Comments on: Sony needs a common-sense czar

Three years after Sony was caught loading rookits onto CDs, the company is now spying on children. Didn't execs think someone might get mad?

[Everlovin G]

Greg, when you write the following: "I got to believe that someone, somewhere..." please know that the proper way to write it is as follows: I've got to believe that someone, somewhere..."

It is amazing to me that you are able to hold down a *writing job* when you continually use poor grammar and syntax.

I gots to go now.

[dorianh49]

Actually, it would be "I have to believe...". "Have got" is not proper English.

[jture]

Actually, "I have got..." IS proper English. Haven't you ever said "I've got to go now?"

[ti99_forever]

It is still not proper "Queen's" english.

"I've got to go now" can be said as "I have to go now".
Oops. I should have say "may be said as"...
Or should I? ;)

[mkanellos]

That is truly offensive. If they had wanted to accurately depict life in Ancient Greece, they would have had hairless teenage boys feed those grapes.

[MrZoo]

Mybe Sony is just too overconfident. The way I see it, they want to be 'unique' like Apple with PS3's heavy price tag.

[cg504]

"Have got" is proper English if you are in England.

AE: Do you have a....? I have a pen.
BE: Have you got a....? I've got a pen.

I love grammar.

[NowComeOn]

Damn. Sony is evil and stupid.

[gsmiller88]

They're Sony, they are above zee law.

[Lerianis]

Well, when a law is as stupid as the COPPA act in the first place.... companies should be above the law. Let's face facts: your children are living on this planet, therefore their actions online are going to be monitored and tracked. Get used to it, get sane, or get off the internet!
That's the bottom line here.

[MadLyb]

OK, Rootkit, really bad. COPA violation, kinda bad (when you have a popular consumer site and you try to develop metrics that may involve anonymous visitors and still deal with COPA, you come talk to me.).

The God of War party? Have you even seen the game? Have you ever read about the history of Greece? Maybe it was a little over the top, but we are talking about a game that was extreme in almost every component. It makes Mortal Kombat look like a tragic comedy, and people are outraged over topless servers and a dead goat? Even worse, there seemed to be more outrage over the goat carcass than the women parading themselves around half naked!

I am so tired of this PC, vanilla, hypocritical, LCD world where I have to fit a *very* narrow mold of everyone's views and morals. So, bah!

[benjwah]

Truth be known, no one was really that outraged about the topless women. Or the goat. They just wished they were there.

[Pishkado]

The problem with collecting data on little children is not that it's a PR disaster. That's getting your priorities reversed.
The problem is that it's an ethics disaster. The PR disaster is that someone found out - as someone always will.

[HlLLARY CLITON]

How appalling, dates would have been much more appropriate


".....comely women were hired to prance around topless and feed grapes to partygoers as part of the "theatrical dramatization......"

[Cube Over]

I am more appalled about SonyEricsson execution.
Mobiles are going to rule next decade. Unless we all have to sit at home, out of work, and I finally get a chance to try some game station.

[pablouk1]

I love the way Sony keep shooting themselves in the foot.
They really need a kick in the arse they also need to stop overcharging for their product.

[fdunn3]

That is their biggest problem....their EGO.

They think that they are still producing the best of everything (circa 1965-1980). Then their heads got too big and started charging premium prices. They offshored to "other" countries where their quality was no better than anybody else's but still charged the premium price.

Also their warranty service stinks. I will never own anything that has their name on it again.

[SenorFrog]

I wonder how much of the outrage about the GOW party is because many people still look at Sony as a Japanese company and not the multinational entity that they are. I went to the Wikipedia page on Sony and the CEO and Executive VP are not Japanese. As for spying, normal part of the electronics business. Buy a new computer these days and check out how many ports have been opened and are reporting back to the mothership. The rootkit incident, however, was an exceptionally evil act.

[powersville21]

You're right about that. HP computers are loaded with BackWeb, a nefarious-sounding program that dials back to home base and reports various user stats to the company. I think the PC manufacturers barely break even on the hardware but try to make up for it with licensing deals on pre-installed software and on marketing info gathered from BackWeb and similar programs. If you have a pre-built computer, check the list of programs that are currently running. You might find something with an obscure name loosely related to BackWeb.

When I wanted to do a clean install of Win XP on my old Win Me system, I called HP support to see if it were possible. (I wasn't as familiar with computers back then.) The rep sounded like he was in a panic because of my plan. He kept issuing these vague warnings about the "dangers" of doing a clean install. When I tried to get details from him, he couldn't provide any. He sounded exactly like those customer service reps who answer the phone when you are trying to cancel a credit card or magazine subscription. I think the reps get negative points for every customer they "lose".

[powersville21]

I think some people are getting too hung up on grammar. Regardless of the correct phrase, we should not be aiming to speak the "Queen's English". Last time I checked, the U.S. was an independent country.

More significant is the confusion between COPPA and COPA, which is the fault of Congress for giving two Internet-related laws similar acronyms. COPPA is the law at issue here. COPA, which covered the restriction of pornography and other material not deemed proper for minors on the Internet, has been blocked by federal judges.

[loose_screw]

Sony became irrelevant many years ago. It's just a matter of time before they die off completely.

However, if they are truly interested in saving themselves in a last ditch effort, they need to:

1. Sell off the media business. Then they can focus on technology without worrying about DRMing everything to death.
2. Kill off memory stick and stop developing proprietary $hit. Stick with open standards.
3. Set their prices to be in line with their competitors. Their $hit is made in China just like everyone else's, and their designs aren't worth a price premium.

I stopped buying Sony a decade ago. The last two Sony products I laid my hands on were Sony VAIO laptops that family members gave me to try to fix, but it was hopeless. Sony quality has gone down the toilet.

When I buy electronics, I put Apple, Samsung, Panasonic, and others way above Sony in my shopping list.

[GroverCleveland]

It's not a lack of common-sense. It's just arrogance. The mindset is: "we're Sony, and we do whatever we want." You can also see it in the way they try to create proprietary standards and then exact a high "toll" for the product. Blu-Ray is the latest example, but their have been other failures along the way (e.g., a different dvd standard, a different DAT standard, their insistence on Memory Sticks).

Bluntly, I avoid their products and I have continued to do so since the rootkit disaster.