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Dark Alex Releases 4.01 M33 Firmware For PSP
Croakyvoice writes "Dark Alex, the PSP hacker
from Spain, and his Team M33 have released a new version of the custom
firmware for the PSP, which now supports the very latest official
firmware from Sony. Benefits for the end user include the ability to play the many
hundreds of games,
demos, applications
and emulators written by the homebrew community for the PSP."
I can understand new releases of major software... a new GIMP, new KDE, new GNOME, new kernel, new release of a distro or operating system being newsworthy... but an announcement of a cracked firmware bin for a portable game system?
Software development != Piracy, thanks!
Then you haven't been looking on the right news sites. Have you tried a PSP news site? Or even a gaming news site? It might not get coverage on a general gaming site, but it would get coverage on a PSP news site.
And yes, news is news. What is your point? Sports news is news, but you wouldn't see it showing up on Slashdot. Gaming news is news, and unless it's something big, it shouldn't really show up on Slashdot. See, if this were the very first custom firmware for the PSP, it would be big enough. But it's not. It's just the new increment of an old software.
Actually you are the one that is completely, totally, and absolutely wrong.
It is impossible to perform the act of piracy by installing your own software on a Sony PSP when you BOUGHT THE PSP. You OWN the HARDWARE. It is YOUR HARDWARE. You have the ABSOLUTE RIGHT TO YOUR HARDWARE.
There is no such thing as hardware "piracy". Hardware "piracy" is actually theft of property which is completely different. You also cannot perform the act of piracy as it relates to the official Sony firmware, since you received that with your paid-for PSP in the first place.
Software Piracy would involve "stealing" somebody's software. That is not taking place here.
Modifying your PSP firmware is at best, a violation of an agreement between you and Sony. It is a breach of contract, which is not remotely the same as an infringement on copyrights.
Personally, I would consider it to be a form of civil disobediance. I don't think Sony, or any company, has the right to tell you what to do with hardware that you own. The specific language in the EULA should be deemed improper and unenforceable in court. I actually think it would be too and there is no case precedence that I am aware of.
Would Toyota get away with selling you a car and telling you that you can only drive it to certain locations? At certain speeds? On certain days? With specific radio stations turned on? What about after market modifications on most popular cars? Would those auto manufacturers get away with creating restrictions on the after market industry?
Of course not. You own the car. Well just the same, you own the PSP. The only exception for corporations, is to lease the hardware. That is done ALL the time, and allows those corporations to ethically and morally enforce restrictions upon the use of the hardware.
So the reality is that you are wrong. The flamebait and troll modifier is justified in your case since it is highly offensive to label owners of PSPs as "criminals" simply for wanting to use homebrew applications and custom modified firmwares on their own property.
Software Piracy is a very specific act and has nothing to do with "hacking" your own hardware. I even object to the use of the term, since I strongly believe that you cannot perform the act of "hacking" on your own property.
In the future I would suggest you think about what you want to say a little more carefully.
You are absolutely right that this story shouldn't be posted.
However, just out of curiosity I checked the PSP's sales and read up on on the PSP. The PSP is the eighth best selling console of all time. It's surprisingly successful for a device that is often thought of as a failure compared to the DS.
looks like Slashdot users don't like reality since i am right about this but i am getting flame baited and trolled.
No, you're being corrected because you are FLAT OUT WRONG.
An EULA does not and can not apply unless it is presented to you BEFORE consideration is exchanged (in the case of purchasing a PSP, this would be at point of sale, BEFORE you gave them your cold hard and the title of said PSP transferred to you.)
Consider an analogy: If i sold lawn mowers, for instance, and you bought one off me with the (IMO perfectly reasonable) assumption that you could replace the blades with any compatible brand, and then went to replace them and found that i'd placed an EULA sticker across the nut holding each blade in place saying "ONLY USE MICHAEL HUNT BRANDED BLADES. THIS IS A LEGALLY BINDING CONTRACT," then you'd be pretty irate.
The fact that Dark Alex's firmware happens to allow playing of warez/backup games/imports/whatever is completely orthogonal to any argument you may or may not make RE: the legality of breaking an EULA. EULAs are not, and can not be retroactively binding. End of line.
You're doing it wrong.
If your only complaint is that the games are nothing more than rehashes of old games, then why are you even bothering to pirate them? Unless, of course, you're lying, and actually believe that they DO have some value, but that you're somehow special from everybody else and shouldn't have to pay for them.
He was bowing out until the 4.0 firmware release. He was done with the incremental releases.
Although a troll, I think the parent post is also incredibly insightful. There is a common opinion in slashdot that EULAs are bullshit, and a common opinion that the GPL is not bullshit, and many here seem to hold both beliefs at once.
Why is one more valid than the other? I don't mean to imply that it isn't or that it is, I'm just honestly curious.
sure , you can get tons of legit free software at http://dl.qj.net/ :) ... seriously
This comment was laboriously planned and extremely well thought out by Mike Donaghy @ http://mikedonaghy.org