Another company for the no-buy list: Sony

Could it just be me, or are companies pushing the boundaries of appropriate behavior more cluelessly these days? The most recent to cross a line that shouldn't be crossed is Sony... they decided to try to remove a feature from my PS3 that has been there since I bought it, for vaguely-stated "security concerns", with only a few days notice (link).

Luckily, this doesn't appear to be as bad as I initially feared... none of the games I currently own, on disc or downloaded from their online service, appear to have been shut down. Of course, some games, like Noby Noby Boy, are pretty useless without an online component, and, unless I upgrade my firmware, I can't use their service. Even so, strong-arming your customers into giving up a feature they paid for without any compensation under questionable pretenses (whose security are we talking about, for starters?) falls under corporate behavior that I want no part in supporting... and, since this is the same company that tried to install a rootkit on their customers' computers using their music CDs, I honestly can't think of any action they could take to restore my trust.

Of course, for all that I have moral standards, I'm also a pragmatist... I'm not about to scour the entire house for Sony-provided products and start a bonfire in the street. I'll continue to make use of my PS3, with the games I already own... but I'm definitely no longer buying any PS3 game on disc "new" (wouldn't do to let Sony collect their slice, after all), and I'm going to resist buying any downloadable content from this point forward. Oh, and, of course, I'm not buying any of Sony's music, movies, computers, etc., and especially not any further hardware for this game system, nor any future game system they put out.

I find it hard to believe I'm writing these words... but I wonder how long it will be before Microsoft comes out with a new hardware revision for their XBox360? After all, they may overcharge for their components, and nickle-and-dime you in other ways... but at least they're straightforward about what their intents are.