Sony and GeoHot settle over PS3 hacking lawsuit

[Relic]

Exactly, like i said this is a crossfire, no side puts the real cards on the table "modify for personal use" its getting generalized, because one thing is to "mod it" and another one is to exploit certain features of the device (obviously is piracy), but it seems that people cant understand those two totally different parts because even if Geo released his code to mod the PS3 there will always be people who will use it to pirate games (and by the way im a PC gamer so no worries if your console gets owned) and by the power of the blah blah blah... we all know what happens when a game gets heavily pirated, or you hadnt noticed those 60 dlls your game costs?

Either way dont mix the cards and learn why we cant (and shouldn't) get complete access to all our device features, just because you totally own a car it doesnt means you can drive over people.

You're right, most people don't realize the difference between modding for personal use and modding to gain a competitive/unfair advantage (e.g. cheating/piracy). However the same can be said about hackers and pirates, both are lumped in together as being 'terrible' for the industry when they are not one and the same in many cases.

Looking at your car analogy, we consumers have the right to modify or 'supe up' our cars without the manufacturer telling us what we can and cannot do minus government inspection. But you're right that in general we do not have the right to just run people down, nevertheless this still happens. An example being in my local area two young males were illegally street racing one another when one of them lost control at 110 MPH colliding with an SUV, killing a mother of two and ejecting one of the kids. Do you think because of this terrible incident that we should not have the right do alter or even own high powered cars? I personally don't, punishing everyone for the actions of a few is misguided. The same can be said with gun rights, but that is a whole different mess that I don't think we should explore . Of course this is an extreme example that I brought up with real consequences, we're talking about a video game console here that in most cases will lead us gamers to having a bad K/D ratio because some kid thinks he's funny using an aimbot.

As already said I'm all for Sony banning consoles/users who are taking advantage of the system by trying to ruin the experience of others. However I personally find this to be predominantly an issue about control which I don't believe they should have outside the misuse of their service on top of using scare tactics against their own customers.

 

[Guest]

It is important to note that SONY never considers you, the purchaser, as the actual owner of the console. Their mindset is that you are licensing, on a permanent basis, their console and as such are bound by their terms for the use of such a console.

Come to think of it I could have sworn I saw an old PS2 EULA that said something to that effect, although as far as I know current license agreements don't contain such an archaic concept. It is clear that it is still their mindset, however.

The problem here is that Sony acquired the information they wanted before the legal process even really started. In the discovery phase they got everything they needed: all of Geohot's data and the IP addresses of each potential abuser. They had no need to continue the process and be seen as "picking on the little guy"--they wanted information (including potential information Geohot may have containing other ways of cracking the PS3 that he hadn't released yet--iPhone jailbreak dev team members often hold back some exploits in hopes that Apple won't find and patch them before their next version, giving them the chance to jailbreak yet another version).

The trial itself was never anything Sony wanted to get into; they could have willingly dropped the case and still been considered the victor--they have your IP's, Geohot's data (including any lists of exploits he hadn't yet mentioned so they can patch those as well), and the ability to delay the PS3 cracking scene by a decent period of time.

 

[Relic]

It is important to note that SONY never considers you, the purchaser, as the actual owner of the console. Their mindset is that you are licensing, on a permanent basis, their console and as such are bound by their terms for the use of such a console.

Agreed, this is sadly the position of many tech companies now and one I firmly disagree with. "I bought it, I own it" principle that has been around for ages in my opinion should still be used, as it is one of the few consumer protections we have.

 

[Guest]

How about this latest breach where user names, email, passwords, date of birth, address and possible credit card info has been compromised. Time for a negligence class action suit against Sony. When you ask your loyal customers for that kind of information and then make security an afterthought because your main goal is getting more revenue from your customers that is the epitome of negligence.