Sony: your father's electronic equipment?

After Sony's PR disaster with the deliberate infection of their customers' computers, The Register asks some key questions about Sony's future:

• How many corporate, government, military, and scientific organizations will ban the use of any Sony CD now on any machine connected to their networks?
• How long until those bans extend to any copy-protected CD made by any music company?
• How long until those bans extend to any music CD, period?
• How many corporate, government, military, and scientific networks have been compromised by the Sony rootkit?
• Have any security breaches occurred on a corporate, government, military, and scientific network due to the Sony rootkit?
• What actions will Sony face as a result of any security breaches?
• How would those corporate, government, and scientific organizations have reacted if a group hostile to American interests had engaged in the same security violations practiced by Sony?

I know my perceptions of Sony have been very seriously impacted by this fiasco: once upon a time I wouldn't have questioned whether a piece of Sony equipment was good value for money. Now, should I ever consider buying something by Sony, I'll have to consider whether I want to encourage the sort of behaviour that current Sony management engages in. (That is, you can be certain that the rootkit nonsense was only the tip of the iceberg.)