Sony pictures made up reviews for its movies (suprise suprise)

While some gamers have been frothing at the mouth over the PS3, Sony's been up to no good in another arena it plays in, namely traditional entertainment. You know, the oldie stuff like movies and music—aka, non-interactive entertainment. As it turns out, Sony has been a little fast and loose in the ethics department, and two scandals have tarred the company's image over the past few months. I apologize if some of this is old news to you, but I think it's worth alerting our readers to this kind of stuff.

A class action lawsuit against Sony's Columbia Pictures units has been settled, and anyone who has gone to see Hollow Man, Vertical Limit, A Knight's Tale, The Animal or The Patriot is due US$5. Why? It all goes back to David Manning of the Ridgefield Press, whose quotes filled print and TV ads with praise for these movies. While other reviewers trashed many of these titles, Manning always managed to find something fantastic or amazing about the films. The problem?

He doesn't exist. Colombia Pictures made him up.

To make matters worse, when the company was called out for this, they didn't apologize. No, they claimed that this was fair exercise of free speech. The class action suit has been settled, but Sony did not admit fault in the settlement.

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