PS3 "Other OS" Removal May Violate Norwegian Law

[Jumplion]

I don?t have a PS3 and I'll admit I think the Other OS feature is rather silly. However this was marketed as a feature so I don?t see how it can simply be removed later on. As you say the option to not accept the firmware isn't much of an alternative given that it blocks you from other basic features.

Can you give any evidence where or how it was a marketed feature?

On no box, official site or ad was Other OS EVER advertised or marketed. Ever.

Sorry, it was not a marketed feature of the PS3. Like many features of the PS3, you had to go out of your way to find out about it. Or if you are an enthusiast, you'd hear about it from third parties, but never from Sony.

I still have my 60GB PS3 box and there is no mention anywhere on it that says you can install Linux on it. To claim that it does is a pure fabrication.

Yeah, I actually thought of that to, what constitutes as a feature being "advertised"? A commercial? On the box? A blog post? Nobody has yet to answer my question, which leads me to believe that it either wasn't "advertised" or that it was "advertised" so little that I never even knew about the feature until after it was removed and this whole shitstorm started.

 

[Andy Powell]

If you don't like it, don't use it, but other people do like it. There is no reason to be happy it is gone even if you don't use it because it is optional.

I'm just stating my opinion here, just like everyone else. I'm just glad to see another potential exploit hole closed. And I'm using the case of the PSP as an example.. Again.. My opinion..

 

[JohnReaper]

so let me get this right, I bought my ps3, on a Lease?! I don't own the black box sitting infront of me right now? I own a pos digital EULA and if i wanted I don't know, Cut a hole in my playstation 3 to add another fan (I haven't using this as an example) its illegeal? But for sony to remove a feature from my machine I'm sorry their machine. its perfectly legeal? What the hell...

 

[Wolfram23]

I don?t have a PS3 and I'll admit I think the Other OS feature is rather silly. However this was marketed as a feature so I don?t see how it can simply be removed later on. As you say the option to not accept the firmware isn't much of an alternative given that it blocks you from other basic features.

Can you give any evidence where or how it was a marketed feature?

On no box, official site or ad was Other OS EVER advertised or marketed. Ever.

Sorry, it was not a marketed feature of the PS3. Like many features of the PS3, you had to go out of your way to find out about it. Or if you are an enthusiast, you'd hear about it from third parties, but never from Sony.

I still have my 60GB PS3 box and there is no mention anywhere on it that says you can install Linux on it. To claim that it does is a pure fabrication.

How's this:

The PlayStation 3 does not have Linux pre-installed. However, Sony included an option in the XMB menu to install other operating systems such as Linux.[7] Sony stated, "It was fully intended that you, a PS3 owner, could play games, watch movies, view photos, listen to music, and run a full-featured Linux operating system that transforms your PS3 into a home computer."[8]

Soon after the PlayStation 3 launched, Sony released "Other OS" in a PlayStation 3 System Software firmware up-date that allowed booting into Linux from the hard drive or from a Live CD that the distributor's kernel would boot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OtherOS

This is just a quick google search and the first link. I'll bet there is lots more proof out there that Sony intended and marketed this feature. This was not a case of Sony looking the other way when people did it, Sony endorsed it.

Wikipedia? WIKIPEDIA?!

I'm sorry, but I have to step back from this. I can't reply except to say how infuriating idiotic that comment is.

Hey comon don't be ignorant. Wikipedia itself isn't a valid source, but it's a perfectly good resource to find valid sources. For example, at the bottom of the page there's a link to:

http://www.playstation.com/ps3-openplatform/index.html

"As Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) does not develop or directly support a version of Linux for the PS3? system, SCE is pleased to provide links for the following Linux distributions that support the PS3? system:


Yellow Dog Linux
OpenSUSE
Fedora
Ubuntu
"

It's even in the frickin manual:

http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/ps3/current/settings/osinstall.html

 

[sindremaster]

I don?t have a PS3 and I'll admit I think the Other OS feature is rather silly. However this was marketed as a feature so I don?t see how it can simply be removed later on. As you say the option to not accept the firmware isn't much of an alternative given that it blocks you from other basic features.

Can you give any evidence where or how it was a marketed feature?

On no box, official site or ad was Other OS EVER advertised or marketed. Ever.

Sorry, it was not a marketed feature of the PS3. Like many features of the PS3, you had to go out of your way to find out about it. Or if you are an enthusiast, you'd hear about it from third parties, but never from Sony.

I still have my 60GB PS3 box and there is no mention anywhere on it that says you can install Linux on it. To claim that it does is a pure fabrication.

How's this:

The PlayStation 3 does not have Linux pre-installed. However, Sony included an option in the XMB menu to install other operating systems such as Linux.[7] Sony stated, "It was fully intended that you, a PS3 owner, could play games, watch movies, view photos, listen to music, and run a full-featured Linux operating system that transforms your PS3 into a home computer."[8]

Soon after the PlayStation 3 launched, Sony released "Other OS" in a PlayStation 3 System Software firmware up-date that allowed booting into Linux from the hard drive or from a Live CD that the distributor's kernel would boot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OtherOS

This is just a quick google search and the first link. I'll bet there is lots more proof out there that Sony intended and marketed this feature. This was not a case of Sony looking the other way when people did it, Sony endorsed it.

Wikipedia? WIKIPEDIA?!

I'm sorry, but I have to step back from this. I can't reply except to say how infuriating idiotic that comment is.

According to the manual, when Sony Computer Entertainment designed the PS3, "it was fully intended that you, a PS3 owner, could play games, watch movies, view photos, listen to music, and run a full-featured Linux operating system that transforms your PS3 into a home computer."

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6162316.html?tag=result;title;0

 

[WilliamRLBaker]

This is what you get from countries around that way...Norway, Sweden...etc its why places like the piratebay are based in those areas...very loose laws that literally give no real protection to buisnesses only the users.

 

[Labcoat Samurai]

Wasnt the removal of the os thing to combat piracy? Seeing as the ps3 has been cracked i dont think thats a problem anymore.

Excellent point. It'd possibly be a bit transparent, but maybe they could even earn some goodwill by reinstating the feature. The piracy cat is out of the bell that can't be unrung, to butcher some metaphors.

An aside: The captchas on this site are among the worst I've ever seen. I find myself having to reload a couple or three times to find something I'm sure about. I feel like I failed a Turing Test.

 

[Plurralbles]

Even if I was norwegian and the govt won it wouldn't matter because I bought the PS3 slim around christmas time... Could I even get the functionality?

 

[winter2]

When I heard that the PS3 had the other OS option I decided to buy it. Then the very next month I heard that they had just removed that option for some vague anti piracy reason.

Sony didn't get my money.

 

[Royas]

It was never removed.

You can just not update your console. You have every right not to. Since you were fully warned before updating that this would remove Other OS, this means that it is still technically a part of the system. So no law was broken. Moving on.

SNIP

So don't buy their shit.

If you deny them of profits then they will eventually get the message.

It is kinda hard to "not buy their shit" if you don't know until after you get screwed....

Then that's your fault for not having the foresight to figure out that they would do this.

Anyone with some fucking common sense could tell that they were going to remove Other OS down the line because of piracy.

Right, because advertising linux support should logically mean that linux support would be removed from the service. Clearly you are just looking for an angry response.

No, just giving to you how it is. There is nothing legally wrong with this. Morally? Probably.
But that's not the issue.

Morality is enforced by the consumers. So do your part so that we can get Other OS back.

Well, sounds like at least one country may disagree with you about the legality issue. It's just common sense, if you remove features from a product somebody already purchased, features that were advertised or even just acknowledged as existing, you may be running afoul of consumer protection laws. I'm betting that an impartial application of said laws in almost every country would find Sony's actions to be fraudulent and illegal.

And stating that it's the consumer's fault because they chose to apply an update is ridiculous. If you want to use the console as intended, making use of all of its features, you HAVE to download the updates. Otherwise, you have no access to the PSN store, no access to multiplayer, no access to demos or media, no access to game patches... Yes, you can use the console without using these things, but do you really want to gimp the console you paid so much money for? That's an unreasonable expectation.

Using the car as a parallel example, that's like telling someone that they can update their tires to get slightly better gas mileage, but the radio isn't going to work any longer. Yes, you don't need the radio to drive your car, but it's not reasonable to expect such a condition, especially since the radio was one of the features your car started with, that may have even influenced your decision about what car to purchase. It's a bit more than immoral, it's outright fraud. And it's time Sony got taken to task for it.

Go Norway.

 

[Andy Powell]

This is what you get from countries around that way...Norway, Sweden...etc its why places like the piratebay are based in those areas...very loose laws that literally give no real protection to buisnesses only the users.

Bravo! Excellent point.

 

[StBishop]

1. Go Norway.
2. OMFG KENYA!!!!

I'm listening to that song for the about... 6th time. It's still awesome.
I want to go to Kenya now.

 

[Andy Powell]

SNIP

Let's continue to use your car example. What if say Ford built a new 2012 model car that had a revolutionary remote keyless entry system? Then later, it was comprimised because some "enterprising" young men decided they should have full control of the technology because they bought it too. But then published their findings on the web. Now anyone could have access to your new car if they wanted to and alter other onboard features. You see where I'm going with this? If a feature has gone sour, and could lead to the comprimising of other features (like the PSN, and the user private data), it's both the right and the responcibility of the manufacturer to protect BOTH the consumers, AND their business by removing the feature if it can't be patched or closed off completely.

I know not every homebrewwer is a bad guy, but it's pretty obvious that the first bits of homebrew to roll out are always the ones that are out to cheat, steal, hack, and pirate. (Besides the NES emulators.. Seriously... What is up with everyone's obsession with those?)

 

[Rigs83]

Seriously? Who the hell cares anymore? if you want a computer, get a computer. If you want to play games get a ps3.

Simple, no?

Tell that to the Air Force [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/105767-U-S-Air-Force-Finishes-PS3-Supercomputer-of-Epic-Proportions] of America