It is still a corporation. Think of them like sauron in lotr, a sort of evil giant you can successfully defy with concerted effort, but you can't really defeat them without throwing the ring into mount doom (destroying capitalism and intellectual property in this case).

I came into this thread to say exactly that. "...for now."

I have no doubt Sony will try this again at a later date when the outrage calms down.

Exactly. Their intentions have been shown. They will find another way before they change those intentions.