Sued PS3 Hacker GeoHot Responds With Rap

[Gitty101]

Pretty chipper for a guy getting sued ^^

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Look up the specific laws on ROMs. It's not illegal to download ROMs in several different circumstances. And the EULA may not be how most contracts work but calling it a shrink-warp contract doesn't work now that it's online to read for free. So it's not void. That and Geohot violated the DMCA which is federal law. Also the firmware Geohot put up may not have allowed for pirating directly but it essentially paved the way for it on the PS3. This essentially isaiding and abbetting in piracy.

I don't get how Sony is handling the situation poorly. They're actually doing something about it. I don't understand why anyone who tries to do something about potential piracy gets hated instantly. What would you have Sony do? They have to show their business partners, i.e. people like Capcom Squeenix,etc , that they won't just let people download their games for free.

I did check the (US) laws and I'm pretty sure you're confusing morals with actual laws here. The fact that Nintendo sells Super Mario Bros through the Virtual Console basically makes it illegal for you to download it off a ROM site. Same goes for that ROM of River City Ransom. It doesn't matter if Tecnos Japan doesn't exist if someone with the rights to the game sells it.

Your question was, though, "If it was just to regain a lost function then why can did Geohot make sure that, that's all the crack could do?". My answer was that that it was essentially all it could do. His hack needed to be modified for any pirated games to be played on a PS3.

As for how Sony is handling this poorly: well, if you're telling me installing software on my devices that stealthily phone home isn't a poor way of dealing with this issue, well, what is a poor way of dealing with it? This happened with Sony BMG and that's essentially what OFW 3.56 is. Suing Geohot in California when he's in New Jersey is also either dumb or a delay tactic to make the lawsuit last as long as possible.

As an aside, I have to say I consider walled gardens and draconian DRM that phones home causing far worse problems than anything piracy has ever done. Think of it like this: 3.56 introduced a way for Sony to silently run any code they want to on your PS3. They probably won't use it to delete files or scan your family pictures. But what might happen is that someone figures out how to run whatever code they want and run it on any PS3 with 3.56. Sony basically introduced a fatal security flaw under the guise of protecting their property. And it has a good chance of biting them in the ass in the long run.

I see your point with the ROMs. Too many convoluted rules and loopholes to really enforce the law though. But here's why Sony is taking this case to California instead of Jersey. No other state in the U.S. will see any video game related case. Period. It's not a delay tacitc, they just don't have any other option there. Since California is the only state having a debate on whether Video Games are art (and the laws that would have to change if the vote yes to that, etc, etc.) They are the only state that will see these cases. That and with the DMCA being federal law and not state law, they had to move the case to a state that would look at it. Add in the factor of any other video game lawsuit filling up California's courtrooms and this case it going to take a looooong time. Most other companies wouldn't bother because of those reasons, but Sony has to keep it's business partners assured that their products will not be harmed. Geohot is the example being made here. It may seem harsh but he boasted about it and put the root key up on his website. He probably thought that because he was one of the original iPhone jailbreakers and he got away with that, that the same thing will happen here. It won't. And while he's busy making rap videos Sony is making a case against him that will hurt him in the long run. He may not have had malicious intent but he still broke the law and allowed a way for piracy on the PS3 to happen.

 

[chuckman1]

That was cool it reminded me of the Yugi vs Jaden Rap Battle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AJlUm8Cn5M

If someone can quote me on this with the video embeded I would appreciate it.

 

[tahrey]

I was thinking the same thing. He's just digging himself a deeper hole for Sony to bury him in. He should've just bought the damn thing and played games on it.

I wish I could file suit for his horrible rapping.

Actually I thought it was fairly good, particularly for someone who is probably a rank novice at busting rhymes.

And you seem maybe to be unfamiliar with Sony's past record in this regard, upto and including unleashing dangerous rootkits on the computers of people who LEGALLY bought their "enhanced" music CDs and LEGALLY put them into their computers. They're far from being sweetness and light, and I'm very much on his side here. He bought the computer hardware. The licensing agreement, as far as I've seen suggested (i don't have a copy, or the time to read it, I'm afraid) only applies to the operating system on that machine. They may have a lockout system in place to stop people running different software on it (much as Nintendo did with their lockout chips on the NES, SNES, N64 and had to be similarly circumvented if you wanted to play something not released in your abitarily-defined region... ditto DVD regions) but it's not necessarily legally binding (both those other cases would probably fall foul of the DMCA if this does... so serve me a subpoena and extradition order for using a engineer's test code typed in via my remote, or custom firmware uploaded off a CDR, to play my legally purchased but only-ever-released-in-region-1 DVDs in my region 2 player, why don't you? That's not "permitted software", either!).

In cases of devices specifically aimed at piracy, and not even marketed as ways to play your legally bought games off disposable "backups" instead of risking damage to the master disc (pretty sure that's legal under fair use?), then yeah ... you don't have a leg to stand on, must take your chances and fold as soon as the second or third C&D letter comes in. But when it's more of a general hacker tool ... no-ones saying it can ONLY be used for copyright breaches, now, can it? Dude just wants to run Linux on it and access some of that supposedly hardcore Cell processing power for some custom application, like the US Military did. Or whatever.

By your argument, if I buy a car or motorcycle I should "ONLY" use it for driving in strict accordance with everything in the user manual, never attempt any servicing of my own (or take it to a non-dealership mechanic), or modify it in any way, other than maybe some decorative stickers. Adding an aftermarket stereo system (because the existing one lacks both a CD player and Digital Broadcast reception), changing the sprocket ratios on the bike (e.g. because it's too fizzy for cruising, or too lazy for life in a mountainous area)*, or fitting winter tyres to either would be right out.

Or heck, with my old (SONY!!) minidisc player and (SONY!!) CD player with digital output, I should only have played store-bought music minidiscs instead of copying my CD albums, and only ever have used the optical link to transfer my own independently-made recordings from a CDR-based 4-track substitute (or burned such onto CD from a PC one), instead of making compilations from my album collection. Home taping/discing is killing music after all. No wait, it isn't, the industry is about as strong and vibrant as it's ever been, and an incredible number of artists have got their start or built up a fandom from "you gotta hear this!" tape bootlegs and the like.

And in no circumstance should I carry out my plan to buy a particular model of (again, SONY!!) hi-fi Minidisc deck in order to rescue an actual live recording made of a college friend doing a gig in a local bar some years back, which I made on my portable MD recorder with a condenser mic, but the machine chewed up because of some fault when the time came to write the TOC... (the data's still on there, just the disc appears blank: the only hope of rescue is "hacking" the seperates deck such to abuse it's service mode and write a dummy full-disc TOC onto it) ... or then use third party "hacker" software to transfer said recording digitally to the PC at full volume, because Sony's overly restrictive built-in controls prohibit me from doing that "legally" even though it's MY RECORDING OF SOMEONE I KNOW and their own hardware puts out such a comically low line-level output (this was the era that their old and really rather brilliant AVLS dynamic-volume-limiting circuitry was downgraded to a switch that stopped you turning the volume up past a certain level... and then was done away with altogether in favour of permanently reduced output) that it's damn near impossible to record it to the PC in analogue mode without an intolerable amount of noise coming with.

If I'd used some other digital system, e.g. DAT, I could have made as many copies as I liked either way, and no-one would care. I am in fact using a modern SD-card based high quality audio recorder right now to recover stuff from old and damn-near-worn out audio CDRs** that I don't have in any other format (thanks to a hard disc crash and the backup drives being stolen) and no easily accessible optical drive will successfully copy in digital mode - and the makers of said device (a major international audio electronics and musical instrument manufacturer) have NO qualms whatsoever about allowing me to do so. It's my own responsibility if I use it to pirate material off of commercial releases, and their hands are clean - I'm still open to prosecution if I do that, anyway. No stupid e-handcuffs that have to be broken (an act that violates DMCA?) in order to use the device to its full, legal potential. Presumably they take the (valid) line that if I'm doing that, there are far easier, cheaper, and pre-existing ways of doing so anyway (not like Minidisc had the world's best sound quality up until the early 2000s either!) so why bother?

So in summary... screw you and your stupid, corporate sheep mentality. I wouldn't be overly surprised if we analysed the logs and found a lot of posts coming from an IP corresponding to Sony's corporate HQ at this point. Their crap may not be entirely indefensible, but constructing a winning defence whilst on a level legal-expense playing field with their opponent, and without lying or obfuscating the full facts and moral implications of the case should, in a perfect world anyway, be pretty damn hard.

* or heated grips (which involved DIY wiring-in of a whole new relay-switched electrical subcircuit), or a better headlight, or handlebar wind-deflectors, or a screen, or a 12v outlet for my phone/satnav, the satnav itself (without going to a dealer), a non-OEM luggage box, or, or, or...
** the only thing they play successfully in is my (super cheap chinese size-of-a-70s-hifi) DVD player, and then only about 20 minutes at a time because as the laser unit heats up, its own thermal background noise level gradually pitches the whole affair from the region of "just about determining 1 from 0 successfully, and the error-correction picking up the slack" into "outputting something indistinguishable from white noise then failing completely"). I have to turn it on at the mains, cue it up to the start of the last wholly successful track, and then unplug it from the wall to cool down for an hour once failure kicks in. A computer drive has no hope. I'd have happily used my (SONY!!) Hi-MD in PCM mode, instead of borrowing this £300 device from work, but for the aforementioned problems.

 

[Droppa Deuce]

They're making a movie of this guy, Zac Efron is playing him apparently.

P.S

I was thinking the same thing. He's just digging himself a deeper hole for Sony to bury him in. He should've just bought the damn thing and played games on it.

I wish I could file suit for his horrible rapping.

Actually I thought it was fairly good, particularly for someone who is probably a rank novice at busting rhymes.

And you seem maybe to be unfamiliar with Sony's past record in this regard...[RANT MODE INITIATED]

tl;dr

Get a life.

OUCH!

tl;dr = too long, didn't read? If so...

Drop a Deuce that was a lot of pwn!

 

[sb666]

i hate this guy so much

 

[MrDarkling]

He may hack but he ain't the most sharpest tool in the box.
"I do not support piracy...BUT HERE'S THE ROOT KEY ANYWAY ;D"

Egotistical idiot.

 

[gphjr14]

They're making a movie of this guy, Zac Efron is playing him apparently.

P.S

I was thinking the same thing. He's just digging himself a deeper hole for Sony to bury him in. He should've just bought the damn thing and played games on it.

I wish I could file suit for his horrible rapping.

Actually I thought it was fairly good, particularly for someone who is probably a rank novice at busting rhymes.

And you seem maybe to be unfamiliar with Sony's past record in this regard...[RANT MODE INITIATED]

tl;dr

Get a life.

OUCH!

tl;dr = too long, didn't read? If so...

Drop a Deuce that was a lot of pwn!

Apparently I hurt his feelings, which wasn't my intention but seriously to type all that just because I pointed out the guys failure at rapping; footnotes and all shows a serious waste of time considering as you pointed out I didn't read 90% of it. But its his time he can spend however he wants.