Sony is a pretty terrible company. That doesn't mean that their rank-and-file employees deserve what happened, but you don't have to search very far to come to the realization that the Sony conglomerate is one of the most anti-consumer organizations in the business world.
That's... Wow. Specially the one about the preinstalled rootkit. My present batch of gizmos (Laptop, smartphone, e-reader...) were all Sony becouse all seemed the best I could buy at the moment of the purchase. I will seriously consider buying anything at all from them the next time.