PS3 Cracked With Modded Controller

[Darkstar370]

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/10/09/25/1922244/PS3-Hacked-Using-Official-Controller


Many thanks to all the people who use their time, so that I can use my own hardware the way I want to!

Sony removed OtherOS citing worries about piracy, despite the fact that the system was uncracked after years of OtherOS inclusion.

Very shortly after its removal, various groups publicly announced their intention to crack the system specifically because of the OtherOS removal. They very quickly succeeded, and now Sony is going to have to live with nearly instant cracks of every version of their firmware because they riled up the wrong people. Piracy is now trivial on the PS3, with the usual caveat of no online multiplayer, all thanks to some executives irrational fear of at the time nonexistent pirates.

It's a pity that the executive in question will probably be rewarded because the current rise in piracy proves that he was right about the menace of game copiers in the first place!

 

[joshuaayt]

Just offer jobs to every hacker who successfully beats your system. They can help make it stronger against their specific approach, and the system will eventually become fool proof! (Until that next thing comes along, which it inevitably will, because attempting to make a system of any sort hack-proof is laughably naive, and the way Sony is going about this appears not dissimilar to using chopsticks to slowly and carefully remove every single ant from a nest)
Everybody wins!

 

[Jared]

Sony just can't win. It's kind of funny.

Yeah, heh. No matter what they try to do someone is always goingto design some form of work about around what they have done XD

 

[Autofaux]

Also, wouldn't banning them be kinda pointless? People can just make a new PSN name for free anyways. :/

True, which is why the console itself would be banned altogether, as well as the PSN name, which would suck if that person had bought things from the Store in the past.

 

[Corpse XxX]

Meh. I'm impressed that the PS3 hasn't been fully hacked/modded this far into its life cycle. I don't think any console in the last two generations have lasted this long.

But hackers will hack, so Sony probably shouldn't be chasing full tilt after it. It might actually be better to let the hacks sit for a bit, then hit them all at once with a big update, while banning them from PSN in the meantime.

Yeah.. I agree, make them think they got it all then BLAM! Access denied, ps3 will malfunction and set your house on fire!

 

[z3rostr1fe]

You have to understand that hackers will exist, no matter what. Their only goal is to further their knowledge. Unfortunately, Pirates rely on hackers to illegally gain what they don't really own... Sony releases patches to fix exploits the hackers made, which the Pirates use to obtain stuff illegally. In reality, the fix is intended on Pirates. Although without the hackers, the system's exploits are going to remain undiscovered, so I guess it's a healthy relationship in one way... Unfortunately, the burden outweighs the benefits...

 

[Megacherv]

You know it's actually pretty funny; I remember reading a comic (I think it was on this site no less) that actually made a parody where Sony disables the controllers. I can't actually find it any more but;

They fucking called it.
Even if it was intended as a joke.

I'm not sure if that's frightening or hilarious.

It was on here in fact, one of the recent Critical Miss'.

I read about this on a certain site, and I thought it was genius, but then I read here that it requires hardware modifications, which is slightly less genius (I originaly thought that they were going to input new information into the EEPROM of the controller, like the Pandora Batteries)

 

[unacomn]

Didn't ENN foresee this in a segment a while ago?

 

[Pendragon9]

Well, I don't see why people complain about Sony disabling features now. They have a right to protect their system from pirating.

I get the whole "pirace doesn't mean lost sales" schtick, but that only works for so long. You gotta draw the line somewhere.

 

[Keava]

Thing is, my dear anti-piracy raging people, that there is quite a big group of hackers that will continue doing it, not to play games for free but simply for sports. It's a challenge. Whenever a company releases some new form of security they want to be the first to figure it out and crack it. For them it's much more enjoyable than actually playing games, so no matter what new policies and firmware the companies will come up with, there will always be group of people working day and night to prove their place on the scene.

 

[UnravThreads]

Well, you can jailbreak the PS3 with a lot now, like an iPhone or TI-84 Plus calculator. I mean, they figured out how to work around the firmware update the day after it came out. So I'm sure people will find an easy and quick way to bypass this problem then share it with everyone else.

Also, wouldn't banning them be kinda pointless? People can just make a new PSN name for free anyways. :/

Wait, what? You can crack the PS3 with a calculator?

Oh dear.

 

[Cynical skeptic]

"OH EM GEE STOP HACKING GUYTH, U GONNA MAKE THONY MAD"
"I, for one, am willing to give up every bit of advertised functionality if it prevents people playing pirated copies for even an instant."

Not sure what I was expecting the general response to be, but I should've known it'd be that.

Like someone else mentioned in passing, the only real way to placate these types of people (constantly referred to as "hackers,") is by giving them just about everything they might be able to get through "hacking." Once you start restricting them into very narrow definitions of activity, they start finding ways to "break out."

Jailbreaking ipods and such didn't come about because people wanted more out of their ipods, it came about because apple specifically and knowingly cripple their products in very annoying and random ways mostly in the name of "idiot proofing." Which, in turn, is calling everyone who owns or is interested in an ipod an idiot (as true as that might be). Sony is taking the same route, but instead calling everyone who owns a PS3, or was interested in previously advertised functionality, a criminal.

As such, all attempts to stop piracy simply increase piracy.

Also, as far as downloading ps3 games, they're notoriously uncompressed. Fact is, most all effective data compression algorithms were developed for the sake of software piracy.

Not to mention, "playing pirated games online" is an extremely recent phenomena. For decades the unspoken rule has been "if you crack it, don't take it online." So, without an active internet connection, how does microsoft/sony remotely brick a console? How do they patch exploits? Sure, if you want to punish the stupid people, go ahead. But that'll just motivate them to hack more.

 

[Albino Boo]

I don't remember signing a contract when I bought my laptop computer, or my Magic Bullet, or my Nintendo DS, and I doubt anyone who bought a PS3 will remember signing any contract either.

Modifying something without permission of the owner is illegal? Yeah, that makes sense. Modifying something without permission of the guy who sold it to you is illegal? Yeah...I don't think so.

Also, what about the Xbox Media Centre? Sure it was just a matter of unlocking already existent code, but it was still a mod.

Now, I agree it's wrong, this whole piracy thing, but it's certainly not illegal.

I'm reminded of certain states where the age of consent (for sex) is 18 and there are no closeness in age exemptions. Two 16 year olds have sex, they could be charged with raping each other. Unlikely that would happen, but the fact that they could be is disgusting.

Its in the terms and conditions of sale, just because you haven't read them doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Contracts don't have to be signed to exist either, they can equally be verbal or implied. Every time you buy something from a shop you are entering into an implied contract with the vendor, him to supply fault free goods and you provide a monetary sum. At no point do you sign or agree to anything about the existence of the contract but it is the bases if consumer rights in the Anglo Saxon legal system (i.e about 1/3 of the population of the world). Also most jurisdictions these days have clauses in copyright legislation stating that state removing copy protection, for what ever reason, is a volition of copyright.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

They don't already ban them?

 

[Carlston]

Didn't we see this on Critical Miss?

Sony disabled controller support due to pirates might use them to play cracked games?

 

[DTWolfwood]

ban and find a quick fix. OR do exactly this [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comics/critical-miss/8093-Critical-Miss-34] XD