Howard Stringer's much-publicized remarks about Rootgate, issued at CES, are so clueless as to amount nearly to a denial of reality. "Clearly the perception out there is that we shouldn't be doing too much of that copy protection stuff." Actually, that's not the main perception, though I wish it were. The main perception is that major media companies shouldn't be putting spyware-infected discs into international distribution, inviting the global hacking underground to target its customers' computers. The company isn't just dealing with negative feedback about DRM--it is facing class-action and even criminal lawsuits. As Techdirt notes, that's a little different.

But here's where Stringer seems to be improvising wildly: "...protecting the artist's right is not something that should be automatically dismissed by the push-and-pull generation." I'm sorry--the what? Did he say the push-and-pull generation? Is this a sexual reference? Does he mean the rip-and-burn generation? The point-and-click generation? All right, I'll cut the man some slack; I know what he means. He means the on-demand generation, and it's not a generational phenomenon. It's an on-demand marketplace across many demographics, and if Howard Stringer has trouble accepting that reality, then Sony is even more doomed than it already was. It's not that DRM conflicts with what the marketplace wants; DRM conflicts with what the marketplace already has. Stringer needs to get away from the microphones, visit the men's room, do a little pushing and pulling, enjoy a cathartic release, and approach his job with a cleared head.