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Sony Threatens PS3 Hackers With Legal Action
Eurogamer reports that Sony is going after users sidestepping the PlayStation 3's protection software. Firmware 1.10 and 1.11 have both been cracked, and as a result illegal game copies can be booted from the console. "Booting games and playing them are two different things, however; so far, hackers have not been able to get any of the copied games to run, nor have they been able to run homebrew software. Every hardware launch brings with it a race for hackers to defeat the system's protections, whether for the technological challenge, to run copied software, or to allow for homebrew games. Despite Sony's attempts to prevent its emergence, the PSP has a strong homebrew community - and hackers are doubtless hoping to establish a similar base for PS3."
You can't stop them anyway. So why bother trying. Etc, etc.
As Cereal Killer would say, 'Hack the Planet'.
They also want to prevent you from running Linux with full access to the hardware, because they won't get licensing fees if people play games that don't require that someone pay one. Preventing piracy [as much as possible] is of course a real goal, and important to protection of revenues. But this is just as significant, in the same ways.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Sony reserves the sole right to hack your system. Please use one of their root-kits for your hacking needs. All others will be sued!!
Get real Sony!!
Your citation is missing because you are wrong. Nintendo did not announce nor are they sponsoring a homebrew contest on the Wii. Other people are sponsoring this which is no different than if it happened on the PS3 or PSP. So no, Nintendo is not better than that.
Ironically, it appears that you don't RTFA.
Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
Yes, region codes don't make sense to me either. I am trying to think of some reason they might do it...but I can't come up with any thing that makes it logical.
/. article: http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/23/ 0021243&from=rss. So it looks like you wouldn't have a problem with the PS3 if that is still true!
But you have to understand, the people who install modchips on their consoles are far far more likely doing it to play pirated games than to avoid the region codes. I understand why they do that. And if they would just get rid of the region crap, you wouldn't be frustrated at all. Really, I am sure you aren't the person Sony was trying to target...it is the people who want to do bad things.
But all this is moot to you if the PS3 doesn't have region encoding. And I am not sure if this is true now, but here is a past
Really, you have to be careful on slashdot or you turn in to the same type of sheeple. Everything Sony does isn't evil. Everything that Nintendo does isn't good. Everyone out there wants your money and some just pretend to be nicer than others.
Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
The Wii is a great console and all, but I don't know that I'd go quite that far to convince someone to let me use theirs. Have a little dignity.
Maybe you should try spending the cash you are using on piracy prevention to develop...*gasp*...games worth buying?
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This is where things get fucking stupid. Why homebrew applications are not ENCOURAGED is beyond me. Granted, it's not a massive number, but I would be willing to bet my car that if the big three made their consoles open to homebrew developers without any kind of sidestepping, hacking, or putzing around required, they would find the sales of their gaming consoles go up. Yes, there will be people that pirate games, but you know what? The people that want to pirate games WILL find a way. I am quite confident that people wouldn't say "What? Homebrew apps are ENCOURAGED? Well fuck that, I'm not buying that open system!" ::sigh::
Living With a Nerd
Yes, it is still true that PS3 games have no region encoding. The PS3 will honor the region encoding of DVDs, PS2 and PS1 games, and Blu-Ray movies. But no, there is no region encoding for PS3 games.
I really don't see a legitimate reason for trying to hack the PS3. If you want home brew apps, install Linux on it. If you want that game from Japan that you can't get in your own country, buy it and place the disk in the drive. Apart from hacking it just for bragging rights, or to play pirated games, there really isn't a good excuse to bypass the protections on the PS3.
Region codes on games serve _no_ legitimate purpose.
I have to disagree with you here.
Region codes on games have purposes. Games sometimes have licensed content - and the costs of licensing that content can very depending on where the game will be distributed. It may be cheaper to license that music track for US audiences only, or the company they licensed the content from may themselves have the rights to the content for only certain countries. Japanese DDR games are a prime example - they're region coded because they've licensed the content for Japan only.
There are probably games that region code when they don't serve a purpose, but I'd like to believe that this is minimal because doing so can only hurt profits. I suspect that most game region coding is there for a reason.
"You know your god is man-made when he hates all the same people you do."
But Sony Computer Entertainment America stole your money from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.
Still, PSP and PS3 are largely region-free for gaming.
This should affect retailers, not consumers. The liscencing is an issue, and as such it should be illegal for a retailer to either sell the game from an outlet outside the one it's region coded for, or to ship it from a location in the region to a consumer outside. What it shouldn't affect is a consumer physically travelling to the region in which the product is legal for sale, purchasing it, and bringing it back home with them. That's just ridiculous.
Even though your question is a moot point in this case, I will address it. In short, you cannot access the RSX directly. But here is why your question in this case is moot: The hack doesn't affect hyper visor functionality under Linux. It bypasses the copy-protection on the PS3. That is all it does and was designed to do.
To answer your second question, you can convince any publisher as long as you show them enough money.
In all seriousness, why don't you ask Sony on their new blog to allow region free gaming on ALL PlayStation games? Given their current need to win over the hearts and minds of gamers, if enough demand was shown on their new site I would be surprised if they didn't decide to implement it. The issue with the RSX chip is, unfortunately, in a sticky patent situation beyond the complete control of Sony or nVidia. The best bet there would be nVidia releasing a closed Linux driver for the RSX.
Sony doesn't care what you do on your PS2/PS3 as long as you do it under Linux (and under the restrictions Linux on the PS2/PS3 has). That's the sandbox you get to play in.
Trying to do stuff outside of that, they don't like. That's the sort of thing that enables the running of "backups".
Running Nethack under Linux: OK
Running Nethack via a hack/exploit that also lets one run ISO/backups etc. Not OK.
By indie developers they mean people like Introversion, not hobbyists. You will still have to be a real company with real money to get a developer license.
So nobody is buying you $600 console what do you do? 1) Lower your price 2) Make games people want to pay that much to play 3) Sue the few people who bought your overpriced console