EDIT: Yay, my 2[sup]7[/sup]th post!
EDIT2: Apparently I didn't stress this enough: George Hotz did not open the door to piracy. Maybe, but if so then it's a door before another set of large wooden doors, an iron double gate and a lava moat.
(I'll probably end up adding to this as my brain stops being numb and I remember something I forgot to mention.)
So clearly there's a lot of spite regarding hackers at the moment what with the PSN debacle. Some people have taken the time to curse George Hotz for releasing the PS3's security key or something like that.
But I get the feeling, partially because of all the general misgivings about hackers, piracy etc., that most people don't have a particularly good idea of what actually happens in the console modding scene and as a result are just aiming insults in modders' general direction. I say modders because there's a big difference between a 'hacker' and a homebrew user.
Basically, doing any software modding from the ground up on a console made by someone else is very, very difficult and adjusting already existing systems is about as hard. A lot of people seem to think that Hotz opened the gates to PS3 piracy and one person even suggested to me that he demonstrated how to do it. That is a complete lie.
I've dabbled in Wii softmodding (the passive, consumerist kind where you just try stuff other people have made with not much idea how they actually did it) and it was one thing to install the basic system (The Homebrew Channel) and then download a program that backed up my Gamecube saves to an SD card. But it was quite another to make it accept my pirated copy of Metroid Prime after I admitted defeat after about 3 months and stopped searching for the original disc. Partially because, despite apparently popular opinion, most homebrew developers actually love the console and don't want you to pirate it to death. If you don't believe me, go to [a href=http://wiibrew.org/]Wiibrew.org[/a]. Now find the article where it tells you how to install software to pirate games. Go on, I'll wait.
Find anything? Didn't think so.
Even though I managed it, it did take a lot of effort and time, and a lot of prior knowledge about what I was looking for. I did it all for Metroid Prime...
Anyone who has the technical expertise to write their own firmware that gives them unlimited PSN downloads almost definitely has a back-door to let them install and run it already. Those are the tiny minority of programmers who are legitimately causing trouble but they are far distant from the average joe modder. Really all Hotz has done is make the first steps into an easier homebrew development environment so keen newcomers can write some bit of code that gives them an extra capability Sony wouldn't. Being able to save those huge Gamecube saves from my tiny 52-block memory card onto the nearest enormous 2 GB SD card was the most useful tool I've ever had on the machine and without the basic cracking of the console there is absolutely no way that program could have ever come to light.
And if you ever thought modders were having an easy time casually installing this stuff and pirating away, there's always the threat of getting bricked the fateful moment you hit "OK. Install" or whenever the next firmware update comes out. Realistically there are very few people who are willing to ever run that risk, even when it comes to hardware mods (since they usually require pulling your valuable machine to bits), so the actual proportion of owners who do any modding is very low.
In fact, a lot of people predicting the death of the PS3 (presumably...) probably aren't even aware that the Wii homebrew scene has existed for a few years now, despite the fact that the Wii hasn't fallen into a bankrupt hell hole of piracy and is in fact still selling games like hotcakes. Sony may have reacted necessarily with the PSN takedown but this will never be the death of the PS3. In a few weeks it will be forgotten and nothing will have truly changed for the average user.
So that's all I can think of right now since I just fizzled my brain writing effectively a half essay (682 words from here), but before I go, please don't accuse me of being a dirty pirate at this point. Just click [a href=https://steamcommunity.com/id/hamishtym]here[/a] and notice how many games I legitimately bought on Steam before you start flaming.
tl;dr The people who steal info from PSN are very different from George Hotz, who is very different from your average pirate, who is very different from your average homebrew user.
Here's another tl;dr from xXSnowyXx that I liked:
EDIT2: Apparently I didn't stress this enough: George Hotz did not open the door to piracy. Maybe, but if so then it's a door before another set of large wooden doors, an iron double gate and a lava moat.
(I'll probably end up adding to this as my brain stops being numb and I remember something I forgot to mention.)
So clearly there's a lot of spite regarding hackers at the moment what with the PSN debacle. Some people have taken the time to curse George Hotz for releasing the PS3's security key or something like that.
But I get the feeling, partially because of all the general misgivings about hackers, piracy etc., that most people don't have a particularly good idea of what actually happens in the console modding scene and as a result are just aiming insults in modders' general direction. I say modders because there's a big difference between a 'hacker' and a homebrew user.
Basically, doing any software modding from the ground up on a console made by someone else is very, very difficult and adjusting already existing systems is about as hard. A lot of people seem to think that Hotz opened the gates to PS3 piracy and one person even suggested to me that he demonstrated how to do it. That is a complete lie.
I've dabbled in Wii softmodding (the passive, consumerist kind where you just try stuff other people have made with not much idea how they actually did it) and it was one thing to install the basic system (The Homebrew Channel) and then download a program that backed up my Gamecube saves to an SD card. But it was quite another to make it accept my pirated copy of Metroid Prime after I admitted defeat after about 3 months and stopped searching for the original disc. Partially because, despite apparently popular opinion, most homebrew developers actually love the console and don't want you to pirate it to death. If you don't believe me, go to [a href=http://wiibrew.org/]Wiibrew.org[/a]. Now find the article where it tells you how to install software to pirate games. Go on, I'll wait.
Find anything? Didn't think so.
Even though I managed it, it did take a lot of effort and time, and a lot of prior knowledge about what I was looking for. I did it all for Metroid Prime...
Anyone who has the technical expertise to write their own firmware that gives them unlimited PSN downloads almost definitely has a back-door to let them install and run it already. Those are the tiny minority of programmers who are legitimately causing trouble but they are far distant from the average joe modder. Really all Hotz has done is make the first steps into an easier homebrew development environment so keen newcomers can write some bit of code that gives them an extra capability Sony wouldn't. Being able to save those huge Gamecube saves from my tiny 52-block memory card onto the nearest enormous 2 GB SD card was the most useful tool I've ever had on the machine and without the basic cracking of the console there is absolutely no way that program could have ever come to light.
And if you ever thought modders were having an easy time casually installing this stuff and pirating away, there's always the threat of getting bricked the fateful moment you hit "OK. Install" or whenever the next firmware update comes out. Realistically there are very few people who are willing to ever run that risk, even when it comes to hardware mods (since they usually require pulling your valuable machine to bits), so the actual proportion of owners who do any modding is very low.
In fact, a lot of people predicting the death of the PS3 (presumably...) probably aren't even aware that the Wii homebrew scene has existed for a few years now, despite the fact that the Wii hasn't fallen into a bankrupt hell hole of piracy and is in fact still selling games like hotcakes. Sony may have reacted necessarily with the PSN takedown but this will never be the death of the PS3. In a few weeks it will be forgotten and nothing will have truly changed for the average user.
So that's all I can think of right now since I just fizzled my brain writing effectively a half essay (682 words from here), but before I go, please don't accuse me of being a dirty pirate at this point. Just click [a href=https://steamcommunity.com/id/hamishtym]here[/a] and notice how many games I legitimately bought on Steam before you start flaming.
tl;dr The people who steal info from PSN are very different from George Hotz, who is very different from your average pirate, who is very different from your average homebrew user.
Here's another tl;dr from xXSnowyXx that I liked:
My two main fears were that 1) it would be too confusing and 2) people would stop listening and start yelling names but I guess I chose the right forum.
