What you're saying is that Sony BMG and the others are basically just franchises who pay to use the Sony name and that Sony corporate has no control over them--they can tell "Mr. Sony" to go take a hike and there's nothing he can do about it. I find it hard to believe that any company would let its subsidiaries get away from them to that degree. If nothing else, Sony, (whichever of these various Sonys) has to contend with the fact that the vast unwashed public does not make these fine distinctions regarding conglomerate organizational charts. This incident has become a blackeye for everything Sony precisely because the public doesn't distinguish and they are just as likely to take out their ire over a rootkitted CD by buying another brand of DVD, television etc. Microsoft may even be the beneficiary of a few more XBox 360s this Christmas. I'm sure Sony's PR machine would love to get your message out to the world, don't blame us, blame Sony BMG. Unfortunately for them, no matter how much truth there may be in that, most people simply aren't going to buy it. Bottom line, if Sony which is not BMG wants to avoid problems like this, maybe they better revoke BMG's franchise and make them stop using the Sony name...unless of course they have no control over that either.

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H. L. Mencken