[dmpk2k]

That's odd.

I've worked with node for a couple years. I've used npm hundreds of times, and I can count on one hand the number of times I've used it in combination with sudo (and all but one were a mistake).

  ~/dev $  ls /usr/local/lib/node_modules/
  jsontool npm

Every time I've used npm with sudo I've received a big warning in red to not do that.

[reedlaw]

Which version are you using? And do you install packages globally using the -g switch?

[dmpk2k]

Currently 1.2.11. As you can see above, I've only ever installed one package globally (jsontool).