<P>It's as if an alien mindset has taken over the American corporate culture. They seem to think they own us. The latest example, and perhaps the worst, is Apple's deliberate use of an update to cripple iPhones that had "unauthorized" software. But Apple is hardly the first company to act as if it can do whatever it wishes with its products after we buy them.</P> <P>In fact, it's enough of a trend that, even be It’s as if an alien mindset has taken over the American corporate culture. They seem to think they own us. The latest example, and perhaps the worst, is Apple’s deliberate use of an update to cripple iPhones that had “unauthorized” software. But Apple is hardly the first company to act as if it can do whatever it wishes with its products after we buy them.In fact, it’s enough of a trend that, even before the Apple story heated up, one reader was already contemplating it as a result of a stealth update from another megacorporation — Microsoft — and the ties he sees going back to the Sony rootkit scam. “I find it interesting/amusing/ironic/messed-up to watch a business that is losing revenue — real or imagined — make changes intended to halt the loss … changes which have opposite effect. I know a fair number of people who responded to news about the rootkit on Sony’s CDs by deciding to either (a) stop buying music CDs, (b) only download music from an online service, or (c) illegally download music. I even know someone who offers, for a small fee, to rip your store-bought CDs to WAV files (on a Linux machine, avoiding DRM issues) and then burn those .wav files to CD. For a few bucks, you get a CD you can play in Walkmans and stereos, plus a CD you can put in your computer with no fear.”Of course, one big difference between the two update incidents is that Microsoft’s appears to have been just a bug and not an intentional effort to punish particular users. But Microsoft’s overall history of using the update for its various DRM schemes – particularly the problems with last year’s sneaky WGA updates, often led to some unintended consequences. “I have been dealing for some time with people/businesses who have either been burned by a bad Microsoft update, don’t trust Microsoft’s update policies or don’t trust Microsoft. The company’s reluctance to acknowledge that users should have final say over what changes are made to the operating system means that people end up using Windows 98 or Win2000, installing a cracked version of XP, installing Linux and a VMWare Windows machine, switching to Linux entirely, or getting a Mac. I fail to see how any of this benefits Microsoft.” Similarly, it certainly looks like Apple’s efforts to crack the whip on users who try to use something other than the Apple-authorized AT&T wireless service with their iPhones is going to be counterproductive – for both Apple and AT&T. There are already many alternatives in the marketplace, and manufacturers with new wireless devices in the works must be particularly encouraged by how Apple has managed to tarnish its logo on the iPhone.It’s an open question how much vendors hurt themselves when they so publicly put their own greed in front of the interests of the paying customer. I don’t know if Sony BMG lost of a lot of music sales compared to competitors because of the rootkit outrage, but I’m sure the incident did contribute significantly to the industry-wide drop in CD sales. But another of the historic cases of vendor as control freak — Intuit’s TurboTax 2002 product activation fiasco — certainly damaged what was a dominant brand and gave competitors an opening.History also teaches some other lessons here. “It makes me feel nostalgic,” our reader writes. “What we need is a the 21st-century answer to my college roommate, who would use his Bang & Olafsson turntable, McIntosh preamp and Nakamichi cassette deck to make nice-sounding cassettes of your albums in exchange for a six-pack, blank tape and the option to make his own copy. If the record companies would like to explain to me how the DRM — and the fear it generates, which leads people to pursue these alternatives– is making their life better, I’d love to hear it.” It’s scary to think how far this trend of vendors thinking they own the products we buy from them might go. “I just received my new couch today,” the reader writes. “The owner’s manual warns me that cigarette smoke and sunlight can damage the fabric, and that’s nice to know. But if I find out that it comes with a smoke detector or a UV sensor– and it spews water or black paint if it senses danger — it’s going back to the store. There’s a really simple equation being ignored here. If your product attempts to do anything to my existing property, I’m going to be very annoyed with you, and it’s going to cost your business in the long run.”How much do you think Apple’s treatment of iPhone customers is going to cost it? And which of our historic examples of vendors trying to control their customers’ use of their products — Intuit, Sony, Microsoft, or Apple — do you think is the most outrageous? Answer my GripeLog poll on that question (in the righthand column on my website) and tell us why you feel that way by posting your comments online or by writing me at Foster@gripe2ed.com.Read and post comments about this story, and vote and see tje results of our GripeLog poll, here. Technology Industry