The Sony DRM Rootkit Debacle

Something in me hopes that Sony gets slammed good and hard, in the courts and in the marketplace, over the recent news that Sony tried to enforce digital rights management (DRM) by placing a rootkit on one of their CDs. A rootkit which will stealthily and permanently install itself on your computer, when you try to play the CD.

I mean, come on. A rootkit is ordinarily something evil hackers try to install on your computer. And when they're caught, evil hackers ordinarily face major jail time for their shenanigans. But I guess the "suits" consider themselves immune to the strictures which apply to the rest of us.

I take a very dim view of DRM, which has little to do with your digital rights, and everything to do with the "suits" out there micromanaging what you're able to do with your computer. It's digital restrictions management, not digital rights management.

And I'm very glad that, thanks to Linux, I've long since broken free, and escaped from the Matrix.