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Sony Threatens PS3 Hackers With Legal Action

Posted by Zonk on from the tempting-targets dept.

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."

5 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. Obligatory by TheJerg · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You can't stop them anyway. So why bother trying. Etc, etc.

    1. Re:Obligatory by cowscows · · Score: 5, Insightful

      While I'm not the hugest fan of these sorts of "protections", I think game consoles are one of the areas where the manufacturer can make a decent argument for why they bother. While they're never going to completely shut out the dedicated and skilled people trying to find their way in, they can keep a pretty good lid on casual piracy, because console cracks are usually just to much work, even if someone else has already figure it out.

      It's significantly different, from the average joe computer user point of view, than downloading mp3's or whatever. Once you have a cracked mp3, the file is easy to distribute and get at. Which is one of the reasons why music DRM is so dumb. The files are all pretty easily accessible online to anyone who wants to look at them. But with game consoles, downloading a game and putting it on a DVD generally isn't enough. You need to hack the console, sometimes through some software flaws, often through hardware modification. Even if the hardware mod is relatively easy, the need to crack the case is enough to keep most people out. If Napster required you to solder a chip onto your computer's motherboard in order to download music, it's doubtful anyone outside of tech nerds would've heard much about it.

      --

      One time I threw a brick at a duck.

  2. Re:Nintendo's better than that by brkello · · Score: 4, Informative

    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
  3. Re:And the oblig counter-point by brkello · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

    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 /. 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!

    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
  4. Re:Sony's Linux strategy by CronoCloud · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.