Sony Legally Threatens German PS3 Hackers

[poiuppx]

I agree with you guys, hacking the PS3 is like buying a Laptop with Windows Vista installed and deciding instead you want to run Linux.

How dare they.

It's not like Sony at times advertised it as a console you could use your own operating system on is it?

Nice sarcasm, but sadly it's wasted here. This device ONLY allows for people to pirate games. It doesn't allow homebrew or anything nifty like that. It is for an illegal purpose only.

I agree that it was a dick move by Sony to remove the "Install Other OS" support from old PS3s, but in this case, they're going after a device which allows only for piracy. And in this instance, I say go for it. If you can't afford to buy the games you shouldn't get to play them. You don't need games to survive, it's not like stealing food so you don't starve to death.

Amen, brother. This marytr act by some folks burned by the Other OS thing is just pathetic. It doesn't give anyone an excuse to break the law and download games for their own personal use. If it were up to me, no console hack-boy would ever end up holding a controller again, especially if their excuse was 'I feel wronged, ergo, gimme for free'.

 

[Syphous]

Why bother Sony? Hackers will get what they deserve in Hell!

 

[Chaos Marine]

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".

There's a difference between murder and a piece of hardware that you can run different software programs on.

 

[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.

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.

How is 'jail-breaking' the PS3 different to jail-breaking something like the iPhone?

 

[milkkart]

this is ridiculous, these devices have already been reverse-engineered, are being produced en-masse in china and can be built for free by anyone with instructions off the internet. all sony are doing here is hammering a bunch of people because it looks good to the shareholders,its not going to do a damn thing to stop piracy. maybe they should look into actually fixing the problems that make this hack possible rather than just getting all litigious.

first legal action i heard about this was that in australia ps jailbreak were being forced to sell their stock to sony, and only sony, on the grounds it *might* be illegal. in australia modchips are (were?) legal on the grounds that a: they have other legitimate uses e.g. region lock removal and b: they dont prevent the actual act of copyright infringement i.e. aquiring a copy of the game that has not been legally sold by the creator. so it would seem innocent until proven guilty doesn't apply if you're a dirty dirty pirate. not sure what the legal situation with chips is in germany, maybe they're illegal to even posses.

there are fair, if legally gray, uses for these devices because they just allow you to run software that hasn't been validated by sony. so you can run homebrew, linux or backups. haven't any of you 'hackers are evil, burn them all!' types ever had a disc get damaged? it really really sucks. sure you can go buy a second hand copy or something but thats more on top of the maybe 40 quid you already spent on it and given what you actually own is a license to use a copy of the software being able to use some form of backup should be logically be fine. you could also (probably) use it to run rare out of production ps1/2 games, while copying abandonware isn't exactly legal it doesn't deprive anyone of their rightful profits so i don't really see how you can reasonably have a problem with it.

the legally questionable bullying used to force the people who bought it to sign contracts is what really grates, im pretty sure that illegal part is selling chips not buying and you can't charge someone with potentially commiting a crime so if any of them refused to sign and it went to court im thinking the law wouldn't come down on sony's side. hopefully one of them will stand their ground and we'll get to see.

we've already got ACTA coming, id really rather this slippery slope we're on not get any steeper than it already is.

so yeah, tl;dr sony should be able to protect their IP but this isn't the way to do it, you can't prosecute people for potentially commiting crimes you have to wait until they have actually broken the law and if you think this a good thing you really need to think a bit harder about the implications.

pretty much what this guy said (especially about that guy's stupid lock picks example)...

Spoiler: snip

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?

 

[Throwitawaynow]

Those Germans are always up to something!

 

[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".

There's a difference between murder and a piece of hardware that you can run different software programs on.

I know that. I was more stating it's taking something and miusing it against the law, and expecting that you don't have to follow said laws, because you own the item in question.

So you then assume you can do 'anything' with it.

 

[Chaos Marine]

And I'm stating that what's been bought, in this case a hypothetical luxury item (I do not own a PS3) and then being told you're not allowed to do with it what you like. A more apt comparison would be to say it would be like buying a car or a motorcycle and then fiddling with the dash board to remove and replace the radio.

It makes no sense.

 

[milkkart]

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".

There's a difference between murder and a piece of hardware that you can run different software programs on.

I know that. I was more stating it's taking something and miusing it against the law, and expecting that you don't have to follow said laws, because you own the item in question.

So you then assume you can do 'anything' with it.

you should be able to do anything with it as long as you don't break the law. modifying the hardware to do what ever you please, including running unverified content, should be perfectly legal. the illegal part should be the aquisition and use of software you do not own a license to use, which is already against the law. at the moment sony is essentially being allowed to make up it own law which states that if you buy something sony does not like they can take it off you and make you sign contracts. an interesting test case would be for someone who does not actually own a PS3 to buy one of these sticks.

fun fact: in the USA you can legally sell full-auto conversion parts for guns as 'novelty items' but selling modchips will get you jail time.

 

[Gindil]

...

Here's a question...

Where are they finding the information to go after individual people?

It would be an interesting turn of events if they sue a person based on information on a webpage. But if they're invading people's privacy to try to sue legally, I would think that opens a bigger can of worms.

 

[deathtopenguins]

Got homebrew on my Wii and copied all the games I own to a HDD so I don't have to switch disks all the time.

That's awesome! I had no idea you could do that.

Personally I dislike piracy if you could've just bought and played the game, since developers need money too. However, I love messing around with computers to make them customizable and sometimes better than the original product. If that requires hacking/cracking then so be it; it's your device now anyway (no matter what others may say). Just don't do anything that takes money away from hard working games/movies/music/etc artists. Sorry for all the opinions

 

[Broax]

I'm usually not that up for piracy but what sony is starting to do is borderline bullying! Once I started to consider buy a PS3 or at least a PS4 when next gen eventually hits... Now I'm not so sure I want to support a company like this anymore...

 

[-Dragmire-]

It is an item designed only to hack your Playstation and allow you to use pirated games, both which breaches the EULA of the PS3 software. So yes, Sony can legally do this even if it might be in the grey zone.

I think it only breaches the EULA if you agree to it first and go online, which is why they want the people to sign that agreement.

Naturally pirating games is wrong but, if people want Linux and Homebrew and they stay offline, I don't see a problem with that. On the other hand, people are jerks and some will pirate if they're able to.