different channels outright _encourage_ education, curiosity sometimes with a rather _large_ dash of sarcasm. We love ya man. Most of us _wouldn't_ change you... _or_ your awesome writers (& other team members too)😘💕💕💕

[@daltooinewestwood6380]

Wow, I never knew that Sony was one of the most scummy companies in the planet

[@Stettafire]

This is just one item on the list. Simon could make an hour long video just on Sony

[@Tornado1994]

They ARE.

[@RobertK1993]

@@Tornado1994 Yeah but make some awesome products PlayStation Bravia OLED TVs Xperia phones beat ANC headphones and Earbuds alpha cameras.

[@renakunisaki]

I'm glad this video calls out the joke of an uninstaller. That part is often overlooked.

[@DecrepitBiden]

My brother, an engineer, works to fight anti-piracy at work, yet, he pirates things himself at home. Oh the IRONY.

[@Lauren_C]

And here I half expected Sony cameras to install malware of their own. 😝 Also, AutoPlay should be disabled.

[@jacara1981]

This is just one of the horrible things Sony has done and continues to do.

[@JosephDavies]

It's a very long list.

[@RobertK1993]

Sony Entertainment not Sony Electronics to different divisions

[@rorypuds]

Was that an MC Lars shoutout at the start!? Blast from the past there Simon...

[@frankwaldeck2359]

Mr. Rogers was an amazing tv personality . I truly enjoyed being part of the neighborhood growing up. I always felt calm watching his show. Him and Mr. Dressup. (And also Bob Ross). Thank you to each of them for my moments of calmness during my very different years coming up. Most shows really hype kids up. I see it in my own now. Half way through most shows and my son transforms into a ninja in training.

[@Ryarios]

Sony music was a company that should have been forced to close down. They are the main reason I still refuse to buy Sony products all these years later. I also remember them suing people for using software to rip music. Software sold with Sony’s own CD players sold for installation in computers at the time.

[@ablemagawitch]

Sony music campaigned hard against users being able to make copies for use on other devices , while at the same time harping on that ability to sell other SONY products. This company has played both sides for how they can make money, that is their only true dog in the fight is making the most money off the people as their meal ticket. Not as needed company making quality products, that people buy and use because they are good company.

[@RobertK1993]

Sony Electronics products including PlayStation have nothing to do with Sony Music and Sony Pictures shenanigans.

[@RobertK1993]

@@ablemagawitch All corporations do this.

[@ablemagawitch]

@@RobertK1993 Not in the way Sony was at the time, Companies may have many brands and products separate on paper like Sony 's Electronics and Sony Music but eventually controlling interest falls back to the same group of people. Much Like "Yamaha" makes everything from dirt bikes to classical instruments like grand pianos. Corporations usually are not literally campaigning to shut down part of their own business. As far greed and caring about making money ; there is corporations acting in their own interest of profits and there are others that actually do try to give back some to the community. The whole donations for tax write offs, verses if it gains them advertising for say naming rights on town/city's theater/Arena/Stadium, is far too long of subject to derail off on to about not all donations are donations meant to give back to the community by the people who own the business/corporation.Sometimes good will donations also net the corporation rewards, and where that motivation comes from can be fuzzy, and if you are not in that actually family, or that person, you'll never truly know what is in their heart/mind at the time.

[@k29king1]

Mr. Rodgers was an integral part of mine and many others early childhood lives, he and his show was a public service not just childrens edutainment. It’s sucks that there’s really no equivalent on TV nowadays for our kids now, but thankfully Mr. Rodgers legacy does live on in Daniel Tigers Neighborhood and both my children loved the show very much, I even took them to live Daniel Tiger events. It was so cool to basically connect my very own childhood to my kids with that link,

[@datriaxsondor590]

Copy protection schemes have been fighting the futile war for what.... 50, 60 years now? Yet, here we are, and copying things remains to be as easy as ever. Maybe these companies should start focusing their efforts and money, on enticing sales these days, instead of chasing the ever elusive boogeyman of "pirates". How did Valve get it so right with Steam, yet everyone else refuses to admit that the problem of piracy doesn't lie with pirates, but with poor value in the product, versus the money asked for it.

[@danielharvison7510]

Valve is a privately owned company, and has no shareholders, no board of directors, etc. No-one that wants someone to blame for their profits not going up an extra 30% this quarter, so less talk of piracy, I'd imagine. Going public seems to lead to an inevitable lowering of moral standards in a company, and a lot less innovation and experimentation. EA fiddling with linux/steamOS/SteamDeck? Never!

[@roflBeck]

@@danielharvison7510 VALVe created Steam as an solution to piracy. Make games easier to buy than to pirate. Gabe Newell himself said piracy is a service problem.

[@kevynekicklighter7960]

Yes, I remember this! DRMs at the time were horrid. Ubisoft did the same thing with it's submarine game (why to this day won't buy another game from them). Bad game companies just shouldn't exist to PREY on gamers.

[@OutyMan]

Oooo! Roanoke! I'm pulling that up to watch next!

[@mike_in_cornwall]

I see you there Karl, with your author credit. Thanks for bringing yet more Fred Rogers goodness to light

[@e-moshe]

What strikes me were the continued sociopathic responses and attempts by Sony management, whatever level they were at, to consciously hide or obscure references and matters from people. I'm sure a lot of people within Sony lawyered up and had 'plausible deniability' explanations prepared. I doubt things will have changed that much within corporate America. Corporate culture is not easily changed and especially not in large corporations; they rather engage in games and virtue signalling to convince people otherwise. Narcissistic and Machiavellian personalities unfortunately do prosper within such setups and if you throw in psychopathic thinking, well,. you have the dark triad of personality traits, which probably consciously endorses this and worse.

[@SeekingTheLoveThatGodMeans7648]

Aww, maybe their 'neck, country liaison helped them here, with the cowboys all going huzzah, we done punked them heathen hackers, let's money Sony back up (and they played those cds in their pickemup trucks anyhow, so they never got rootkitted). The more I know about that scene, the more cynical the sense I get. That's a large part of how we got Trump, or so it looks to me. He never went in there intending to be another Ronald Reagan with just a "tendency." He was more like a political shmoo to the mighty righties. Political science got to see a vicious feedback loop.

[@Mirality]

It's going to get worse soon. With Windows 11 making TPMs mandatory (and that literally being a device dedicated to doing calculations that your regular CPU "can't be trusted with"), it's only a matter of time before some new DRM gets tied to this and you lose more control over your own PC and other purchases, because the corporations assume everyone is a criminal who must be squeezed for cash at every opportunity.