How can we know that this hasn't been haapening before Sony?? I've seen some strange things and I don't put it past any studio of employing rot-kits and the like to help identify and track copies made from certain original works. Put yourself in their shoes. Maybe not done in such a way as to cripple systems but to keep track of who got the copy you made and even how many times it has been re-copied. Think of it as clandestine protection for your produced product.
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another rootkit, this time from DVD
or http://tinyurl.com/mwqyf
Mr. and Mrs. Smith DVD apparently carries a rootkit, though not considered as useful to malicious hijacking.