[Blarg]

Who cares? That's your decision, and you can do what you like, as can anyone else. It's ridiculous to criticise a consumer for putting his money where his mouth is. That's the greatest power he has. That doing so is not an exact science goes without saying, and the fact that it isn't is a very poor rationalization for not doing it.

The idea that you would really suffer by not buying a Sony product is also not a very compelling one no matter what you think about rootkits.

It also doesn't matter at all if other people have heard or said something about an issue before and it can be found on google. Most everything can. Most people know little or nothing about this, and couldn't be hurt by knowing a little more. I'll look at one or two of the links you provided too, so I can know a little bit more about it myself. And I'm glad that this is being discussed, because it's a serious and potentially quite costly issue that raises some interesting questions about where and how the lines are or can be drawn.