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Sony Gets Nasty With PSBreak Buyers

YokimaSun writes "The war between hackers and Sony over the PlayStation 3 has now taken an even more sinister turn, with Sony going after not just shops but actual buyers of the PSBreak dongle, threatening them with fines of many thousands of Euros and forcing them to sign cease-and-desist letters. It seems Sony will use any means necessary to thwart both homebrew and piracy on the PS3."

7 of 246 comments (clear)

  1. And what if they refuse? by Viol8 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Are Sony seriously going to sue people for not handing over their legal property to Sony?

    What is it with this company? Just how far up their own arses can they go?

    1. Re:And what if they refuse? by mcgrew · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What is it with this company? Just how far up their own arses can they go?

      As far as they want; XCP showed them that. Root and vandalise people's computers (including mine) and have no repercussions whatever -- nobody went to prison, even jail, they not only didn't go bankrupt it didn't affect sales at all. I can't for the life of me figure out why ANYBODY, especially nerds, would buy computer equipment from a company with a history of rooting their own paying customers' computers.

      If there is anybody who still buys stuff from Sony, please tell me how you can trust them any farther than you can throw a car?

  2. Useless by xenobyte · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How do they expect this to work?

    Sure you can sue if they use trademarked names like "Sony" or "PS3", but a dongle with a name like "Freedom" and containing no code or hardware copyrighted by Sony cannot be stopped.

    Yes, it is a device to circumvent copy protection but far from all European countries have laws banning such devices, and once they're in a European country the device can be moved freely to other countries.

    I would buy such a device, mostly just to spite Sony and their megalomania.

    --
    "For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong." -- H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) --
  3. Is Litigation all Sony Has? by BoRegardless · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If Sony didn't plan for this in the beginning, then I understand why they have resorted to this as a last gasp. That means there was a major hole in their business plan.

    Sony once held the mindshare Apple has now. For me, so many Sony items have had problems, that they are off my radar.

    The world moves on and a major player must move ahead of it, or at least with it or it dies. I just don't get the concept of a company suing the retail consumers of its hardware.

  4. Re:Well, I'm not buying one by Eraesr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You're right in that they're going about this the wrong way. However, I think the closed nature of the console is exactly what causes these cracks and hacks to appear. What Sony should do is open up a sandbox environment in the PS3 in which homebrew developers can run their own software without problems. I don't see why piracy and homebrew are always treated as one by these console developers. I do understand that it's probably harder to combat piracy if homebrew is allowed, but if this is taken into account when designing the system, the problem is probably much smaller. At least you take away the incentive of the homebrew communities to crack your system. That just leaves the pirates and you can continue fighting them while supporting the homebrew community.

  5. Re:Other OS was shut down by Lumpy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yes.

    Why has everyone IGNORED the glaring fact in the room.

    None of this crap was going on with any strength until sony became idiots and shut down the OtherOS function.

    It's their fault. They caused it, and they will lose.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  6. Re:People still buy shit from Sony? by Lumpy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why do I buy SONY?

    Because nobody makes a better Professional HD camcorder.
    Because nobody makes a better Windows Video editing platform outside of AVID. (No Adobe's products are not pro level)
    Because nobody makes a LIVE video production suite that is as capable...
    Because nobody makes a digital Video recording format that is as good as AVCHD or XDCAM.
    Because nobody makes a better digital video stream processor like Sony's.
    Because nobody makes a pocked field editing system like the PDWHR1.. I can have only 2 guys in the field to shoot and edit a small event and upload the thing before they pack up the car and leave, the thing will DIRECT SFTP the files to the server as they drive down the road.

    That's why. SONY OWNS the commercial production video market hands down. Because the other choices are mediocre or half assed with bad work-flows. Panasonic and JVC utterly suck in workflow.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.