Sony Update Bricks Playstations

Stoobalou writes "A controversial update which was seeded by Sony in order to remove the ability to run Linux on the Playstation 3 games console has caused a storm of complaints. The 3.21 firmware upgrade, which removes the security hole provided by the 'Install Other OS' widget used by lots of educational institutions and hackers alike, also removes the console's ability to play games... turning it into a very expensive doorstop."

Comments

Re:Is this even legal?

[Theaetetus]

I wonder whether the intentional removal of a major feature which was present at time of purchase, and which for many was the primary reason for said purchase, is in any way actionable.

Aside from what others have said regarding the EULA, which really does control here, if you wanted to go to the Uniform Commercial Code and sue the retailer for breach of an implied warranty as jimicus suggests, you'd have an additional problem:

2-315. Implied Warranty: Fitness for Particular Purpose.
Where the seller at the time of contracting has reason to know any particular purpose for which the goods are required and that the buyer is relying on the seller's skill or judgment to select or furnish suitable goods, there is unless excluded or modified under the next section an implied warranty that the goods shall be fit for such purpose.

Installing a secondary OS may have been your particular purpose, but a retailer wouldn't know that... It's something that less than 1% of purchasers would do. Furthermore, even if you told them expressly, "I'm purchasing this to install Linux," note that second clause - "buyer is relying on the seller's skill or judgment to select or furnish suitable goods." You most likely know a lot more about Linux and hacking PS3s than a sales mook at Best Buy or Gamestop. And finally, I guarantee that on the back of your receipt is a statement that the seller expressly excludes any implied warranties of fitness for a particular purpose.

/I'm not your lawyer, this isn't legal advice, and should not be relied on for any reason

Re:Par for the course?

[Idiomatick]

Agreed but who says you can't both be commiting fraud? And I believe GP meant that they wouldn't accept your return if it was a different ps3.

Also, I'm the last person to defend apple but... Apple likely won't allow less ram because they want to ensure some kind of decent experience. Windows7 might RUN on 500MB of ram but the experience would be crappy, and you'd likely have to run in ugly mode to keep it quick enough to be useable. Though, I have no idea of what OS 10.6 looks like at 1GB, maybe just as shitty as win7 @ .5G.