Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by takyon on Sunday November 01 2015, @11:34AM   Printer-friendly
from the the-gift-that-keeps-on-giving dept.

Hackers really have had their way with Sony over the past year, taking down its Playstation Network last Christmas Day and creating an international incident by exposing confidential data from Sony Pictures Entertainment in response to The Interview comedy about a planned assassination on North Korea's leader. Some say all this is karmic payback for what's become known as a seminal moment in malware history: Sony BMG sneaking rootkits into music CDs 10 years ago in the name of digital rights management. "In a sense, it was the first thing Sony did that made hackers love to hate them," says Bruce Schneier, CTO for incident response platform provider Resilient Systems in Cambridge, Mass.

Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure, the Helsinki-based security company that was an early critic of Sony's actions, adds: "Because of stunts like the music rootkit and suing Playstation jailbreakers and emulator makers, Sony is an easy company to hate for many. I guess one lesson here is that you really don't want to make yourself a target.

[...] Noted tech activist Cory Doctorow, writing for Boing Boing earlier this month, explains that some vendors had their reasons for not exposing the Sony rootkit right away. "Russinovich was not the first researcher to discover the Sony Rootkit, just the first researcher to blow the whistle on it. The other researchers were advised by their lawyers that any report on the rootkit would violate section 1201 of the DMCA, a 1998 law that prohibits removing 'copyright protection' software. The gap between discovery and reporting gave the infection a long time to spread."

[...] The non-profit Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) has been calling attention to the Sony BMG rootkit's 10th anniversary, urging the masses to "Make some noise and write about this fiasco" involving DRM. The FSFE, seeing DRM as an anti-competitive practice, refers to the words behind the acronym as digital restriction management rather than the more common digital rights management. In a blog post on FSFE's website, the group states: "Despite the fallout of Sony's rootkit experiment, 10 years later restrictions on users' personal property are more prevalent than ever. Restrictions are commonly found in legitimately purchased ebooks, video game hardware, and all manner of proprietary software. It has even found ways into our cars and coffee machines."

We remember the rootkit:

Historical posts below by Bruce Schneier, blog posts which contain a vast resource of information shared by his open community in which anyone can post - more technical and polite than most discussion forums!

November 1: Sony Secretly Installs Rootkit on Computers
November 11: More on Sony's DRM Rootkit
November 15: Still More on Sony's DRM Rootkit
November 17: Sony's DRM Rootkit: The Real Story
November 21: The Sony Rootkit Saga Continues

Old Slashdot stories on the topic:

October 31: Sony DRM Installs a Rootkit?
November 7: Sony Rootkit Phones Home
November 10: California Class Action Suit Sony Over Rootkit DRM

New Slashdot Story: Revisiting the Infamous Sony BMG Rootkit Scandal 10 Years Later

[Editor's Note: Check the Original Submission for additional links.]


Original Submission

Related Stories

Installed Linux on Your PS3? Sony Owes You $55 31 comments

Gamereactor UK reports

Back when Sony and Microsoft revealed their seventh generation consoles, the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, they were in a war of who could shove the most bullet points onto their spec sheets.

That war [...] probably [...] played a part in the fact that you could install and run the Linux operating system on early models of the PS3.

Sony later removed the Linux option with a software update, as hackers had discovered that they could use it to circumvent anti-piracy functions on the console. But removing the Linux features--which Sony had advertised in the marketing of the console--pissed off a bunch of people.

Ars Technica continues

After six years of litigation, Sony is now agreeing to pay the price for its 2010 firmware update that removed support for the Linux operating system in the PlayStation 3.

Sony and lawyers representing as many as 10 million console owners reached the deal on [June 24]. Under the terms of the accord, (PDF) which has not been approved by a California federal judge yet, gamers are eligible to receive $55 if they used Linux on the console. The proposed settlement, which will be vetted by a judge next month, also provides $9 to each console owner that bought a PS3 based on Sony's claims about "Other OS" functionality.

[...] To get the $55, a gamer "must attest under oath to their purchase of the product and installation of Linux, provide proof of their purchase or serial number and PlayStation Network Sign-in ID, and submit some proof of their use of the Other OS functionality".

To get the $9, PS3 owners must submit a claim that, at the time they bought their console, they "knew about the Other OS, relied upon the Other OS functionality, and intended to use the Other OS functionality".

Previous:
PlayStation 4 Hacked to Run Linux
Sony BMG Rootkit Scandal: 10 Years Later


Original Submission

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday November 01 2015, @11:49AM

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Sunday November 01 2015, @11:49AM (#257134) Homepage Journal

    Excellent job, takyon. That thing was nothing but a link farm as it was submitted. crutchy's subs through exec are often better.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Sunday November 01 2015, @02:02PM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Sunday November 01 2015, @02:02PM (#257151) Journal

      Never forget.

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 2) by Gravis on Monday November 02 2015, @03:59AM

        by Gravis (4596) on Monday November 02 2015, @03:59AM (#257356)

        forget what, again? ;)

      • (Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Monday November 02 2015, @05:20AM

        by Hairyfeet (75) <{bassbeast1968} {at} {gmail.com}> on Monday November 02 2015, @05:20AM (#257371) Journal

        Forget what? That a company bought a shitty third party "solution" without knowing jack and shit about how it worked and later found out it was made of snake oil and fail? I hate to break the news to ya but companies do dumb shit like that all the time, the only ones you hear about are the uber fails but anybody who has worked corporate can tell you that PHBs buying shitty third party software based on smoke blown up their asses is pretty much SOP in the business world.

        --
        ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 02 2015, @05:09AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 02 2015, @05:09AM (#257366)
      I'd rather read an article on the anniversary of a huge moment in anti-DRM than yet another article about graphene.

      Take a look at the multimedia markets, and the state of anti-consumer technology practices (let's call a spade "a spade"):

      • Music: widely available DRM-free via popular, market-leading outlets (iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, etc.
      • Movies: Almost no DRM-free outlets, primarily due to the MPAA's tech lobbying.
      • Books: Paper is DRM-free. E-books are mostly not DRM-free, but considering how broken the market would become, I guess I'll keep buying paper books, with some optional attached e-books.
      • Video Game Software: Most "AAA" titles are DRM'd; many indie games are available DRM-free; some DRM-free distributors such as gog have older AAA titles available. It's still a mess (about to be made even more so due to Microsoft forbidding SECDRV.SYS in Windows 10), but for now Steam seems to be a relatively stable, but tenuous, purveyor of DRM-protected games with little interference (...but don't dare issue a chargeback via credit card, or reach a state where you actually have to contact support personnel; this is their classic weakness [kotaku.com].

      Now notice the list above, and the one most prominently displayed as "widely available DRM-free" is music. The primary reason for this is because consumers, player manufacturers, and other industry players took a stand in the mid-2000's after the ridiculous state of CD Digital Audio DRM practices, as well as the digital download DRM in Apple's Fairplay scheme and Microsoft's various Frankenstein's-monster incarnations of WMA DRM schemes. The Sony DADC unveiling is one of the earth-shaking moments (if not THE moment) that led to the industry standard of music purchasing to be DRM-free. After all, a lot of car manufacturers did not want to deal with the complexity of how their customers would have to jump through all kinds of hoops to "authorize" playback of tracks read by in-car players. Perhaps we're lucky that this happened in 2005 instead of 2015, since nowadays most car headunits can connect directly to phones via USB or Bluetooth, or even directly access streaming services via wireless cell networks. Back in 2005, the primary methods for playing recorded audio were Line-In (sometimes via cassette tape adapter... remember those?), CD Digital Audio, or if you had a very new car, MP3 files burned onto a CD (...but they had to be DRM-free in order to play).

      I'm wondering if part of the reason why Microsoft acquired Sysinternals was to silence Mark Russinovich from making discoveries like these. Thankfully, other hackers are out there who are not owned by giant companies leeching off of MAFIAA lobbying dollars. Still, it seems like the media companies are taking a stance of, "We lost the war on unprotected music back in the 2000's, but we can FIGHT BACK! And we SHALL NOT RETRENCH!!" (Ever notice how users of streaming music are essentially eternally renting their music? The RIAA wants it that way, to approach the market constructs of the MPAA's "pay per view" ideal).

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Sunday November 01 2015, @12:21PM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday November 01 2015, @12:21PM (#257136) Journal

    Any corporation that has committed such outrageous offenses against their customers should be out of business. Notice, I did not use the word "crimes", but "offenses". It seems that people like being abused, because they keep going back for more. Ultimately, Sony profits. Yeah, they lost some here and there, but the people continue to do business with them.

    What is wrong with us? Sony should have gone bankrupt as a result of all of this, assets snapped up by other companies.

    People are so disappointing. They stand in line to be abused, by Sony, the bankers, government, and dozens of other corporations.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by SrLnclt on Sunday November 01 2015, @12:40PM

      by SrLnclt (1473) on Sunday November 01 2015, @12:40PM (#257140)

      I haven't bought a Sony product in a decade, and have no intention to do so any time soon. I'm guessing I'm not the only one here.

      Unfortunately the general population is stupid when it comes to things like this.

      • (Score: 4, Insightful) by digitalaudiorock on Sunday November 01 2015, @03:52PM

        by digitalaudiorock (688) on Sunday November 01 2015, @03:52PM (#257173) Journal

        I haven't bought a Sony product in a decade, and have no intention to do so any time soon.

        Hell...I refuse to even own a blu ray player made by anyone. It's a godless anti-consumer format born out of Sony's massive conflict of interest and stuffed up the public's ass. I'll have no part of it.

        It's hard to imagine that at one time, Sony was the one fighting a battle with the recording industry regarding their bullshit copy protection concerns over DAT tape recorders.

      • (Score: 2) by Justin Case on Sunday November 01 2015, @04:47PM

        by Justin Case (4239) on Sunday November 01 2015, @04:47PM (#257183) Journal

        I haven't bought a Sony product in a decade

        Same here. Problem is, in the last decade we've seen several other companies striving for, though not equaling, Sony's level of abomination. Where do you draw the line?

        And why aren't people from Sony in jail over this!!!

        It is abundantly clear from this and other events that the law has no legitimacy, and you are morally right to do whatever the fuck you please, as long as you don't hurt those who haven't harmed you.

      • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Myrddin Wyllt on Sunday November 01 2015, @11:57PM

        by Myrddin Wyllt (5849) on Sunday November 01 2015, @11:57PM (#257311)

        I also began boycotting Sony products after the Rootkit thing, although that probably didn't cost them a lot of business (maybe a lost PS3 sale, and a couple of CDs).

        The main thing I took away from it was an appreciation of just how bad a company Microsoft were - I had used Windows as my main operating system since my first PC in the mid nineties, and although I was a bit underwhelmed with XP, I liked W2K and was essentially a happy little microsoftee.

        When the Root Kit story broke, I was expecting a wrathful storm to issue from Mount Redmond, damning Sony to the seventh circle of Hell for their despicable behavior. Instead we got nothing, not even a patch for ages. I hit the internets to find out why MS was being so weak in their response, and found an eye-opening amount of stuff about what sort of company they were (that's where I first came across slashdot). It may sound obvious to all of us now, but I was just a mainstream computer user and didn't even realise that people had real issues with Microsoft at the time.

        I had already bought 'Linux for Dummies' a couple of years earlier and installed the included Red Hat 7 as a dual boot with W2K, but just as something to play with. Within a month I was running Slackware (10.1 I think), and Windows was relegated to 'use it when you have to' status - when they dropped support for W2K it got wiped completely, and I've never looked back.

        I still consider the exposure of the Sony Root Kit to be the point when I started taking free / open source software and open standards seriously, just because it illustrated how messed up the alternatives were.

    • (Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Sunday November 01 2015, @01:28PM

      by bzipitidoo (4388) on Sunday November 01 2015, @01:28PM (#257146) Journal

      There is hope. Recall an even earlier incident, Turbo Tax software screwing with sector 0 of your hard drive. At worst, your computer would not be able to boot up again, and the partition information was overwritten, making file recovery painful. They put our data at risk, to protect their precious software from the dirty rotten pirates among us. To them, their right to defend themselves from piracy was more important than our data. Customers abandoned Turbo Tax in droves, jumped to Tax Cut. Turbo Tax tried to weather the storm for about a month, but soon issued a patch to remove that feature, and has never dared try a stunt like that since.

      And, Sony was pushed into replacing all their malicious CDs. Notice that they also have never dared try a root kit again. That's good enough for me. Recalls are expensive, and having to do one is a fairly effective punishment, so much so that sometimes corporations often try to cover the problem up and weasel out of them, like GM did over their ignition switches. VW is hurting too since the exposure of their diesel emissions cheating. Their business is way down. So, yeah, there is hope.

      • (Score: 5, Informative) by physicsmajor on Sunday November 01 2015, @04:00PM

        by physicsmajor (1471) on Sunday November 01 2015, @04:00PM (#257174)

        Not good enough. Not even close. See, their fines and costs of replacement/settlement were laughable. From a corporate perspective, they still made money.

        The lesson wasn't punitive. It was the barest slap on the hand, amounting to "well, let's not get caught next time." It needed to be "these fuckers got absolutely destroyed, nobody better every try shit like that again."

        • (Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Monday November 02 2015, @02:06PM

          by bzipitidoo (4388) on Monday November 02 2015, @02:06PM (#257495) Journal

          What is the goal here? Ideally, we want corporations, and people, to behave responsibly, and, more, to want to behave responsibly, even when no one is looking. Then we don't have to spend as much effort constantly looking over their shoulders. Making them afraid of punishment, and being harsh to make it stick feels good, maybe, but is not a good foundation to build trust.

          If Sony, or anyone else, should try such a stupid stunt again, then, yes, let's punish them harder. And, yes, there are serial offenders out there who have kept right on bending and trampling upon the rules despite threats and punishments. Microsoft leaps to mind as one of those. For this particular offense however, I really do think Sony has learned their lesson.

          For the greater offenses they have committed, which is the entire propaganda and terror campaign the RIAA (of which Sony BMG is a member and MS is as good as a member) has been pushing for decades now, they ought to face false advertising, racketeering, corruption, and bribery charges, and be convicted, and the responsible individuals jailed. I would prefer that we go that route, rather than use one or two of their many offenses as excuse to beat them up. Makes it clearer to everyone what the real issue is. They seem to really believe their own propaganda. There's hardly a DRM scheme or copyright extension or expansion that they don't like-- with the notable exception of copyrights that make it harder for them to take whatever they want, such as copyleft. Copyright is for us little people to obey, not the big bad RIAA. I don't know what it will take to break them and their attitude, the whole ownership society notion, this destructive backwards clinging to a broken business model. A revolution, perhaps? Time will do it, but I don't want to wait decades. They're fighting an unwinnable war, the War on Piracy. Despite the hopelessness of the fight, they have managed to hurt a number of innocent, ordinary people. When they have been rendered powerless, their monies cut off, then maybe no one will listen to them and their fake moralizing any more, and they will have no choice but to quit fighting. Harsh punishment won't do the job, it will take a shift in public attitudes.

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by edIII on Sunday November 01 2015, @06:03PM

        by edIII (791) on Sunday November 01 2015, @06:03PM (#257202)

        Good enough for you? Seriously? Why? A pittance of money from the recall was sufficient punishment?

        Dude, you sound like a corporate apologist saying that finances made them see what was wrong and what was right, and that's a perfectly acceptable substitution for regulators, handcuffs, and prison sentences.

        Corporations are not people, and some *people* from Sony over 10 years ago knowingly, and actively pushed malware onto consumer systems. Were it anyone else , the government would have made an example and put them in prison.

        What do you think would have happened to you?

        Hope my butt. As long as they continue to get away with no prison sentences, and no loss of profits that impact their golden parachutes, you will see zero change. The myth that the market corrects anything is exactly that. A myth.

        I don't hope. I actively seek and support the complete and utter destruction of the Sony empire, the scattering of their assets and IP to the wind, and dolling every executives lips up with rosy red lipstick and throwing in them in prison where they can service their new exclusive customer: Prison Husband.

        I needed to print pictures yesterday for a funeral and had no time. I spent time and money I didn't have just so I didn't use the Sony picture station at Kinko's IIRC, and went to Wallgreen's instead. Never bought a single thing for BluRay.

        I have no hope for justice, and that's about all we can do, which is boycott Sony. Sounds like you forgave them because they have shiny product you wanted? That's what today reminds me of. It doesn't matter how cool the product or service is from Sony, you don't negotiate and support terrorists.

        --
        Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 02 2015, @02:25AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 02 2015, @02:25AM (#257340)

          While you were at Walgreens, I hope you picked up some Preparation H to deal with your butthurt.

    • (Score: 5, Informative) by art guerrilla on Sunday November 01 2015, @02:18PM

      by art guerrilla (3082) on Sunday November 01 2015, @02:18PM (#257156)

      easy peasy japanesy:
      korporations are in the saddle, and the devil take the hindmost ! ! !

      in amerika, it was at least pretended for a while, that korporations had to observe several basic tenets:
      1. they were of limited duration
      2. they had a specific purpose
      3. AND said purpose had to directly benefit The People, NOT JUST STOCKHOLDERS...

      NONE of those apply any longer, AND in fact and in practice, korporations are SUPERIOR 'PEOPLE' to people...
      compared to 'real' people, they live infinitely long, are vastly more wealthy, wield unmatched power, and are amoral organizations with no accountability...
      what could possibly go wrong ? ? ?
      (except total destruction of civil society and the planet, but other than those trifles, we enriched some folks...)

      • (Score: 2) by Justin Case on Sunday November 01 2015, @04:58PM

        by Justin Case (4239) on Sunday November 01 2015, @04:58PM (#257184) Journal

        I agree with you, but whenever you are hating on corporations, remember it is governments that allow them to exist, so there's guilt enough to go around.

        We need:

        * Death penalty for corporations
        * The corporate structure cannot shield the people in charge from liability for their actions

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 01 2015, @07:16PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 01 2015, @07:16PM (#257225)

          That's a bit too harsh given the number of innocent people (ie: The lower level peeps) that get shafted.

          I'd rather see more risk to the shareholders themselves, since ultimately that is the only reason the corporations act the way they do - to maximize profits for those shareholders, since those shareholders can and do sue/apply pressure/etc whenever they see the corporation acting in such a way that doesn't maximize their profits. Do you play fair, or do you attempt some anti-competitive practice that will earn you billions but at the risk of a 100 million dollar fine if caught? Obviously you act anticompetitively simply because the gains far outweigh the penalty. It happens -every- time.

          If a corporation is found to have acted illegally,such as this, then the only appropriate fine should be to equate or exceed any estimated gains they've made in the process. (Something that NEVER happens)

          Sure, the first time or two a company is caught with their pants down doing this it'll hurt pretty bad. After all, they were expecting a slap on the wrist. But after that corporations will start to clean up their own act over time simply because the profits will no longer be there. (Actually they'd probably commit economic suicide by wasting all profits in lawsuits trying to fight the fine, but I'm assuming at least a spec of sanity out of them.)

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 02 2015, @07:41AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 02 2015, @07:41AM (#257390)

            First, TransAlta will pay nearly $52 million in an administrative penalty, what the AUC understands to be the
            largest of its kind in Canadian history and approaching the maximum limit available under law. The penalty is
            composed of $26,920,814.31 in disgorgement of profits to cover TransAlta’s economic benefit, and a monetary
            penalty of an additional $25 million.

            - AUC approves $56 million TransAlta market manipulation settlement (PDF) [auc.ab.ca]

            I hope to see more of the same in the coming years/decades.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 01 2015, @10:43PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 01 2015, @10:43PM (#257279)

      Blame the people buying Sony insurance? ;)
      http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/28/business/global/sonys-bread-and-butter-its-not-electronics.html?_r=0 [nytimes.com]

      Sony is best known as a consumer electronics company, making PlayStation game consoles and televisions. And it loses money on almost every gadget it sells.

      Sony has made money making Hollywood movies and selling music. That profitable part of the business is what Daniel S. Loeb, an American investor and manager of the hedge fund Third Point, wants Sony to spin off to raise cash to resuscitate its electronics business.

      But as Mr. Loeb pressures Sony executives to do more to revive the company’s ailing electronics arm, some analysts are asking, Why bother?

      Sony, it is suggested, might be better off just selling insurance.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 02 2015, @05:09PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 02 2015, @05:09PM (#257593)

        Sony's Music and movie arm sabotaged the electronics arm. It may be that people are avoiding Sony products.

        Every time I find out somebody has a PS3, I explain how Sony screwed them over by removing "Other OS" functionality and PS2 backward compatibility (so Sony can just resell the older game you already have on disk).

        It was like 5 years before I bought a CD without the "Compact Disc; Digital Audio" logo. Apparently, while the logo was still present on the actual media, nobody (other than cheap CDs sold for like $2 (public domain FTW)) actually puts that logo on the actual packaging anymore.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 03 2015, @08:09PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 03 2015, @08:09PM (#258095)

          Every time I find out somebody has a PS3, I explain how Sony screwed them over by removing "Other OS" functionality and PS2 backward compatibility (so Sony can just resell the older game you already have on disk).

          That's only if its still running on its original firmware. With custom firmware, you get back OtherOS and PS2 compatibility, making it well worth purchasing a second-hand PS3 running OFW 3.55 or earlier.

  • (Score: 2) by meisterister on Sunday November 01 2015, @04:16PM

    by meisterister (949) on Sunday November 01 2015, @04:16PM (#257179) Journal

    Be sure to collect any Sony BMG records/CDs you have, rip them in Linux, and spread the media out among as many devices and computers as you can!

    Bonus points for using a free codec like OGG.

    --
    (May or may not have been) Posted from my K6-2, Athlon XP, or Pentium I/II/III.
    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 01 2015, @06:31PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 01 2015, @06:31PM (#257206)

      Use FLAC. Not OGG.

  • (Score: 2) by mmcmonster on Sunday November 01 2015, @05:00PM

    by mmcmonster (401) on Sunday November 01 2015, @05:00PM (#257185)

    So I guess it's been almost 10 years since I boycotted Sony.

    None of their hardware (and I buy and influence the purchase of a reasonable amount of software) in 10 years. It was actually quite painless. Lots of competition for their TVs and such. Just had to accept that I would have to pay less to go with a different brand.

    • (Score: 2) by Whoever on Sunday November 01 2015, @05:47PM

      by Whoever (4524) on Sunday November 01 2015, @05:47PM (#257197) Journal

      Just had to accept that I would have to pay less to go with a different brand.

      Sony used to make great products. Sony used to have the most valuable brand name in the world.

      Much of the brand name value has been lost due to attempting to over-leverage the value of the name, putting out inferior products at premium prices, hoping that the brand name alone would ensure sales continue. This is classic short-term management, of the type that has become endemic in businesses driven by the stock price over the next 90 days.

      The result is that now, Sony has to compete on price against its lower-cost competitors.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 01 2015, @10:04PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 01 2015, @10:04PM (#257269)

      I have not spent money on Sony products in 10 years.

      Thanks for the reminder SN!

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 01 2015, @05:18PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 01 2015, @05:18PM (#257188)

    about the Sony's Playstation demo disc that corrupted all game data on any memory card that was plugged in. I lost almost a years worth of Gran Turismo progress along with every other game progress.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 01 2015, @09:35PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 01 2015, @09:35PM (#257262)

    Never even knew it happened. Few would understand if you explained it to them. Like most of these 'scandals', life moves on and no one cares as soon as the next shiny object appears.

    • (Score: 1) by malloc_free on Monday November 02 2015, @06:20AM

      by malloc_free (3034) on Monday November 02 2015, @06:20AM (#257376) Journal

      Or someone of Kim Kardasians (can't be bothered to look up the correct spelling for thename) status drops her draws for the public. Keep 'em distracted: here is a huge bubble butt!?!