No wonder Sony doesn't sell/market software

No wonder Sony doesn't sell/market software

I think that Sony's (Thomas Hess) above response is, well perhaps, somewhat accurate - I know a lot of people who have no clue what a rootkit is.

But that makes it no less excusable or inappropriate. Sony/BMG's focus is on media (Movies, music, etc.), and has nothing to do with software (except for their desktop/laptop business, and perhaps a bunch of that is also outsourced). As such, I don't get the impression that they knew what First4Internet's XCP technology actually did to users' computers when they inserted the CD and started clicking.

1. Sony needs some DRM software to curb casual piracy and full-blown P2P file sharing.
2. Since Sony is not in the software business, they contract out to companies whose expertise is writing Windows-based software to create a DRM utility which can be easily included on mass-produced music CD's.
3. First4Internet wins a contract, and they demo their XCP product to a bunch of Sony executives, showing how their software will enable the user to play the CD only with the provided media player, limit ripping to three copies, and send information about the user, his/her computer, and any other pertinent (or not) information across the Internet to some server.
4. The Sony executives, whose focus is on non-software media, are delighted at how well the XCP software thwarts piracy. They order their factories to include the XCP software, not knowing themselves what a rootkit is (much less the naive, unsuspecting consumers to whom they're targeting their media discs).
5. Mark Russinovich discovers the rootkit, traces it to its source, posts his Blog, and the excrement hits the fan all over the Internet.

I suspect that Thomas Hess didn't know what a rootkit was until that excrement hit him in the face. Thus, he might have been speaking more for himself than for all of those media consumers whose PC's are now infected.