Sony's rootkit rips off substantial portions of it without giving credit, or obeying any of the other terms of the licence. So I think an appropriate punishment would be for the authors to sue the company for copyright infringement.

And, thanks to Sony's tireless bribes, sorry -- campaign contributions, and anti-piracy legislation, those punishments are austere: many thousands of dollars in fines per CD, as well as statutory damages and jail time. I think it also may be a federal offense now -- thanks to Sony.

What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. If Sony wants us to believe that unauthorized copying of music or software is stealing, a dire offense that deserves jail time and crippling fines, then that is er, fine, by me. I think US$10 000 per CD shipped is reasonable, plus say a few million for the damages, and three years behind bars for wilful copyright infringement for the executives that were in charge of this brain-dead project.

What is that you say? Sony outsourced the writing of the rootkit to a third party, and therefore cannot be responsible? Oh dear, because it actually does not make any difference. Sony itself managed to squelch that defense when it sued grandmothers who were unwittingly using their PCs for file-sharing through its licensed attack dog, the RIAA. In fact, why haven't the Feds raided Sony US's offices yet? (This could still happen, of course, and I am hoping that it will).

None of this behavior should be that surprising. It was Sony, you may recall, that had the brilliant idea of physically breaking customers' iMac CD drives back in 2002 as a means of copy protection, using a Trojanned Celine Dion CD.