It wasn’t too long ago that Kryptonite bike locks literally became a business case study in how not to deal with potentially damaging information posted online.

Sony could become the next.

Spreading like wildfire is word that copy-protected CDs from Sony dump malware-style software deep in the guts of your computer. You can get in touch with your inner geek and explore all the gory details in this superlative post from Mark Russinovich (actually a good read; if you don’t want the gory details, at least take a look at the reader comments). Here’s Mark’s takeaway, and what you need to know:

“Not only had Sony put software on my system that uses techniques commonly used by malware to mask its presence, the software is poorly written and provides no means for uninstall. Worse, most users that stumble across the cloaked files with a RKR scan will cripple their computer if they attempt the obvious step of deleting the cloaked files.”

As PC World writes in a good overview of this issue: “Sony has dealt itself a serious blow, and the best thing it — and the rest of the music publishers — can do right now is condemn this practice, apologize to the customers that were affected, provide a method to get this junk off affected PCs, and make declarations that they will never, ever do this again.”

Will they? Or will they become the next case study in how not to deal with customers online? The answer may depend on how close to heart Sony takes Cluetrain Manifesto thesis #12:

“There are no secrets. The networked market knows more than companies do about their own products. And whether the news is good or bad, they tell everyone.”

(Edit: “Spreading like wildfire” is hardly hyperbole — at 7:30 this morning, eastern time, “Sony rootkit” is a top-10 search term at Technorati.)

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 3rd, 2005 at 6:00 am and is filed under Internet Stuff, Marketing Stuff.