Wednesday, November 16, 2005

I will write on a huge cement block 'BY ACCEPTING THIS BRICK THROUGH YOUR WINDOW, YOU ACCEPT IT AS IS AND AGREE TO MY DISCLAIMER OF ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AS WELL AS DISCLAIMERS OF ALL LIABILITY, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL, THAT MAY ARISE FROM THE INSTALLATION OF THIS BRICK INTO YOUR BUILDING.'
And then hurl it through the window of a Sony officer
and run like hell

Sony, if you haven't heard, has been having some problems. First, they installed what could charitably be described as very aggressive DRM on their customers computers (which was technically covered in the EULA, but many people are understandably upset)

The DRM not only caused problems, but allowed other spyware to get onto your computer via the same route.

So Sony decided to put in a fix which would remove the software in question. Which was broken, and caused more problems.

Not a good time to be Sony, in a public relations sense. This speaks to one of my closely held beliefs, which is that businesses should be allowed to do whatever they like so long as it isn't criminal, and the market will sort it out. I'm always impressed by how quickly the public and consumers punish poor behavior in an open environment, when they know what's going on.

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