Computers and audio, perhaps its too soon

The integrity of any computer can never be 100% guaranteed, therefore you will never use a computer in your system. To a large extent it is your loss. While not condoning Sony's actions your explanation over simplifies and over states what actually happened.

Sony got a lot of flack for this, so they have removed it and recalled all of these disks. If you get one that tries to install a program, just reject it.

While I don't condone Sony's actions either (its actually hard to get on Sony's standpoint from any moral ground, given that they apparently violated other people's copyrighted software to protect their own), the issue remains that it is always dangerous to install software from any source you do not inherently trust. One might argue that the real problem here is that, because of who Sony is, people did inherently trust them and they violated that trust.

That said, I'm afraid I'm waay to cynical to trust Sony (or any other content holder). I have disabled autorun on my CD player in my computer, and have ripped (for personal use) almost 1500 CDs. But, I don't let CDs install special viewers or anything else to access "additional content." For that reason, my computer has no spyware and no rootkit. But, the tracks are available to me through my computer audio set-up.

Don't throw the baby out with the dishwater. Just be a smart computer user.

While I agree that 100% trust in any software program is silly I do think that there will be many who trust Sony and download the software without a care in the world.
I guess what gets me even more is the lack of consequences these sorts of violations deserve. I found this buried deep in the paper, most people don't even know this sort of thing goes on. Sony, under the terms of the agreement should have to acknowledge their despicable actions loud and clear, and in all the media so that the public is properly warned.
Until the purveyors of malicious sofware get more than a slap on the wrist this problem will continue to grow and damage many unsuspecting users.

I know someone who had a huge bill after there computer was rendered useless because of this. Sony should reimburse these people. The amount of money dumped into this stuff could feed another nation? They stopped SACD and other high quality mediums because it is to expensive! But spend millions on pointless litigation to prolong the enviable a year or two. I find it amazing these people are suppose to be helping the music industry.

One bad part of all this is that there are a bunch of these CDs floating around out there, and apparently the rootkit blows up the "next" windows iteration--longhorn/vista--in a spectacular way. So, these things are going to be like little surprises years from now--insert this CD into your drive, access the added features, and... kablooie.

All of the above is why I will never buy another Sony/BMG CD, and will avoid other Sony products to the full extent possible. Sony has a few artists I like, but that's tough... there's a lot of good music out there on other labels. I sincerely hope others will do the same, because the only thing Sony knows or cares about is the bottom line.