Damn the man!!! Don't Buy Sony products!

I'm sure by now you are all aware of the attempts by the Recording Industry Association of America's attempts to deny the fair use of their products to the consumers, and while it is true that they are far from alone in doing so, they did something far more cheesy and dangerous to the security of their consumers' computers. At the beginning of last week, a judge approved the settlement of a case against Sony over their "rootkit" CD's. For more information on why this is such a bad thing for your computer, please click on this link. For those of you who do not wish to do so, the nuts and bolts of it is this: Certain CDs produced by Sony after August 1, 2003 contain Digital Rights Management software that sends back information to Sony on their consumers' use of these products and runs in a manner that leaves the infected computers' hard drives more vulnerable to malware attacks. For a more thorough explanation of what exactly these "rootkits" did, I recommend visiting the articles linked above.

Since even Sony and the courts have agreed that this was a wrong and dangerously defective product, the question then becomes "What is the next step?" For me, that answer is incredibly simple: Boycott the sacks of shit. By visiting Sony's website, I have been able to compile this partial list of companies and brands owned or in partnership with Sony: Sony; BMG; Vaio computers; BluRay videodiscs; PlayStation; Nav-U GPS devices; GSN (Game Show Network); the Columbia, Epic, and Legacy record labels; and Walkman. All of the aforementioned trademarks belong to Sony, and I encourage everyone to research this further and find other brands and labels affiliated with Sony so that they may learn that abusing their customers is not in their own best interests. On June 6, it will be time for the primary elections in my native Alabama. In that vein, I encourage all of you who read this to vote with your wallets and tell Sony NO MORE!