Brilliant. It almost makes a little sense — until you stop thinking about it from the perspective of some pencil-pushing marketer. It’s this very short-sighted, senseless anti-consumer behavior that undermines consumer confidence at a time when people are already wary enough about buying new machines (at least PCs — Apple managing to sign up new users in droves). Thankfully Sony quickly saw the folly of their ways and killed the fee — but what’s it say about their US operations that it took an angry call from the Japanese overlords to bring them to their senses?