PS3 Pirates Counter Sony's Anti-Piracy Counter-Update

[anyGould]

The pirates obviously have some good programmers on their side. If those guys actually used their skills for something good (as Mr. Funk noted) they'd be sure to make tons of money. Enough that they could afford to pay for the games, and wouldn't need to pirate them in the first place (hell, they could buy copies for all their friends too). I'm genuinely starting to think people like this just get their jollies from pissing off electronics companies.

Not going to say that doesn't come into it (who doesn't like "sticking it to the man" once in a while?), but I always get the sense this is the modern equivalent of "souping up" an old car. It's not necessary, but people like to tinker. Add the challenge of being told "here's this piece of hardware RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU, and we've made sure you can't do anything with it" will definitely bring out the "wanna bet?" crowd.

 

[Lord_Gremlin]

A bit of mistake in this news which has been corrected on other sites. They can't hack 3.50 firmware. They found a way to downgrade firmware back to 3.40 and before that. Pirates can't run any new games, but they still can run old ones.

 

[RvLeshrac]

The pirates obviously have some good programmers on their side. If those guys actually used their skills for something good (as Mr. Funk noted) they'd be sure to make tons of money. Enough that they could afford to pay for the games, and wouldn't need to pirate them in the first place (hell, they could buy copies for all their friends too). I'm genuinely starting to think people like this just get their jollies from pissing off electronics companies.

I'm partial to the belief that they most likely can afford the stuff, anyway, and are just doing it for the giggles and/or challenge of it.

Most of them work at low-wage jobs. Why? Because they don't have bits of rubbish hanging on the wall which state exactly how much they know.

Since most employers outside of Microsoft and Google will only hire you based on how many little slips of paper you've been given, rather than basing their hiring decisions on your skills and abilities, they're essentially stuck in mediocre positions until some security firm notices them.

There's also the fact that corporations layer so much crap on top of solid developers that they're no longer able to write a solid line of code without twelve thousand committee meetings the week before.

 

[Misho-]

If these determined pirates would only put their attention to other things, we'd probably be on Mars by now.

Dude... Seriously... Too True and sad at the same time... I fucking hate them pirates.

The Space Race finished..... ages ago. But, yes, space envy.

That large hadron collider thing would have worked 5 years ago if the Pirates had worked on that.

Lol yeah... Well I admit Space pirates are so awesome in my mind, they can divide by zero and all... But why won't they use their Gifts for humanity instead of sticking to the "man" like in World of Goo.

 

[Covarr]

Because it's only about piracy, right? I mostly just use my hacked PS3 to play SNES games which I've even dumped myself with my Retrode, since my real SNES broke a few years ago.

P.S Thanks

 

[John Funk]

It's a vicious circle. An exercise in futility that only shows that this method of DRM isn't working. Stop investing in this failed scheme and get to work on something better, Sony, if you don't want people hacking your system.

Actually, I'd say that a method of DRM that went unhacked for a good five years did a pretty good job, wouldn't you?

Put another way: A determined thief can break pretty much any lock you have on your apartment/house/whatever, just as a determined pirate can crack any DRM. But you wouldn't say that locks and home security are pointless, would you? They stop someone from just idly wandering in and walking out with your stuff. Similarly, DRM may not stop a determined pirate, but it probably does its job in dissuading some people who think "eh, cracking it is too complicated."

So no, I'd think that for this, it actually does its job pretty well.

 

[Jeronus]

Someday, this war will end and neither side will be happy with the outcome.

 

[ShadowKatt]

Build a better mousetrap, breed a better mouse. Who doesn't get this?

 

[PeePantz]

Back in September, Sony updated the PS3 firmware to version 3.42 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/103273-New-PS3-Update-Kills-Jailbreak] in order to kill the functionality of PS Jailbreak, a USB mod tool that allowed users to play illegally copied games from the PS3's hard drive. It continued with version 3.50, which hit along with EA's Medal of Honor.

I'm not sure why Medal of Honor was mentioned. Very unnecessary. If it was for a time reference, the date or even late October would suffice.

I haven't touched my PS3 in a long time and this whole piracy update is a huge reason. I don't like how they keep downgrading their system with new "updates" that take soooooo long. I'd rather just turn on my XBox where the updates take from 2 seconds to 5 minutes (when they change their whole interface) and they don't actually take away anything from my system. I really wish I had the desire to play my PS3 because I did really like it.

 

[Popido]

Oh hey, another pirate threat..

Why cant these two sides just realise that they are not an threat to eachother and just live on in peace. Im ashamed that they actually let anti-piracy firms to toy them around and make them waste money by inserting fear of terror on them.

These things has been studied and proofed to be lies, but people still yet rather listens these fearmongers that just keep pushing false probaganda to this neverending war to make profit out of this confusion.

Use the damn Google!!

 

[SaturdayS]

There's no games on mars. I'd stick with piracy.

Not yet... Thanks to pirates...

We has them now thanks to pirates. Available in sandstorm free local.

 

[Misho-]

Aright... If you say so, still I rather side against pirates than with pirates, 'cause they are just being dicks at this point.

 

[Heart of Darkness]

It's a vicious circle. An exercise in futility that only shows that this method of DRM isn't working. Stop investing in this failed scheme and get to work on something better, Sony, if you don't want people hacking your system.

Dude I have not seen you post for months! Hey!

Anyway, meh. I don't know, I don't think the people that pirate stuff like this would be willing to put there skills to use elsewhere no matter how much you try to change them. That is of course if they are not doing anything else already.

Those guys are fucking impressive. However, i'm glad i'm not them. Can't imagen getting much chicks with skills such as those, huh?

Actually, I have been posting: in forum games in forums that have fallen out of the queue for some reason. Anyway.

I was mainly referring to Sony in my post, but the people who are hacking this should be able to put their skills to use to create systems that are more protected from hacks like this. And you don't know if they're getting girls or not--not all programmers conform to the stereotype of pasty white nerd living in mom's basement. >.> Then again, it wouldn't surprise me if they were.

It's a vicious circle. An exercise in futility that only shows that this method of DRM isn't working. Stop investing in this failed scheme and get to work on something better, Sony, if you don't want people hacking your system.

Actually, I'd say that a method of DRM that went unhacked for a good five years did a pretty good job, wouldn't you?

Put another way: A determined thief can break pretty much any lock you have on your apartment/house/whatever, just as a determined pirate can crack any DRM. But you wouldn't say that locks and home security are pointless, would you? They stop someone from just idly wandering in and walking out with your stuff. Similarly, DRM may not stop a determined pirate, but it probably does its job in dissuading some people who think "eh, cracking it is too complicated."

So no, I'd think that for this, it actually does its job pretty well.

Oh, no, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that DRM's useless. If the DRM on the PS3 served it's purpose for five years, then that's fantastic--it means we're slowly moving towards the ideal goal of unhackable software/firmware. I'm just saying that Sony's probably going to be better off accepting the fact that the PS3 has been hacked and putting that knowledge to use when they craft the DRM for the PS4 or the next PSP.

To extend your analogy, a lock on a house that works for five years might have served its job admirably, but you're not going to keep using it once someone breaks it. Sure, you can fix it, but unless you start replacing parts, it's going to be structurally weaker than it what it was before it broke. Sony's response to the hacks seems to just be slapping duct tape on the lock and hoping that that's enough to stop people from breaking into their home.

It did it's job well, but now it's finished. It's been hacked. Unless the programming behind the DRM is completely rewritten, the pirates are just going to keep finding their way in.

 

[DTWolfwood]

the article reads like the Pirates are losing. That is news to me! Go Sony.

So they figured out how to de-patch a PS3 but still havent figured out how to get 3.42+ to work. Interesting development indeed.

 

[Loonerinoes]

The pirates obviously have some good programmers on their side. If those guys actually used their skills for something good (as Mr. Funk noted) they'd be sure to make tons of money. Enough that they could afford to pay for the games, and wouldn't need to pirate them in the first place (hell, they could buy copies for all their friends too). I'm genuinely starting to think people like this just get their jollies from pissing off electronics companies.

*Shepard Renegade voice* You assume everyone on this planet wants to get rich and have money. That's cute.