The Root(kit) of Sony's Problems

Grant McCracken ponders just how out-of-touch the CEO of Sony must be to utter something like this at a public forum: "Clearly the perception out there is that we shouldn't be doing too much of that copy protection stuff." Or, just perhaps, the perception is that Sony should keep their gorram spyware off their customers' computers. Is that what he meant to say, perhaps?

If ever there were a measure of the gap between corporations and their consumers, the Rootgate debacle is it. It demonstrates that Sony "does not get" the new contract and connection that is being fashioned slowly but surely between the two. But then the CEO stands up and in the place of a full recantation treats us to phrases that are either a further demonstration of how little he understands his consumers, or a revelation of the disquieted assumptions he entertains about them. Most odd.

There is something impressive about this kind of candor, even if it is a little baffling. I mean normally CEOs are scripted by PR and wander off script at their peril. We are grateful for this opportunity to stare into the world view of the CEO (if that's indeed what we have done). Stringer is impressive: Oxford degrees, military service, Japanese speaker, distinguished career as a journalist, effortless administrator. There is apparently nothing this guy can't do. So why can't he get in touch with contemporary culture and the new marketplace?

It's astonishing just how much customer goodwill Sony has managed to destroy in this rootkit debacle . . . and even more astonishing that they still seem to be ignorant as to how much damage this has done their public image.