At my parents' house the holiday and I noticed it lying there on a end table, a major label CD. I didn't know the name, but asked my father if it was a SonyBMG disk. He grunted it wasn't, not really paying attention to the question. I had a feeling about the disk and scanned it's label there wasn't either company named directly, but I noticed the Sonybmg.com website mentioned. 30 seconds later I had my laptop out and confirmed it.

The disk had spyware.

I mentioned to my father he had to deal with it and asked if he had put it into his computer to load into his Ipod yet. He said he hadn't but he had been planning to soon. I warned him not to load it, why, and mentioned I'd email background on the CD and it's potential effects.

The message is simply this, part of the responsibility of the blogosphere is to communicate and share knowledge with others. So watch out for your friends and family this holiday season for SonyBMG rootkit products after all, you would want them to do the same for you and the signs are not always obvious. Alot of people may have only vaguely heard the story and don't realize the potential impact. So keep careful watch this holiday season.

Friends don't let friends buy spywear.

Boing Boing's post with details on Sony Rootkit