Because I'm a total sheep following the herd.... I bring you the second round of boycotts.

No Sony cds for me this Christmas!

According to a the Investor Insight newsletter, "Sony has been installing secret spyware on unknowing users' computers". Of course I'd heard this before from several other reputable sources:

Just so you know that I do my research and I'm not a total sheep... you can go... here ... here ... here and finally... here

Now, more from the Investor Insight Newsletter:

"Sony BMG Music Entertainment, concerned as many companies are about file sharing, decided to protect the CDs that it releases commercially. They did it by encoding selected CDs with a tool called a "rootkit," a nasty little program often used by virus writers. (A rootkit takes partial control of a computer's operating system at a very deep level in order to hide the presence of files or ongoing processes.) This antipiracy tool--developed by Sony's British partner, First 4 Internet Ltd., and keyed to Windows--is installed on the host computer when the user plays the CD, and it locks up the music so that it can't be copied to a hard drive or distributed over the Net. "
"So far, Sony BMG has placed the software on about 20 titles, including works by Dexter Gordon, Vivian Green, and country rockers Van Zant. It was on the latter's new "Get Right with the Man" release that a computer engineer first discovered the spyware. "

Now, I have no problem with someone protecting their copyrighted material. BUT I have a week bit of a big-ass problem with someone planing spyware on my computer. I have remained virus and spy-ware free for over five years. Thank goodness I have not used any Sony cds, becuase this rootkit is nasty and not easily removed.

So go ahead... read all about it.