Asus and the Plextor, Sony and Teac conspiracy

[Cyber Akuma]

I was reading this article

http://www.cdmediaworld.com/hardware...d2_truth.shtml

And got worried, are these the only three brands doing this? I am worried mainly because I dont want to have to go through hell being careful about firmware updates, finding a "safe" version, and hoping itll accept a reflash to an older version if this is the case.

My drive is an Asus 5224A.