Research In Motion is under fire. Several countries have objected to the security features included on BlackBerrys, the PlayBook isn’t flying off shelves faster than an iPad, and market share has dropped. Will they be the next firm swallowed by Microsoft?

Large companies always look at the bottom line. If something isn’t selling, even if the technology is good, the product will be killed. But, what if, instead of just killing the product, the technology was open-sourced? Then others, less worried about the bottom line, might continue working on the idea.

In the PlayStation debacle, there is a glimmer of good news. If your account information included a credit card number, Sony had encrypted it. No word yet on whether passwords were encrypted or stored in clear text.