I don't think Sony has quite woken up to how bad the "rootkit" episode could get. The Electronic Frontier Foundation "along with two leading national class action law firms, today filed a lawsuit against Sony BMG, demanding that the company repair the damage done by the First4Internet XCP and SunnComm MediaMax software it included on over 24 million music CDs," says the EFF. The Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott also "filed a civil lawsuit on Monday against Sony BMG Music Entertainment for hiding 'spyware' software on its compact discs in a bid to thwart music copying," reports Reuters. A class action suit has been filed in Los Angeles and another is expected in New York, and no doubt more will follow.
There's also the risk of a consumer backlash. There's already a Boycott Sonyt website and an online petition that targets "all media or hardware made by Sony".
Given that the company has two high risk products coming down the line -- Blu-ray movie players and PlayStation 3 games consoles -- this is not the sort of attention Sony will find helpful.
