pre-installed malware on Maxtor drives: new RIAA strategy?

Slashdot had a strange little piece about trojan horse malware being pre-installed on Maxtor harddrives in the factory in Thailand. One of the link on there links to a story that seems to imply that the government of China is somehow involved in the scheme, but the virus described back in September is one that deletes mp3s.

I wonder if the RIAA is finding creative new ways to fight in the digital age? It's either them or the gold farmers (as the virus also looks for game passwords and uploads them to sites in Beijing,) or possibly a joint venture.

If China wanted to create a botnet, could this be the kind of industrial sabotage and espionage that would provide an instant horde of zombies? Or fuck a botnet... if it's a harddrive with malware installed as soon as the icon is clicked, why not go for financial information or scientific research?