Sony Legally Threatens German PS3 Hackers

[Chaos Marine]

This is bullshit. Fuck Sony. If someone buys a piece of hardware then it's there's to do with what they want.

 

[RicoADF]

I never realized I was in such a tiny minority here. I happen to believe that when you buy a piece of hardware, you're allowed to do whatever you want with it because it's yours. When I buy a Dell computer, Dell has no right to tell me that I am not allowed to install Linux on it. Sony is selling me a piece of hardware. If I want to hack it and turn it into a super car stereo, then that's my prerogative and Sony has no right to tell me I can't.

Correct, but what they are doing here is targeting people who are buying a device that allows pirating, pure and simple. If it allowed the other OS option or did something else then I'd agree with you, but a device made to allow people to steal games only , very thin ice there.

This is bullshit. Fuck Sony. If someone buys a piece of hardware then it's there's to do with what they want.

They are not allowed to steal games, as stated above its not modifying the console their after, its pirating games.

 

[Leafy-Cod]

Fuck you sony, let people hack it, just ban them from the rest of the world, some folks like to use homebrew, wait for them to actually pirate something before fining them, you stupid dicks. Oh, and fuck everyone here who says this is good/ok/has support from them, you're a bunch of spineless idiots content to just do what every single law tells you to no matter how dumb, and don't come bitching here when you get a ticket for jay walking.

what do you think people are going to do if they have the hack, coz i can tell you that the majority of them are not gunna sit around thinking "oh i have the hack, but i wont use it for pirated games because that means i have the moral high-ground" wake up and smell the fucking roses mate. If you bought the hack, you intend to pirate or use pirated material, which directly damages the games industry. Before you reply with some ol' BS about how its so people can use their own content, thats a minority, the majority of these pricks want to use if so they can just download games for free and play them

 

[oliver.begg]

i wonder if you will all have this support for "anti hackerism" if some company, say ubisoft made it impossible for you to play game with out a constant, stable internet connection and all saves had to be cloud. particularly, if all this constant internet was metered as it is for me so eats the broadband allocation for the month.

But you say "They would never do this". my response look at ac2 or settlers 7. They will use the actions of a minority to impede the actions of the majority in the name of copy protection

i'm not pro hacker or pirate just anti extreme DRM, cd keys, online activation = fine
constant internet, legal virus(tages,securom) = pain in ass

also the cracked stuff is usually more assessable and user friendly then the brought stuff

 

[Warnolo]

I just want mods on my PS3

Xboxers have a tool to convert bmps into images for Smackdown vs raw 2010

 

[SwagLordYoloson]

so now all they need to do is sell the item in 2 parts, have the person assemble them at their house and they are not breaking the contact, as they are importing two pieces that don't work by themselves

 

[SwagLordYoloson]

This is bullshit. Fuck Sony. If someone buys a piece of hardware then it's there's to do with what they want.

Only if this was the case, sadly its not and we all have to live in a world were if you buy a program for your console or computer the company has the right to be able to inactivate or revoke your copy with out any legal evidence being required, i wish EULAs were never born.

 

[Asuka Soryu]

This is sort of like complaining that cops arrested you for shooting people as you shouted at them, "it's my property, I can do whatever I want with it".

 

[Olikunmissile]

I can respect this decision.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

Eh, hackers will always find a way.

Was that an Overlord reference?

OT: First Blizzard and now Sony? They're getting smarter.

 

[SpaceMedarotterX]

Guys, every time you buy a piece of hardware, you enter into a contract with the hardware owner outlining what you can and can not do to it.

They have every right to sue them for it, instead there opting to go "That was bad, don't do it again and we're cool"

They aren't the RIAA, they aren't going "I want an utterly unreasonable amount of money from you that will ruin you, everyone you know and everyone you will know."

This is fair.

Imagine if you were caught breaking into someones house, not to do anything mind you. Or maybe you were going to spruce up a room while they slept.

If that guy comes out, he can sue you for trespassing, or he can say "bugger off and don't come back" and you can skip on your merry way.

Yes Other OS being removed was bad, especially since as far as I can tell there was never any Piracy when Linux was around. But you know maybe if you petitioned to Sony, got signatures and sent them in, they would enable it.

I bet you a whole wad of Cash the Airforce's PS3s that they used for processing still have Other OS even though there updated fully with Firmware. I'm sure Sony gives them a special feature.

But the response to the loss of Other OS was to enable pirating. Wow.

 

[Xanthious]

I, for one, hate it when I can't use my purchases the way I want. Why, just last week I used a lock pick I bought PERFECTLY LEGALLY to get into someone's home, and those lousy cops told me that it was "illegal."

How lame is that?

Honestly, if you object, don't buy the games. Don't buy the systems. Breaking the law just makes you look like the bad guy in things. If you mod or deal with mods or other methods of altering protected intellectual properties, you also encourage them to believe their properties are more valuable.

That's the thing though, you are allowed to buy lock picks, that's not illegal. However, using them to break in and rob someone's house is. Just because you own lock picks doesn't mean your going to start robbing homes now does it? Hell I can buy a big box of piano wire and a book titled Strangling Hookers in 12 Easy Steps but until the hooker corpses start bobbing around in the river I'm just a guy with strange reading habits and a box of wire.

These people who are being strong armed into signing these contracts did nothing wrong. They bought a USB dongle, that's all. Would they have pirated games? Who's to say, but the act of buying that device doesn't constitute piracy regardless of how limited it's uses may or may not have been. Hell what's next is Sony going to make everyone that owns an iPhone or Android device sign the same contract? Cause guess what, you can do the same thing with a smart phone. Is owning a smart phone illegal now? Just to be sure all of you cheering this that own an PS3 and an iPhone should email Sony and ask for one of those contracts just to be safe.

As I said earlier if you can't see what kind of slippery slope this is then the sixth grade was probably the longest four years of your life. You would have to be mentally deficient not to see it. Sony could likely give fuck all about piracy in the big picture. This is about control and they want as much of it as they can trick the drooling masses to gleefully hand over. Sure right now it's just a usb dongle. Next time it might be third party controllers. After that maybe they decide that you should only be allowed to use your games on a single individual console because loaning your games to your friends might be costing them sales.

By all means though, just keep rolling over and showing Sony and their like your bellies because I'm sure once they have all the control they won't possibly use it to milk every last dime out of you. Not at all, never. . . .

If you people want to see what's in your future all you need do is look to the PC market. Don't think for a second that M$, Sony and Nintendo wouldn't leap at the opportunity to turn the console market into something similar. Will you still be applauding Sony when you have limited installs and are required to be online to play the single player portion of your games?

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

This is bullshit. Fuck Sony. If someone buys a piece of hardware then it's there's to do with what they want.

Except if that piece of hardware is used to hack their game consoles, at which point they count as someone hackingtheir game system abd that's illegal. It's like buying a burnt DVD of any movie. You can argue that they just bought a movie, but it still falls under the illegal copy and distribution of copyrighted materials.They aided in the distribution, and they're still hacking. Considering hackers are clever for finding loopholes in SONY's system, they can be quite stupid when it comes to what's legal and what they simply choose to ignore.

Fucking Christ, did I just come to The Escapist or a god damned veal plant? The uninformed and continual bleating of "Piracy and Hackers are all bad" is as ignorant as it is untrue.

Do you morons really want these companies able to tell you what you can and can't use on a piece of hardware you legally bought and paid for? These companies want complete and total control over every little aspect and the vast majority of people in this thread seem perfectly content to let these companies do whatever the hell they want as long as they say it's in the name of stopping "piracy".

Please I challenge anyone to tell me what any of these people did wrong. They ordered a USB dongle, that's all. Last I checked that wasn't illegal in most civilized countries.

So now Sony is allowed to tell us what sort of hardware peripherals we are allowed to use? Great! I can't wait until Sony starts suing you brain dead automatons for using third party controllers or maybe they don't like the wires your using to hook up your PS3 because they aren't Sony approved. Well time to sign a paper saying you won't step out of line again. This is the kind of control you want to just hand over?

It's great that the vast majority here are happy to be plunger raped as long as it's in the name of combating the evil pirates. I mean hell Sony HAS to have our best interests at heart after all so we should just bend over and take it til they grow tired I guess. Be honest are you people mentally deficient or just spineless?

I truely love the dedication you put into your post, but look at the dongle and the purpose. When the object says "PS3 Break" on it, that's a fair indicator for hacking. So yes, hacking the system is wrong. You might not have written the program, but simply placing the device or having the intention of placing the device into your PS3 is hacking it, you become just as liable as the manufactor.

Oh, and it's not LEGALLY purchasing if what you're purchasing is illegal.

Oh, and every third party controller you buy that is PS3 capable is ALREADY approved by SONY for sale.

 

[Something Amyss]

I, for one, hate it when I can't use my purchases the way I want. Why, just last week I used a lock pick I bought PERFECTLY LEGALLY to get into someone's home, and those lousy cops told me that it was "illegal."

How lame is that?

Honestly, if you object, don't buy the games. Don't buy the systems. Breaking the law just makes you look like the bad guy in things. If you mod or deal with mods or other methods of altering protected intellectual properties, you also encourage them to believe their properties are more valuable.

That's the thing though, you are allowed to buy lock picks, that's not illegal. However, using them to break in and rob someone's house is. Just because you own lock picks doesn't mean your going to start robbing homes now does it? Hell I can buy a big box of piano wire and a book titled Strangling Hookers in 12 Easy Steps but until the hooker corpses start bobbing around in the river I'm just a guy with strange reading habits and a box of wire.

These people who are being strong armed into signing these contracts did nothing wrong. They bought a USB dongle, that's all. Would they have pirated games? Who's to say, but the act of buying that device doesn't constitute piracy regardless of how limited it's uses may or may not have been. Hell what's next is Sony going to make everyone that owns an iPhone or Android device sign the same contract? Cause guess what, you can do the same thing with a smart phone. Is owning a smart phone illegal now? Just to be sure all of you cheering this that own an PS3 and an iPhone should email Sony and ask for one of those contracts just to be safe.

As I said earlier if you can't see what kind of slippery slope this is then the sixth grade was probably the longest four years of your life. You would have to be mentally deficient not to see it. Sony could likely give fuck all about piracy in the big picture. This is about control and they want as much of it as they can trick the drooling masses to gleefully hand over. Sure right now it's just a usb dongle. Next time it might be third party controllers. After that maybe they decide that you should only be allowed to use your games on a single individual console because loaning your games to your friends might be costing them sales.

By all means though, just keep rolling over and showing Sony and their like your bellies because I'm sure once they have all the control they won't possibly use it to milk every last dime out of you. Not at all, never. . . .

If you people want to see what's in your future all you need do is look to the PC market. Don't think for a second that M$, Sony and Nintendo wouldn't leap at the opportunity to turn the console market into something similar. Will you still be applauding Sony when you have limited installs and are required to be online to play the single player portion of your games?

Actually, buying something for the purpose of piracy, like many other fronts, would be illegal in the US. That goes back to the days of VCRs and stolen cable. This is specific to Germany, where it appears their laws are pretty concrete. Oh, right, and sales to the EU are evidently prohibited. I hate it when the illegal product I buy which has the sole purpose of violating international law gets me in trouble, don't you?

I think you're too hung up on the term "jailbreak," which is ironic given you make the crack about four years in sixth grade. Well, not so much ironic as hypocritical. The "jailbreaking" they advertise explicitly to bypass copy protection, not something that is allowed on Smart Phones either. You can jailbreak a phone to use other service providers, that's the limit of the context. So complaining about the two as one is ridiculous.

Oh, but it's a slippery slope, right? Well, except you're trying to artificially merge the two, or you don't really understand what the technology in question is. I'm not sure which: ignorant or dishonest.

This isn't really a slippery slope. The questionable part happened a decade ago, and I warned people. We already slipped down that slope when we made this technology illegal, and Germany was one of those nations who signed on. At this point, claiming it's unfair or morally questionable is a bit late. Maybe you were a child or something at the time. I don't know. by the time it was codified in the US, I was voting age. I was against it, and I did things about it.

What I didn't do was cry that it was unfair like a petulant child. I have little sympathy for people who are breaking the law, and limited sympathy for people buying items with the sole intended purpose of such. I believe in Fair Use, but complaining that they got caught after the fact (and got off without legal action) isn't a good way to go about it.

If you're going to do something wrong, be prepared for the consequences. If you want to "fight the power," keep in mind that being on the right side of things, fighting for change by example tends to leads to the same consequences. Funny thing about being a martyr. You generally have to at least suffer for your cause.

Either way, someone who knowingly breaks the law should accept the consequences, even if the law is unjust.

there is no big surprise here.

I advocated in another thread just yesterday or so that just because they (companies) can doesn't mean they should sue. I'm not hardcore on cracking down on piracy and the like. I think enforcement is ridiculously unfeasible and pointless, whether protecting the software or the intellectual property of the technology. But Sony is doing it, and it's their right currently. And you cross them at your own risk. Sorry.

 

[Xanthious]

I think you're too hung up on the term "jailbreak," which is ironic given you make the crack about four years in sixth grade. Well, not so much ironic as hypocritical. The "jailbreaking" they advertise explicitly to bypass copy protection, not something that is allowed on Smart Phones either. You can jailbreak a phone to use other service providers, that's the limit of the context. So complaining about the two as one is ridiculous.

I wasn't comparing the two. I was pointing out that you can just as easily hack a PS3 using an iPhone or Android device instead of the USB dongle. In fact that's how I. . . well that's for another day. Therefore, all these people so quick to applaud Sony for going after people for buying a simple USB dongle should be equally quick to sign the same contract should they have the misfortune of owning both an iPhone/Android Phone and a PS3. Afterall, those too can be used to crack it and god knows if it can be used to do that obviously that is what they have it for. . . .

 

[Comrade_Beric]

Correct, but what they are doing here is targeting people who are buying a device that allows pirating, pure and simple. If it allowed the other OS option or did something else then I'd agree with you, but a device made to allow people to steal games only , very thin ice there.

Even if what you say is true, it changes nothing. What they are selling is hardware. Hardware makers have no more say in what you do with their hardware than car makers have a say in what you do with their cars. If I modify my car so that it is capable of carrying more illegal stuff when I go on a crime spree, that isn't illegal because it's the theft itself, not the car modification that is illegal. Even if I do use my car to steal things, it isn't Ford that gets to sue me, they have nothing to do with it. The same is true here. Sony cannot sue because I choose to buy their system and modify it. It's a piece of hardware and once I bought it, it's mine and they lose their say in how I use it. If the police get some sort of evidence that someone has been pirating, not just modifying their equipment to allow it, then that is illegal and they should be stopped and sued by the makers of the software. Why? Because that's copyright infringement and they have a right to seek to protect it. The hardware maker has nothing to do with it.

It's like Ford suing you when you use their car to run over somebody. Even if you bought the car for that exact purpose, it's not Ford who deserves money for that.

 

[Xanthious]

I truely love the dedication you put into your post, but look at the dongle and the purpose. When the object says "PS3 Break" on it, that's a fair indicator for hacking. So yes, hacking the system is wrong. You might not have written the program, but simply placing the device or having the intention of placing the device into your PS3 is hacking it, you become just as liable as the manufactor.

Oh, and it's not LEGALLY purchasing if what you're purchasing is illegal.

Oh, and every third party controller you buy that is PS3 capable is ALREADY approved by SONY for sale.

At the end of the day it's just a bloody USB dongle though. Buying a USB dongle isn't illegal. If I make my own piano wire and and call it Dead Hooker Piano Wire it's still just piano wire the same as those are still USB dongles. What you name it is irrelevant. It would be no different to say that blank CDs and DvDs are illegal because you can use them for violating copyrights.

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

I truely love the dedication you put into your post, but look at the dongle and the purpose. When the object says "PS3 Break" on it, that's a fair indicator for hacking. So yes, hacking the system is wrong. You might not have written the program, but simply placing the device or having the intention of placing the device into your PS3 is hacking it, you become just as liable as the manufactor.

Oh, and it's not LEGALLY purchasing if what you're purchasing is illegal.

Oh, and every third party controller you buy that is PS3 capable is ALREADY approved by SONY for sale.

At the end of the day it's just a bloody USB dongle though. Buying a USB dongle isn't illegal. If I make my own piano wire and and call it Dead Hooker Piano Wire it's still just piano wire the same as those are still USB dongles. What you name it is irrelevant. It would be no different to say that blank CDs and DvDs are illegal because you can use them for violating copyrights.

That is where you're wrong. buying blank CDs and DVDs can simply be used to backup your information from your computer, so no one can assume it's only got one purpose. You can call your pianowire whatever yopu want, they have to assume it's JUST a sad name you gave it (and what the hell dop you have against hookers?). If this was JUST a USB storage device with no hacking feature, SONY couldn't do this. But this was a USB device MADE to hack their system, thereby giving them the power.

 

[Jeronus]

this isn't nintendo we're talking about who make millions selling dinky things like wiifit to your grandmother and all the nintendo fanboys, and its not microsoft that has its ever-growing frat boy community to support it, this is sony who hardly make any profit with any of the consoles and games they sell. and here you have hackers trying to take what little they make, so no shit they're gonna be defensive. you dont see nintendo trying to stop ds piracy, because they're perfectly content with the millions of people who dont pirate.

Nintendo is always trying to curb piracy on DS. Type DS piracy into any search bar and you will get at least a few articles about Nintendo trying to lay down the law on pirates. I also don't see how hacking Sony's console is the greater evil just because they aren't doing well.