PS2 Games to Require Online Authentication

M Bison (ha-ha) sent in this news-bit about Sony adding new copy control measures to PS2 games. Sigh. CT: For starters, the future DVDs and CDs will be imprinted with unique serial numbers, and the PS2 will authenticate over a network connection before allowing playing. This is apparently connected to the upcoming PS2 hard drive, and network connection.

Comments

Which must include the right to backups.

[Convergence]

And one right that we must have is the right of backups. So one of these 'enumerated' fair-use rights must be to make full backups of your expensive media.

No, it is not acceptable for them to offer a service that will send me extra copies. I have no assurance that they will be in business in 2 years, 10 years, or 50 years.

That's the issue. You cannot, in TECHNICAL TERMS distinguish between fair use and infringment. The only thing that can make that determination is a LEGAL COURT OF LAW.

So, even if you could construct, and keep up to date, such a hypothetical list, there still would be no way for a technical measure to determine whether or not the use it is put is on the list.

Hacking Things

[Smitty825]

Why is everyone so excited that someone else can hack something to get them the service they want? Each time we hack something, the big companies learn something new about how things were hacked, and it makes it much more difficult to hack things in the future.

What we need to do is identify what rights we have as consumers (and, no, not the right to pirate), then pressure our governments to create a law that forces RIAA, MPAA, M$, and other Copyright-based companies to protect our fair-use rights!

I've written my Representative in Congress, have you? (...assuming you live in the US...write your government leaders in your own countries)