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Playstation Network Gets Revised, More Restrictive ToS
LordDax writes "Sony just rolled out their new Terms of Service for the Playstation Network. The new ToS features additions about the Master & Subaccount relationship, specifically that you can only 'legally' create a sub account for your own child. No friends allowed. Where it really gets interesting is when you get to the additions to section 3.0 Community Code of Conduct. You now can't tell anyone your real name, where you live or basically anything besides your PSN ID. The new ToS also brings to light that SCEA is going to be monitoring every piece of communication and activitiy, and reserves the right to remove any content or communication they find objectionable without having to tell you in interests of SCEA, its users, or licensors. Another addition is: 'Some content may be provided automatically without notice when you sign into PSN. Such content may include automatic updates or upgrades which may change your current operating system, cause a loss of data or content or cause a loss of functionalities or utilities.'"
Further, I'm actually glad for them to make explicit a policy of wanting to remove abusive griefers. Lately I've stopped playing PSN games online with non-friends simply because I keep on running into asshats with Bluetooth headsets and too much time on their hands, which make the whole experience horrible. By giving possible consequences for peoples' actions, it makes it possible that people might actually, you know, not be complete dipshits.
There are 10 kinds of people: ones who understand ternary, ones who don't, and ones who think this joke is about binary
Well, Sony is just telling us that it's *their network*, and they can do whatever the hell they want with it. It's a closed network. Is anyone surprised?
Naturally, no company in their right mind would create a closed network without asserting control over it. After all, whatever happens on the network, they'll likely held responsible for it to some degree. They're a big company with deep pockets, so they cover themselves like this.
The whole notion of users not broadcasting their real name - well, that's a pretty good idea in general, right? But by codifying it into the terms of service, they protect themselves when some idiot smack-talking kid actually gets the crap beat out of him when someone learns his real name and home address. Or is the target of a scam. Or any number of a thousand bad things that can happen if you aren't careful with your identity online.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
Oh no! We'll have to resort to using local multiplayer and actually socializing with REAL people! Clearly such a platform would never succeed.
Seriously though, the hell are you even ranting about? Where is DRM even presenting a problem here? I'm fairly certain my PS3 doesn't have net access from time to time, yet everything I've downloaded from the PSN still works great. The only thing even remotely related to DRM in this change is the ability for them to push and kill content without the end-users direct approval (Which, I see there being some minor problems arising out of this, but honestly -- aside from force-killing homebrew hacks, what's the worst that could happen [heh]?).
I think what you're trying to be upset about is the whole net-nanny crap they're introducing. I don't agree with it either, but I also understand how many idiots have PS3s and how many of them are likely to do something stupid which somehow results in someone trying to sue Sony for a ridiculous amount of money. Care to take a wild guess what happens after that?
I get it, everyone hates Sony because they're ZOMG SPYING ON THE INTERNETS THROUGH THE PS3. Whatever. If they want to take extra measures to make sure two trash-talking jackasses don't end up killing each other, fine by me -- so long as I can still smoke you fools in some Wipeout HD.
Does this mean my PSN account will get banned if I quote the Quran?
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
A/S/L?
What they're doing is preventing their customers from doing things to them. If little Timmy met someone off of PSN and got himself murdered, lawsuit papers would be on their way to SCEA before his body was even cold and in the grave. Seeing as how most judges and juries care about children, that's pretty much a blank check for the parents of the kid. They're protecting themselves.
And modders? I'm looking at you. There are many of you who would sue when you run that update that SCEA put out and had your system bricked. Lots less legal hassle/bills to nip it in the bud. I doubt anything will change in the way that they are doing things.
Also, there are people who use the PSN for posting obscene/offensive material that could be accessed by minors. See the first paragraph.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
Do we sit and whine about our rights, complain about big brother spying on us or what?
I don't know, I realise some of these things are 'bad' in their TOS but really as has been stated, it's THEIR network and it's very very likely this is to cover their ass from litigation and kids being on the system.
I think you'll find it's unlikely that 2 conscenting (sp?) adults will be banned or in any real kind of trouble if they strike up a genuine friendship and swap names on the system, this is purely due to our modern, over litigous (sp?) society unfortunately
Disclaimer: I own a PS3 and hell yes, I do like it.
"'Some content may be provided automatically without notice when you sign into PSN. Such content may include automatic updates or upgrades which may change your current operating system, cause a loss of data or content or cause a loss of functionalities or utilities.'"
Plus this allows adverts to be sent to your console and it allows them to change the console OS to allow more adverts.
"The new ToS features additions about the Master & Subaccount relationship, specifically that you can only 'legally' create a sub account for your own child. No friends allowed."
Which fits with the idea of marketing. If they can know only family members are on the account, then any profiling of that user allows more specific marketing and better, cleaner profiling data to sell to other market research companies.
"SCEA is going to be monitoring every piece of communication and activitiy"
i.e. allows them to do any amount of marketing profiling they wish and to sell that data to whoever they wish.
Sony have tried some very intrusive marketing methods in the past. In London, one council took Sony to court for their relentless fly posters on everything. Sony made it look like it was just individuals putting posters on a few things, but it wasn't. It was organised advertising and they were the biggest advertiser by far.
My point is, Sony have little eithics when it comes to advertising. Now they see adverts in games as their new advertising market. They can put adverts in free games, but there is no way I want adverts in games I buy. I want to excape the relentless sales tactics, in a form of entertainment I choose to buy and I don't choose to buy adverts for other things, when its the game I want to focus on. So if they want to bombard me with adverts, no thanks Sony, you'll end up undermining your own market.
WHAT!? I cant tell strangers where I live anymore!? Well damn, there go my Friday nights!
Yeah sure, what they do with the network is fine. But control over a network and control over a device are two different things! If they modify pieces of data that pass through them, I guess it's their right as we are using them as a conduit and they say there is no guarantee that it should behave in a way we expect it to, it's their property and they set it up to behave the way they want. However if they're sending us data that modifies our device without consent, no, that's not their right. It's my property. Our device can behave however we want it to and choose to modify it. They can block it at the server or alter data in their own server that we choose to send to them. But they cannot just take over our devices and change things around and delete shit and alter functionality.
Twinstiq, game news