This appears to be the weekend where DRM gets egg on it's face.
Turns out the DRM that's installed with the PC version of BioShock, the same DRM that's been causing no end of problems with installing said game, is installing rootkits on user's computers. The DRM in question is SecuROM, licensed to 2K games by, you guessed it, Sony.
After all the mud that got thrown at them over the rootkit installing DRM they tried to use on their music CD's, you'd think they'd be smart enough to not pull that crap again. Nope, not Sony. Futher shame on 2K for licensing such nasty DRM.
Opening potentially huge and dangerous security holes in your paying customer's computers is not a good way to do business. Once again, the legal owners are punished for buying a product while the pirates get off scot free.
PC gaming is heretofore dead to me.
I had to crack Far Cry because the DRM didn't work with the DVD drive I had in my computer. I had to crack F.E.A.R. because the DRM didn't like the virtualization software I had installed. I couldn't even play S.T.A.L.K.E.R. because it was riddled with endless bugs and hardware incompatibilities. Now I read about this fiasco with BioShock. (Thank god I bought the 360 version.)
It was Sony's first rootkit fiasco that made me mostly give up buying major label CD's. It was a Sony DVD filled with 5+ minutes of unskippable ads that made me give up on DVD's. Now, Sony does it again with PC games.
I won't completely swear off of them, but it will be a very rare occasion any more. And certainly not without carefully researching what DRM virus the publisher has infected their game with.
Well done, Sony.
EDIT: It turns out it's not a rootkit after all. But it's still intrusive and problematic and has left countless people who legally purchased the game from being able to install and play it without jumping through hoops, and it still restricts when and where you can install and play the game you paid for. The middle finger stands.