Sony CEO: "Free" PSN Wasn't a Likely Target

[matrix3509]

Is it so hard to resist the urge to hack things? I mean, hell, the latest Pokemon game was supposed to be hack proof and someone put the ROM up within two hours or something.

See that? To me, that sounds like a challenge.

Like when my college told me that I couldn't get around their system to stop me from getting onto the escapist in my lunch break. Me and a friend had a look around, wrote a batch file that broke it and showed it to them.

People like a challenge.

...I don't get it. When people say 'You can't do this' or 'This is impossible', I don't get an uncontrollable urge to do it anyway/prove them wrong...

Let me tell you a little anecdote:

God created the first man, named Adam, then took a rib from Adam and made the first woman, named Eve. God said unto them, here is your Utopia you are free to do anything you please, but don't eat the fruit from that specific tree over there.

You seeing where this goes yet?

 

[Bullzeye421]

Didn't they remove Linux because people were using it to pirate games? And wasn't it Geohot that hacked the PS3 in the first place to restore Linux? And then didn't he go farther after that a crack the source code while Linux was already restored?

That's what I was curious about. Seems like a legit thing for sony to do if people were using it to steal from them.

 

[ProjectTrinity]

The lesson that Sony learned here isn't that what they did was "wrong", but rather that people will forget the root reason behind why they take out features in the first place in favor of pointing blame at Sony. [sarcasm] Because everyone knows loud mouth Geo had absolutely nothing to do with Sony removing Linux. Nope. In fact, it *must* be that Sony just used him as an excuse to get rid of it. I figured this all out in order to make my side completely in the right. ' -'[/sarcasm]

In short: Geo and the hackers responsible for the trolling can all kill themselves. It was pretty darn peaceful without them.

 

[Biosophilogical]

Is it so hard to resist the urge to hack things? I mean, hell, the latest Pokemon game was supposed to be hack proof and someone put the ROM up within two hours or something.

See that? To me, that sounds like a challenge.

Like when my college told me that I couldn't get around their system to stop me from getting onto the escapist in my lunch break. Me and a friend had a look around, wrote a batch file that broke it and showed it to them.

People like a challenge.

...I don't get it. When people say 'You can't do this' or 'This is impossible', I don't get an uncontrollable urge to do it anyway/prove them wrong...

I was told that I couldn't do a pro-gay marriage topic for my political speech in high school (Catholic school). I pushed, prodded, reasoned and stone-walled until they let me (got an A). Sure, one reason was that it was a good topic that I feel strongly about, but when they tell me that I can't do something, even though there is no good reason for them to stop me[footnote]I wasn't bashing the Catholic church, it was a politcal speech, about the political aspects of a political topic, and I knew that when I chose the topic I'd have to be delicate to avoid insult, so not only was there no anti-Catholic sentiment in there anywhere, I actually made sure that it couldn't be misconstrued to be insulting.[/footnote], I felt that I had to do it (and I'm very glad I did. I'd do it again in a heartbeat).

Then again, I can be freakishly competitive (I went four years in high school thinking I'd gotten voer being competitive, but one tutorial at uni with a table-wars multi-choice quiz and I was as competitive as I've ever been). I mean, I played chess, and I never got competitive about it ... maybe I just view it as more of a friendly game than an actual competition *thinks* ... that's probably it, but when I perceive something as a competition, I get really competitive (leg-bouncing, finger-tapping, adrenlin-pumping, everything)

 

[Stick Antolini]

So am I the only one surprised that hankman isn't making puns anymore. I for one am sad to see them go. T.T

 

[The Lugz]

Finally, if you were stupid enough to enter your personal information into the PSN then you deserved to have it stolen. I don't enter any personal info into any kind of online storage. That goes for passwords, email accounts, bank acount and credit card numbers, my browsers are cleaned every 2 hrs. Hell I don't even sign my credit cards so the woman at the supermarket has to ask me for I.D.

^^^ see he understands THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREEEEEEEE

it's Your personal information try protecting it yourself!

it's really not hard even if you want to use psn, or anything you don't trust that well's features just apply for a gaming account ( an extra bank account ) at your bank and transfer money into it to pay for games
it takes 2 minutes even if you got hacked there is no money in the account to take, the utter Worst case scenario is you loose the value of 1 game / service when you top it up then you know to change the details

also, it boggles my mind when I asked a few friends and they tell me they don't even have a savings account
.. REALLY ??
what happens if someone clears out your current account? you starve?
the faith people have in 'the system' blows my mind, honestly

be aware! be secure!

to quote I.T law, Jesus saves, God backs up!

and before people flame me,
I'm not saying it's 'your fault' I'm saying you can protect yourself quite effectively and very easily, so do it!

 

[MattAn24]

Can people please stop repeating this stupid urban myth? "suing a person for tampering with an item they own is kind of fucked up"
They didn't Sue him for that did they? hundreds of people have swapped fans, exchanged heat sinks etc etc, and they couldnt give it more than a passing care.
the point is that geohot tampered with his console - and then released the code.
For a comparison - If you owned a ford car - and someone suddenly showed the world how to make a skeleton key for free. Sure their reasoning is "now no one has to pay extortionate ford prices to get their master keys cut". And thats true. On the down side - now anyone can steal your car.

If all Geohot wanted to do was tamper with HIS console - he should have kept it to himself. For an example that people on here might care about, its the difference between learning to draw by copying a comic book artist (ie. drawing at home and tracing etc) and selling traces of their work as your own and making money off their talent and work (Rob Granito springs to mind).

That's not what happened at all.
Hotts was restoring a feature. That was the purpose of the firmware he released.

It was a sales pitch for the PS3, saying "you can install Linux and use these as computers!"

A whole bunch of people bought PS3s and never played a single game on them.
For 4 years, nobody even ATTEMPTED to hack the PS3.
Every other console, ever, in history, was hacked within a year.

Suddenly, Sony said, "OH HEY, you can no longer use those computers you bought from us."

That's fucking retarded. It's a VIDEO GAME CONSOLE. It PLAYS video games. That's what the PlayStation has done since it started! It's MADE by the gaming division of Sony.

If anyone honestly bought a PS3 with no intention of playing games or Bluray movies on it, get the fuck out of the gaming community and terrorize some other bastards who want to deal with your shit.

Seriously.

 

[Pvt Dylan]

The credit card information stuff is scary.. I barely play PS3, but I did and I added my credit card on it to but some Little Big Planet costumes for my sister... well I bought the Metal Gear Solid pack.... SHUT UP!!
Anyway, their going to be pretty disappointed when they find out I only have about 1 dollar left in my account.

 

[Jammy2003]

Can people please stop repeating this stupid urban myth? "suing a person for tampering with an item they own is kind of fucked up"
They didn't Sue him for that did they? hundreds of people have swapped fans, exchanged heat sinks etc etc, and they couldnt give it more than a passing care.
the point is that geohot tampered with his console - and then released the code.
For a comparison - If you owned a ford car - and someone suddenly showed the world how to make a skeleton key for free. Sure their reasoning is "now no one has to pay extortionate ford prices to get their master keys cut". And thats true. On the down side - now anyone can steal your car.

On a little note, Ford is a terrible example as most of their keys will at least unlock most other cars... Just as an aside there .

But I would also argue that the comparison still isn't the same at all. Yes Geohot releasing the code, while others tampering with the fan is on a very different level, but the reason he did it was as Sony canceled a service that some people used. It's effectively false advertisement to say a key feature is no longer allowed after you have sold the product to someone.
Yes not many people used it, but some people will have bought it for that purpose solely, and at the end of it were left with a glorified doorstop. If people were willing to trade install another OS and not get PSN access, then that's their choice.
Admittedly I'm not completely well read on it so maybe there was some fact that actually compromised their security in allowing it, but to me, it just looks like Sony crapping on the consumer a bit...

I don't get the impression that the reason EgoHot was cracking Sony's code is the same reason you think it was. I get the feeling that he's an attention whore and would crack a fart on a crowded subway platform if he though doing so would get him some attention.

Oh more than likely it was an attention thing as well, but seeing as using the hack disabled your use of PSN, I always figured that only those who really wanted the feature back would find it worth it. And you have to admit it was a dickish move for Sony to disable the feature that was the reason some people bought the console. They just rendered the US Airforce's supercomputer pretty much un-repairable, while pissing off many customers who both did and didn't even use the feature. All the bad PR would have made them a much likelier target, and this is now just a cry of sympathy. They just need to learn to handle things better really.

Can people please stop repeating this stupid urban myth? "suing a person for tampering with an item they own is kind of fucked up"
They didn't Sue him for that did they? hundreds of people have swapped fans, exchanged heat sinks etc etc, and they couldnt give it more than a passing care.
the point is that geohot tampered with his console - and then released the code.
For a comparison - If you owned a ford car - and someone suddenly showed the world how to make a skeleton key for free. Sure their reasoning is "now no one has to pay extortionate ford prices to get their master keys cut". And thats true. On the down side - now anyone can steal your car.

If all Geohot wanted to do was tamper with HIS console - he should have kept it to himself. For an example that people on here might care about, its the difference between learning to draw by copying a comic book artist (ie. drawing at home and tracing etc) and selling traces of their work as your own and making money off their talent and work (Rob Granito springs to mind).

That's not what happened at all.
Hotts was restoring a feature. That was the purpose of the firmware he released.

It was a sales pitch for the PS3, saying "you can install Linux and use these as computers!"

A whole bunch of people bought PS3s and never played a single game on them.
For 4 years, nobody even ATTEMPTED to hack the PS3.
Every other console, ever, in history, was hacked within a year.

Suddenly, Sony said, "OH HEY, you can no longer use those computers you bought from us."

That's fucking retarded. It's a VIDEO GAME CONSOLE. It PLAYS video games. That's what the PlayStation has done since it started! It's MADE by the gaming division of Sony.

If anyone honestly bought a PS3 with no intention of playing games or Bluray movies on it, get the fuck out of the gaming community and terrorize some other bastards who want to deal with your shit.

Seriously.

But Sony wanted their money, so they invited them by saying it was a feature. That like me selling you a car that acts like a transformer, then when you try to use your giant robot (the only reason you spent that ridiculous amount of money i asked for it) you can't, as it is only a car, that's what its built as. If you advertise it as a feature, people will buy it to use that feature. When you take it away, they get pissed off.

 

[Danceofmasks]

That's fucking retarded. It's a VIDEO GAME CONSOLE. It PLAYS video games. That's what the PlayStation has done since it started! It's MADE by the gaming division of Sony.

If anyone honestly bought a PS3 with no intention of playing games or Bluray movies on it, get the fuck out of the gaming community and terrorize some other bastards who want to deal with your shit.

Seriously.

THAT'S fucking retarded. It's a VIDEO GAME CONSOLE. It PLAYS video games.

Now, if Sony suddenly decides the PS3 no longer plays movies, DO YOU HAVE A FUCKING RIGHT TO BE UPSET?

"RUNS LINUX" is a feature of the PS3 when it was sold, exactly the same as being able to play blu-rays.

 

[MattAn24]

That's fucking retarded. It's a VIDEO GAME CONSOLE. It PLAYS video games. That's what the PlayStation has done since it started! It's MADE by the gaming division of Sony.

If anyone honestly bought a PS3 with no intention of playing games or Bluray movies on it, get the fuck out of the gaming community and terrorize some other bastards who want to deal with your shit.

Seriously.

THAT'S fucking retarded. It's a VIDEO GAME CONSOLE. It PLAYS video games.

Now, if Sony suddenly decides the PS3 no longer plays movies, DO YOU HAVE A FUCKING RIGHT TO BE UPSET?

"RUNS LINUX" is a feature of the PS3 when it was sold, exactly the same as being able to play blu-rays.

Read further down. I note Bluray movies as well. It plays Bluray movies and games. It's what it does. The PS2, etc didn't NEED Linux, why should any other video game console?

A very vocal minority used it for running Linux. The MAJORITY are actual gamers, who bought it because it's a PlayStation, which has played video games for MANY YEARS.

You're buying the console, yes. You OWN that console, yes. YOU DO NOT OWN SONY'S TECHNOLOGY. It is well within their right to remove/refuse access to anything on THEIR TECHNOLOGY that is causing issues. Do whatever the fuck you like to the CONSOLE. Tweak a setting, update fans, whatever. That's YOUR box. But the tech that runs it IS Sony's.

Fucking hell, extremist hackers/elitist wankers piss me off..

 

[MattAn24]

And you have to admit it was a dickish move for Sony to disable the feature that was the reason some people bought the console. They just rendered the US Airforce's supercomputer pretty much un-repairable, while pissing off many customers who both did and didn't even use the feature.

Incorrect. Not regarding the US Air Force's supercomputer, that's a different issue. What's incorrect is that Sony pissed off customers that DIDN'T use Linux. That's absolute bullshit.

They didn't use Linux, therefore don't care for it. Y'know who THEY'RE pissed off with? The fuckers who hacked the system and fucked with THEIR online gaming.

There's an extremist hacker community that's only pissing off actual gamers, no matter what they do.

 

[JDKJ]

Can people please stop repeating this stupid urban myth? "suing a person for tampering with an item they own is kind of fucked up"
They didn't Sue him for that did they? hundreds of people have swapped fans, exchanged heat sinks etc etc, and they couldnt give it more than a passing care.
the point is that geohot tampered with his console - and then released the code.
For a comparison - If you owned a ford car - and someone suddenly showed the world how to make a skeleton key for free. Sure their reasoning is "now no one has to pay extortionate ford prices to get their master keys cut". And thats true. On the down side - now anyone can steal your car.

On a little note, Ford is a terrible example as most of their keys will at least unlock most other cars... Just as an aside there .

But I would also argue that the comparison still isn't the same at all. Yes Geohot releasing the code, while others tampering with the fan is on a very different level, but the reason he did it was as Sony canceled a service that some people used. It's effectively false advertisement to say a key feature is no longer allowed after you have sold the product to someone.
Yes not many people used it, but some people will have bought it for that purpose solely, and at the end of it were left with a glorified doorstop. If people were willing to trade install another OS and not get PSN access, then that's their choice.
Admittedly I'm not completely well read on it so maybe there was some fact that actually compromised their security in allowing it, but to me, it just looks like Sony crapping on the consumer a bit...

I don't get the impression that the reason EgoHot was cracking Sony's code is the same reason you think it was. I get the feeling that he's an attention whore and would crack a fart on a crowded subway platform if he though doing so would get him some attention.

Oh more than likely it was an attention thing as well, but seeing as using the hack disabled your use of PSN, I always figured that only those who really wanted the feature back would find it worth it. And you have to admit it was a dickish move for Sony to disable the feature that was the reason some people bought the console. They just rendered the US Airforce's supercomputer pretty much un-repairable, while pissing off many customers who both did and didn't even use the feature. All the bad PR would have made them a much likelier target, and this is now just a cry of sympathy. They just need to learn to handle things better really.

I don't think it's true that employing Hotz' crack file would disable your use of PSN. What makes you think that?

The USAF's PS3 aren't "un-repairable." They can still be repaired. What the can't be is "replaced" because Sony no longer sell PS3s with OtherOS.

 

[jackpipsam]

Sony had this coming and now it happened maybe they will treat there customers with a bit more respect

 

[Jammy2003]

And you have to admit it was a dickish move for Sony to disable the feature that was the reason some people bought the console. They just rendered the US Airforce's supercomputer pretty much un-repairable, while pissing off many customers who both did and didn't even use the feature.

Incorrect. Not regarding the US Air Force's supercomputer, that's a different issue. What's incorrect is that Sony pissed off customers that DIDN'T use Linux. That's absolute bullshit.

They didn't use Linux, therefore don't care for it. Y'know who THEY'RE pissed off with? The fuckers who hacked the system and fucked with THEIR online gaming.

There's an extremist hacker community that's only pissing off actual gamers, no matter what they do.

No, I don't think it is bullshit. The MAJORITY of people who didn't use Linux wouldn't be pissed off, but some of those who didn't would still be pissed off at the fact that Sony decided to cut this legitimate feature after advertising it. Its effectively false advertisement to sell something saying it has a capability to do something and then suddenly it isn't. Not excusing the hackers, what they did was completely out of order to affect the customers of Sony, but I'm just saying that Sony was also in the wrong to pull that feature after people would have bought it for that sole purpose. Hack to restore it by all means, but hacking the servers to get customer data was WAY outta line.

Its not the act of pulling the feature that would piss of those who don't use the feature, it is the attitude behind it. "You only rent our system. You own the box but none of its functionality, we can do what we like with it."

Can people please stop repeating this stupid urban myth? "suing a person for tampering with an item they own is kind of fucked up"
They didn't Sue him for that did they? hundreds of people have swapped fans, exchanged heat sinks etc etc, and they couldnt give it more than a passing care.
the point is that geohot tampered with his console - and then released the code.
For a comparison - If you owned a ford car - and someone suddenly showed the world how to make a skeleton key for free. Sure their reasoning is "now no one has to pay extortionate ford prices to get their master keys cut". And thats true. On the down side - now anyone can steal your car.

On a little note, Ford is a terrible example as most of their keys will at least unlock most other cars... Just as an aside there .

But I would also argue that the comparison still isn't the same at all. Yes Geohot releasing the code, while others tampering with the fan is on a very different level, but the reason he did it was as Sony canceled a service that some people used. It's effectively false advertisement to say a key feature is no longer allowed after you have sold the product to someone.
Yes not many people used it, but some people will have bought it for that purpose solely, and at the end of it were left with a glorified doorstop. If people were willing to trade install another OS and not get PSN access, then that's their choice.
Admittedly I'm not completely well read on it so maybe there was some fact that actually compromised their security in allowing it, but to me, it just looks like Sony crapping on the consumer a bit...

I don't get the impression that the reason EgoHot was cracking Sony's code is the same reason you think it was. I get the feeling that he's an attention whore and would crack a fart on a crowded subway platform if he though doing so would get him some attention.

Oh more than likely it was an attention thing as well, but seeing as using the hack disabled your use of PSN, I always figured that only those who really wanted the feature back would find it worth it. And you have to admit it was a dickish move for Sony to disable the feature that was the reason some people bought the console. They just rendered the US Airforce's supercomputer pretty much un-repairable, while pissing off many customers who both did and didn't even use the feature. All the bad PR would have made them a much likelier target, and this is now just a cry of sympathy. They just need to learn to handle things better really.

I don't think it's true that employing Hotz' crack file would disable your use of PSN. What makes you think that?

The USAF's PS3 aren't "un-repairable." They can still be repaired. What the can't be is "replaced" because Sony no longer sell PS3s with OtherOS.

Oh, could be my mistake, that was my understanding of it, that one of their updates meant that to have tampered with your software meant that PSN was disabled. If so, my bad, but apparently it still puts you at risk of legal action which is a fair gamble.

That's true, but it's still kinda not the point. Things burn out beyond repair sometimes, and the cost of maintaining it has just increased a massive amount. The cheaper cost being the main reason to build a supercomputer from PS3 instead of getting a custom built one in the first place... It just seems like Sony is only affecting the customer, not any hackers. If Hackers can beat their online security, they will work around this removal of Linux. As they did, evidently...

 

[JDKJ]

And you have to admit it was a dickish move for Sony to disable the feature that was the reason some people bought the console. They just rendered the US Airforce's supercomputer pretty much un-repairable, while pissing off many customers who both did and didn't even use the feature.

Incorrect. Not regarding the US Air Force's supercomputer, that's a different issue. What's incorrect is that Sony pissed off customers that DIDN'T use Linux. That's absolute bullshit.

They didn't use Linux, therefore don't care for it. Y'know who THEY'RE pissed off with? The fuckers who hacked the system and fucked with THEIR online gaming.

There's an extremist hacker community that's only pissing off actual gamers, no matter what they do.

No, I don't think it is bullshit. The MAJORITY of people who didn't use Linux wouldn't be pissed off, but some of those who didn't would still be pissed off at the fact that Sony decided to cut this legitimate feature after advertising it. Its effectively false advertisement to sell something saying it has a capability to do something and then suddenly it isn't. Not excusing the hackers, what they did was completely out of order to affect the customers of Sony, but I'm just saying that Sony was also in the wrong to pull that feature after people would have bought it for that sole purpose. Hack to restore it by all means, but hacking the servers to get customer data was WAY outta line.

Its not the act of pulling the feature that would piss of those who don't use the feature, it is the attitude behind it. "You only rent our system. You own the box but none of its functionality, we can do what we like with it."

Can people please stop repeating this stupid urban myth? "suing a person for tampering with an item they own is kind of fucked up"
They didn't Sue him for that did they? hundreds of people have swapped fans, exchanged heat sinks etc etc, and they couldnt give it more than a passing care.
the point is that geohot tampered with his console - and then released the code.
For a comparison - If you owned a ford car - and someone suddenly showed the world how to make a skeleton key for free. Sure their reasoning is "now no one has to pay extortionate ford prices to get their master keys cut". And thats true. On the down side - now anyone can steal your car.

On a little note, Ford is a terrible example as most of their keys will at least unlock most other cars... Just as an aside there .

But I would also argue that the comparison still isn't the same at all. Yes Geohot releasing the code, while others tampering with the fan is on a very different level, but the reason he did it was as Sony canceled a service that some people used. It's effectively false advertisement to say a key feature is no longer allowed after you have sold the product to someone.
Yes not many people used it, but some people will have bought it for that purpose solely, and at the end of it were left with a glorified doorstop. If people were willing to trade install another OS and not get PSN access, then that's their choice.
Admittedly I'm not completely well read on it so maybe there was some fact that actually compromised their security in allowing it, but to me, it just looks like Sony crapping on the consumer a bit...

I don't get the impression that the reason EgoHot was cracking Sony's code is the same reason you think it was. I get the feeling that he's an attention whore and would crack a fart on a crowded subway platform if he though doing so would get him some attention.

Oh more than likely it was an attention thing as well, but seeing as using the hack disabled your use of PSN, I always figured that only those who really wanted the feature back would find it worth it. And you have to admit it was a dickish move for Sony to disable the feature that was the reason some people bought the console. They just rendered the US Airforce's supercomputer pretty much un-repairable, while pissing off many customers who both did and didn't even use the feature. All the bad PR would have made them a much likelier target, and this is now just a cry of sympathy. They just need to learn to handle things better really.

I don't think it's true that employing Hotz' crack file would disable your use of PSN. What makes you think that?

The USAF's PS3 aren't "un-repairable." They can still be repaired. What the can't be is "replaced" because Sony no longer sell PS3s with OtherOS.

Oh, could be my mistake, that was my understanding of it, that one of their updates meant that to have tampered with your software meant that PSN was disabled. If so, my bad, but apparently it still puts you at risk of legal action which is a fair gamble.

That's true, but it's still kinda not the point. Things burn out beyond repair sometimes, and the cost of maintaining it has just increased a massive amount. The cheaper cost being the main reason to build a supercomputer from PS3 instead of getting a custom built one in the first place... It just seems like Sony is only affecting the customer, not any hackers. If Hackers can beat their online security, they will work around this removal of Linux. As they did, evidently...

That you don't own the software in a console and are not free to do with it what you want is a legal fact. You don't own it. You merely license it. That's true not just for Sony's console. It's also true for Microsoft's and Nintendo's consoles. And it's true for most all major software that's found inside a piece of hardware. You don't own your copy of Windows or MacOS. You're merely licensed to use them. You have absolutely no legal right to re-write that software's code in order to restore a removed feature. None whatsoever. If you think you're a victim of false advertising, then you can sue for false advertising.

As to the USAF's PS3s, there's no guarantee that when you buy a product today, the same product will be available for purchase three years from now. If Sony had kept the OtherOS feature in a PS3, but decided three years later to stop making PS3s altogether (which is their prerogative), the USAF would be as assed-out then as they are assed-out now. If they bought a bunch of PS3s with OtherOS thinking that they'd always be able to buy replacement PS3s with OtherOS, they're retarded for thinking that.

 

[Jammy2003]

That you don't own the software in a console and are not free to do with it what you want is a legal fact. You don't own it. You merely license it. That's true not just for Sony's console. It's also true for Microsoft's and Nintendo's consoles. And it's true for most all major software that's found inside a piece of hardware. You don't own your copy of Windows or MacOS. You're merely licensed to use them. You have absolutely no legal right to re-write that software's code in order to restore a removed feature. None whatsoever. If you think you're a victim of false advertising, then you can sue for false advertising.

As to the USAF's PS3s, there's no guarantee that when you buy a product today, the same product will be available for purchase three years from now. If Sony had kept the OtherOS feature in a PS3, but decided three years later to stop making PS3s altogether (which is their prerogative), the USAF would be as assed-out then as they are assed-out now. If they bought a bunch of PS3s with OtherOS thinking that they'd always be able to buy replacement PS3s with OtherOS, they're retarded for thinking that.

And that top paragraph is part of the problem people have. If you do not own any of the software that comes with it, and it is illegal to tamper with it in any way, then surely the product is overpriced? Because what are you paying for really? The hardware? Because apparently the software is loaned to us out of the goodness of their hearts. So when you pay your £300, what do you actually own from it? And if someone chooses to change that software to suit themselves, that's not allowed either. The legal ramifications is exactly what people are getting annoyed about, it shouldn't be illegal to change these things on your own console. I know its not legal, and that's exactly the problem.

Also, do you honestly believe a false advertising case would make it to court? With the legal department Sony has? You'd bankrupt before you could get anywhere close to justice, and that is wrong in itself. And what's wrong with thinking that the product should be the same-ish later? Maybe with extra features but certainly not less. And PS3's will be made for years, until the PS4, so you could expect a lifetime of a few of years at least, which is when a more powerful one can be built anyway, so its time to replace. Sure there is no legal obligation for it to remain so, but it makes no sense to remove useful features really. So if thinking that maximizing the functionality of the product for the customers makes me a retard, then stick me in a home, as clearly I have an IQ of a cabbage.

 

[JDKJ]

That you don't own the software in a console and are not free to do with it what you want is a legal fact. You don't own it. You merely license it. That's true not just for Sony's console. It's also true for Microsoft's and Nintendo's consoles. And it's true for most all major software that's found inside a piece of hardware. You don't own your copy of Windows or MacOS. You're merely licensed to use them. You have absolutely no legal right to re-write that software's code in order to restore a removed feature. None whatsoever. If you think you're a victim of false advertising, then you can sue for false advertising.

As to the USAF's PS3s, there's no guarantee that when you buy a product today, the same product will be available for purchase three years from now. If Sony had kept the OtherOS feature in a PS3, but decided three years later to stop making PS3s altogether (which is their prerogative), the USAF would be as assed-out then as they are assed-out now. If they bought a bunch of PS3s with OtherOS thinking that they'd always be able to buy replacement PS3s with OtherOS, they're retarded for thinking that.

And that top paragraph is part of the problem people have. If you do not own any of the software that comes with it, and it is illegal to tamper with it in any way, then surely the product is overpriced? Because what are you paying for really? The hardware? Because apparently the software is loaned to us out of the goodness of their hearts. So when you pay your £300, what do you actually own from it? And if someone chooses to change that software to suit themselves, that's not allowed either. The legal ramifications is exactly what people are getting annoyed about, it shouldn't be illegal to change these things on your own console. I know its not legal, and that's exactly the problem.

Also, do you honestly believe a false advertising case would make it to court? With the legal department Sony has? You'd bankrupt before you could get anywhere close to justice, and that is wrong in itself. And what's wrong with thinking that the product should be the same-ish later? Maybe with extra features but certainly not less. And PS3's will be made for years, until the PS4, so you could expect a lifetime of a few of years at least, which is when a more powerful one can be built anyway, so its time to replace. Sure there is no legal obligation for it to remain so, but it makes no sense to remove useful features really. So if thinking that maximizing the functionality of the product for the customers makes me a retard, then stick me in a home, as clearly I have an IQ of a cabbage.

It did make sense for Sony to remove OtherOS. They did it because, according to them, users were using it to bypass the mechanism that locks out pirated games and DVDs. That's why gamers can't have pretty things. Because they tend to abuse a good thing.