Sony's Case Against Geohot Has Been Settled

matt_gaia writes "According to Sony Computer Entertainment America, they have reached a settlement with GeoHot (George Hotz), where Hotz has consented to a permanent injunction, but still denies any wrong-doing in the whole affair. Sony said, 'Our motivation for bringing this litigation was to protect our intellectual property and our consumers. We believe this settlement and the permanent injunction achieve this goal.'" I wonder if Anonymous will proceed with their anti-Sony campaign.

Comments

Oh, stuff it.

[intellitech]

'Our motivation for bringing this litigation was to protect our intellectual property and our consumers.'

If SCEA was ever interested in protecting consumers, they never would have brought suit against GeoHot in the first place.

Re:Oh, stuff it.

[gstoddart]

If SCEA was ever interested in protecting consumers, they never would have brought suit against GeoHot in the first place.

That part is so they can act like part of the motivation is so people don't write hacks to their modded systems that lets them cheat at the on-line games.

I'm of the opinion that it's 99% protecting of their IP/locking down the console, and 1% protecting consumers ... and even that only as a PR thing.

Re:Oh, stuff it.

[Anonymous Coward]

As opposed to Slashdot, which isn't?

Just because you agree with them doesn't mean they're NOT rabid fanboys.

Re:Oh, stuff it.

[CelticWhisper]

Their motivation doesn't matter. The principle remains - Sony is trying to keep people from using their hardware how they want. While it's completely within Sony's rights to deny use of their network, the fact is that they flat-out stole a feature that was advertised as a major selling point for the hardware and are trying to blame one hacker for their own misdeeds.

I've made this analogy before but I'll make it again. If someone buys a hammer and files the ends down into sharp spikes, then goes out and starts hitting people in the head with their weaponized tool, you prosecute them for causing bodily harm to other people, not for the act of modifying a hammer. Maybe you can take the modification into account as evidence of premeditation for the actual crime, but you don't treat it as a crime itself. Same thing with the PS3. If people modify their PS3s and then use the modifications to play pirated games, game makers can go after them in civil court for pirating games. However, it should never be permitted to pro^H^Hersecute people for modifying what they own.

Re:Oh, stuff it.

[kimvette]

I responded many years ago before the rootkit by not buying Sony products and by recommending Samsung, LG, or even Vizio screens for clients who need large wall-mounted screens in their offices, conference rooms, etc.

I started avoided Sony when I found their replacement parts costs to be obscene when I wanted to repair my DVP-S360 DVD player - I paid a premium for the Sony for the feature set (mainly the full-feature front-panel controls) and it turned out the entire run was bad and became known for failing just after warranty. I priced out replacement parts but by then competitors were offering DVD players that could play various mpeg4 videos and the part I needed cost more than competitor offerings, and I could even get a Sony DVD player for a few dollars more.

Another thing is in a lot of Sony products they use resistors in place of fuses, making troubleshooting more time consuming. Between that and cold solder joints in their televisions, it was obvious Sony decided to just start phoning it in, earning sales now based on their past reputation for being innovators and a quality manufacturer.

Now they engage in shameless malfeasance (installing rootkits on hard drives of legitimate paying customers), engage in fraud (sell product based on features, e.g., OtherOS, and then take it away) and then attack the consumer directly when they try to take back control of their own hardware and help others enjoy their right of first sale.

Then, in various products (from MP3 players to notebooks to cameras) they kept pushing their stupid MemoryStick form factor, despite the existence of very workable existing standards (CF, MMC/SD, or even XD), an obvious means to increase revenue through their own costly proprietary (yet slow and low capacity) sole-sourced accessories.

When did this pattern start? Remember when Sony used to be pro consumer (e.g., sony walkman, VCRs and the betamax case, dual deck cassette systems, etc)? Did their anti-consumer agenda start when Sony bought up music labels?

Frak Sony. They're not too large to fail and if enough people say ENOUGH, they will either fail or they will change their ways and bring back the Sony we once knew.

Re:Oh, stuff it.

[poetmatt]

Sony could help but dismiss as fast as possible once they realized they didn't even have a shred of a case in california. I'd bet money the settlement involves paying off all of Hotz's legal fees.

It cracks me up that they state that hotz accepted a permanent injunction as a "loss" but it doesn't even say what the injunction was for.

So Sony basically ran the hell away on this. I'm actually quite surprised if Hotz agreed to keep this settlement private, as it would do wonders to not have it private.

Re:Oh, stuff it.

[adam.dorsey]

Parent post brought to you by Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc.

Re:Oh, stuff it.

[Anonymous Coward]

No, it's because they're people who have spent large amounts of money on a PS3 so that they can do one particular thing with it: play fucking video games. Nothing Hotz has done has helped them in any way, and most of it has hurt them. His original hack led to the OtherOS removal. Most of these people didn't really care then, although some pretended to.

Then came the real working hack. First we got slews of updates as Sony tried to stay one step ahead, which was just a giant headache for people who just wanted to play a damn game. Then cheating became rampant in all the major online games, something we used a console specifically to avoid. Then the Anonymous DDoS against PSN which meant we couldn't even sign in.

Now, you could (rightfully) claim that Hotz wasn't responsible for any of this. Sony removed OtherOS, Sony pushed out the endless updates, other wanna be crackers wrote the cheats, and Anonymous ran the DDoS without Hotz consent. But as a gamer, I don't give a fuck. A system that I truly enjoyed has become a greater and greater headache, and it all ties back directly to Hotz. And I, like a lot of gamers, just want it to go away.

Re:Oh, stuff it.

[Runaway1956]

It wasn't illegal to modify the shotgun - it was illegal to modify the shotgun beyond established parameters which changes that weapon from a "shotgun" to a concealable weapon, ie, a "pistol". The shotgun owner has every right to change out the firing pin, to change the magazine, to put riflings in the barrel, to change the sites, or even to mount a laser pointer on the shotgun. He is prohibited from using it as a concealed weapon. So, your analogy falls short.

Re:Oh, stuff it.

[tophermeyer]

The rational nature of your logic is truly astounding sir.

When presented with a rational explanation of how an invested but uninterested third party would desire simply that disruptions to their service be resolved, you've parried with the Booo-fucking-hoooo defense. Bravo. Surely this sets the stage for further meaningful discussion.

For the record, I totally agree with the GP. I bought a PS3 for a streamlined walled garden online gaming experience. I don't want script kiddies messing with my games, and I don't want to have to sit through a 20 minute update process whenever I want to play. Which, as a result of my twice a month gaming habit, happens to be every goddamn time I turn the thing on.

Re:Oh, stuff it.

[i.r.id10t]

Perfectly legal to do it. Just gotta get a tax stamp from the BATFE first.

Only firearms modification that isn't legal (on a fed level) is making a full auto - that particular registry has been closed off to new additions since May 1986.

Re:Oh, stuff it.

[Man On Pink Corner]

Correct, and that law wasn't OK, either. They started with shotguns because after all, who but a bank robber would want to tinker with the barrel of a shotgun? They moved on to mandating shower heads that dribble like they belong in a Flomax commercial, water-saving toilets that have to be flushed twice, and cold medicine that requires a 14-day waiting period.

Now they've made it illegal to take your Playstation apart and tell anyone else what you see inside, but hey, as long as it stops those cheaters and pirates, all's fair in law and love, huh?

In short, GTFO of my country, or at least stop voting, kthxbai.

Re:Oh, stuff it.

[tophermeyer]

it should never be permitted to pro^H^Hersecute people for modifying what they own.

But in this case Sony is clearly not interested in the hardware. Sony is interested in preventing people from modifying Sony software, which the license agreement indicates the end user definitely does not own.

IP law is of course something that is hotly debated, especially with respect to software licenses. But under the current law Sony has a legal expectation that users not modify their software. If we don't like that we should work on modifying IP law. Actively seeking to violate it doesn't make hacker communities look noble, it makes us/them look like cheap teenagers looking to play pirated games for free.

Re:Oh, stuff it.

[Belial6]

Hotz hurt them? Is that the same logic you use when you beat your girlfriend? "Well, I wouldn't have had to hit the bitch if she didn't talk back."

Anything Sony did to their customers is Sony's fault. Period.

Re:Oh, stuff it.

[tophermeyer]

So we should just give up on the prospect of a "clean" gaming community and accept the intrusion of exploiters as inevitable? Hell no. That's like saying "Goatse's are inevitable so I might as well just make that my Christmas card".

A perfectly walled garden is unattainable. But if in the pursuit of perfection we happen to maintain a fairly well manicured garden with a minimum of intrusions, I'd accept that. And considering how much I pay for the console and game, It's not unreasonable for me to expect it.

Re:Oh, stuff it.

[smelch]

I don't see what any of this has to do with Hotz, or the people who bought the console for OtherOS. You're not the only person in the world, no matter how much you paid for your system. Sony fucked the dog on this one by removing OtherOS, Hotz restored his PS3 to the way he wanted to use it, sorry his work around broke what you wanted but Sony did it. And all the bitching in the world won't make it otherwise.

Re:Oh, stuff it.

[VGPowerlord]

I was going to say "your right to a walled garden stops where my right to tinker with the things I've bought begins," but I'll go farther and say that it is depressing that our roles in society as consumers has eclipsed and dominates are status in society as citizens. Because even if, at the end of the day, you recognize that your convenience is not important enough to justify legal action someone who has tinkered with what they've purchased, there are thousands and thousands of people who do not recognize that.

Except that you intentionally bought a device that is a walled garden when there are plenty of devices of the same type that aren't walled. And then choose to bitch about it being a walled garden.

You should try this fancy process called "voting with your wallet."

Re:Oh, stuff it.

[jusdisgi]

They had a reason: they didn't want to support it any more.

Yes, that is a reason. It's not an acceptable reason at all. They billed OtherOS as a feature when they sold the console. Then they took it away. I don't give a damn what their reasons were, that's fraudulent.

Re:Oh, stuff it.

[zeroshade]

What about those who purchased it expressly for the OtherOS Functionality? Anyone who purchased it for the OtherOS functionality (to have that AND be able to play games) was then legitimately wronged by Sony.

Re:Oh, stuff it.

[jusdisgi]

They moved on to mandating shower heads that dribble like they belong in a Flomax commercial, water-saving toilets...

Yeah, how dare we regulate products that use water when 80% of the country is facing a catastrophic water shortage within a couple decades...

Re:Oh, stuff it.

[Man On Pink Corner]

Yeah, how dare we regulate products that use water when 80% of the country is facing a catastrophic water shortage within a couple decades...

Funny, I remember hearing that a couple decades ago. And yet the stuff still keeps falling from the sky.

(Or maybe you meant to say something like, "Because a bunch of dumbasses built golf courses in the desert 2000 miles away, you're not allowed to own a toilet that works.")

Re:Oh, stuff it.

[Labcoat Samurai]

It wasn't illegal to modify the shotgun - it was illegal to modify the shotgun beyond established parameters which changes that weapon from a "shotgun" to a concealable weapon, ie, a "pistol".

And, analogously, it's not illegal to modify your PS3 either. You can swap the hard drive, for example. It's only against the rules to modify it beyond established parameters which changes it from a game console to a device that supports piracy.

The shotgun owner has every right to change out the firing pin, to change the magazine, to put riflings in the barrel, to change the sites, or even to mount a laser pointer on the shotgun. He is prohibited from using it as a concealed weapon. So, your analogy falls short.

You know, I actually tend to agree that people should have the right to modify their consoles. I also don't see a problem with modifying your shotgun. If it's illegal to conceal a shotgun, fine, arrest someone for concealing a sawed off shotgun, but don't arrest them for sawing it off in the first place. Making it capable of being concealed is not the crime any more than making your PS3 capable of pirating should be the issue.

So.... I guess I think it *is* a good analogy, but otherwise I agree with you

Re:Oh, stuff it.

[DurendalMac]

Precisely. An injunction on Hotz will do absolutely nothing for Sony except prevent him from doing further cracks. The information is out there in the hands of many, many people. Shutting Hotz up won't do a damned thing to shut everyone else up. The cat is out of the bag.

This was a quick settlement to avoid a precedent.

Re:Oh, stuff it.

[fightinfilipino]

But as a gamer, I don't give a fuck. A system that I truly enjoyed has become a greater and greater headache, and it all ties back directly to Hotz. And I, like a lot of gamers, just want it to go away.

and this is the woefully-apathetic stance that many gamers apparently take when it comes to rights.

let me ask you this: do you use an iDevice? and i mean an iPhone, iPad, iPod, or any other similar Apple product?

maybe not. do you use an Android-based device then? a PC? a car?

imagine if your ability to use those devices for your own personal use was severely curtailed somehow. no jailbreaking on the iPhone. no modding/building/upgrading your PC. no open-app environment on Android devices.

what's being debated here is whether consumers should be dictating what corporations ultimately produce, or if corporations should ultimately dictate all of the things you can do with their "product". we're rapidly approaching the point where goods produced by corporations are becoming so advanced that the average consumer, not knowing the internal workings of their own products, are legally barred from plumbing the software and hardware behind those products. consumers increasingly have no choice but to accept what a corporation dictates. it's not just a matter of market choice, either. ALL corporations are pushing for increased control over the consumer.

considering that gamers started out historically as hackers themselves, building their own PCs, operating systems, software, game ideas, etc., this is a sad direction to see.

Re:Oh, stuff it.

[sortadan]

The actual settlement was posted here

It basically says that Hotz (and associates) can't mess with Sony's stuff any more (distribute a 'circumvention device') or encourage other to do so unless congress or an other court rules that Sony's terms of service aren't legal or enforceable. If he breaks this agreement then he has to pay 10k each time, up to a cap of 250k. It also says that if there are further disputes about this from Sony they will be in a California court, and from Hotz they will be in a New Jersey court.

Re:Oh, stuff it.

[betterunixthanunix]

Nothing Hotz has done has helped them in any way

...his work could have opened up the possibility of games from small development companies and individuals. You know, the sort of people who cannot afford Sony's fees.

His original hack led to the OtherOS removal

No, Sony removed it, because they have no respect for their customers or the countries they attempted to evade taxes in by using OtherOS to label the PS3 as a personal computer.

we got slews of updates as Sony tried to stay one step ahead, which was just a giant headache for people who just wanted to play a damn game.

Sounds like Sony is to blame for the headache. Frankly, not blaming Sony for botching their ECDSA implementation and opening the door to a simple cryptanalytic attack seems a bit preposterous to me. They could have used NSS, OpenSSL, Microsoft's implementation, or any of dozens of other vetted and widely reviewed cryptography libraries which wouldn't have that sort of glaring error.

I honestly cannot understand gamers who defend Sony, as if Sony was some kind of innocent company under siege from evil hackers. Sony has a history of disrespecting their customers, but you defend them. Hotz tried to open the PS3 up and tell other PS3 owners how to unlock their own property, and you blame him for Sony's actions.

Wow....

[grub]

I'm amazed at the comments on the linked Playstation page.

Some folks are (almost) calling for Hotz' head. And people think Apple's fans drink the KoolAid...

Re:Wow....

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm amazed at the comments on the linked Playstation page.

Some folks are (almost) calling for Hotz' head. And people think Apple's fans drink the KoolAid...

You see people identify with products all over the place - and if you look closely at your life, you may be doing it too.

I've seen people base their identities on what they have; which is quite a childish thing to do if you ask a developmental psychologist - basing your identity on what you do means you're stuck in adolescence by the way.

Go to a photo site and you'll see people get all riled up if you say anything against "their" brand of camera. Same goes for power tools - you'll see Ridgid and DeWalt fanboys.

Cars - same thing.

Apple's fanboys have nothing on the Harley Davidson fanboys.

Re:Wow....

[Shimdaddy]

I don't think it's Sony astroturfing. I think it's just gamers who see action like GeoHotz's as a gateway to piracy -- if they spend a good deal of their time in online games (which can be totally ruined by cheaters), I think their comments are understandable (though I still don't agree with them).

Re:Wow....

[elashish14]

All the commenters have PSN accounts and are reading what appears to be the official PS blog. In other words, they must be in KoolAid up to the ears.

Re:Wow....

[kimvette]

Go to a photo site and you'll see people get all riled up if you say anything against "their" brand of camera. Same goes for power tools - you'll see Ridgid and DeWalt fanboys.

So true - go to any Nikon forum and you'll see Canon fans posting crap, go to Canon forums and see Nikon fans posting crap - usually in the form of gross misinformation to "prove" their choice of camera is better, completely ignoring the fact that they're just tools and there is no one single BFH that works for all situations.

It seems every market has that kind of blind follower - be it cars (okay admittedly my username includes my favorite car, but I don't make excuses for GM. GM sucks and should have been allowed to fail, IMHO), computers (witness Windows vs. Mac vs. Linux crap here on a daily basis), phones (witness iPhone vs. Android crap here on a daily basis), sports (Sox suck! No, Yankees suck! No, you suck! No, you suck!), and so on. People like something and raise them to the level if idols and worship them for some reason. They forget sports is just entertainment, that technology is just tools, and cars are tools with an artistic shell.

  I hate most Mercedes vehicles, but that doesn't mean I need to go trolling about how much greater the cars I like are better than Mercedes - because the cars I choose for my purposes would not fit the purposes or tastes of the next person. Likewise, in the past I have chosen vehicles I HATED because they were practical for my purpose and at the time 99% of my driving was for business, and no matter how you try, you simply can't haul a load of servers in a sportscar or even a sports sedan.

Irrational people will be irrational, douchebags will be douchebags, and rational people will be rational (although generally rational people may on occasion seek irrational enjoyment from mocking douchebags and trolls). Some people feel the irrational need to support the idea that the product/team/person/thing/place they like/bought/watch/live is best, and therefore everyone else makes the wrong decision because their choice sucks.

But, let me wrap this up by saying that Sony sucks - and I am not being irrational here. ;)

Re:Wow....

[Sir_Sri]

In their defence, the whole purpose for the vast majority of users when buying a PS3 was to have a gaming machine and some semblance of fair competition in multiplayer. The forums are naturally more full of fanboys than anywhere else. Any PS3 hack directly interferes with the notion of a fair playing session against other people. As much as it got Sony free press, PS2 linux... I'm sorry PS3 linux was only ever there to try and skirt around EU import tariffs. It didn't work. Sony really doesn't want you using PS3's for astrophysics clusters or airforce research (I helped build a cluster for astrophysics work). They sell at a loss because they want you to buy games. I'm sure the airforce cluster is great press, but the vast majority of the research just costs them money they don't get a tax break for.

All MMO's go after botters. Shouldn't I be able to run whatever software I want on my own machine?

The olympics go after people who have too much cold medication or whatever else. Shouldn't you be allowed to take whatever your doctor recommends for your health?

The US congress thought steroid use in baseball was so important they dragged barry bonds and co. to washington to talk to them. This is when they are trying to deal with a trillion dollar deficit, they're willing to waste days of peoples time on steroids in baseball. And you think sony fanboys are overreacting to a hack? At least the sony fanboys are actually participating in, and affected by cheaters directly.

Not that Sony is blameless. They should never have allowed 'other OS linux' on the PS3 in the first place, they should not have gone around threatening to sue everyone under the sun who might have been intrigued by geohot. But if you're a MMO player, you're glad to see the banhammer go out to gold farmers, botters etc. Sony is trying to balance on one hand the developers and hardcore gamers (who roughly have aligned interests in terms of security), and hacker types who should be free to toy with their own stuff, but not at the expense of the network experience of everyone else.

Lets be honest. Sure, a PS3 jailbreak hack lets you run homebrew games, and may re-enable partially functional PS2 emulation, and brings back linux support. But it also lets you mess with the memory state of your machine and hack the game as you're running and it lets you pirated games. Homebrew has no real value on a PS3. PS2 emulation, I'm not sure on, I'm betting sony didn't just take it out for the fun of it, it's probably really hard, if not impossible to do properly and provide a good experience. Linux... well it shipped with linux so I guess they should still support it. But that goes into the next problem, which is the whole network experience of 40 odd million players (obviously not all of whom actually use the network functionality) can be easily disrupted by even a handful of people hacking which is really a serious problem. Avoiding that is sort of the point of having a console in the first place, and being able to steal stuff from the playstation store isn't exactly something I support either. I don't think pirated games (blu-ray/DVD) is a huge issue, though I could be wrong, I suppose once the hack is out here some cheap PS3 game knockoff manufacturers could pose problems if they want to get into that business.

Re:Wow....

[Narishma]

It's not just the PS Blog. Go to just about any gaming website and read the comments about this story and you'll see the vast majority support Sony. It's just on tech websites like /. or ars technica that you see a lot of people against Sony.

Re:Wow....

[tophermeyer]

I saw someone else post this point elsewhere on the thread.

Gamers want a smooth gaming experience. Most gamers expect that to entail an online network free from hackers exploiting games and not being required to sit through 20-30 minute updates every two weeks. The majority of gamers see Hotz as opening doors for hackers/exploiters and as being responsible for Sony's prevention measures.

Outside of the pro-Linux "software should be free" crowds, most people just want to see Hotz go away.

Re:Wow....

[quickgold192]

Like shimdaddy said, you have to understand their perspective. If you're reading slashdot, there's a good chance that you like to tinker with stuff and zap yourself. If you're reading the PS3 blog, you're probably a gamer who has probably dealt with cheating before. When they hear "modded box," they automatically think "aimbot" because that's been their only experience with modded consoles. When we hear "modded box" we think of a job well done. They can't understand why someone would *want* to modify their box unless they wanted to cheat.

Re:Wow....

[Anubis IV]

Apple's fanboys have nothing on the Harley Davidson fanboys.

Pshaw. Those bikers don't hold a candle to us iFanboys of the Cult of Steve. Their bikes aren't made of brushed aluminum, their carbon footprint is disgusting, and I think they might even use paint rather than anodization for their coloration process. How last century.

I'd go on, but I just got a call on my iPhone. Apparently there's a social event being put on by the local Mac User Group tonight, and I need time to load my (PRODUCT) RED iPod (to show my support for eliminating AIDS in Africa, of course) with my favorite tunes. Plus, choosing which black turtleneck to wear can be such a pain sometimes. If only there was an app for that...

Re:Wow....

[Travelsonic]

No, you SPECULATED that you know how, but unless we have any hard number, any guess can be just as valid or invalid. And being a gateway to piracy.... means what? Torrent technology is used for piracy, P2P is too, and FTP, but the protocols are not outlawed because they have substantial non-infringing uses too.

Re:Wow....

[Alsee]

If you're reading the PS3 blog, you're probably a gamer who has probably dealt with cheating before.

Yes, if you're reading the PS3 blog you've probably dealt with LOTS cheating before. In particular let me run down the forms you cheating you deal with on a daily basis, and the approximate percentage of each category:

Cheating category 1, 55%:
You (meaning the PS3 typical blog reader bitching about cheating) are a clueless loser and you got your ass handed to you by some player who has no-life... a player who has 500 hours of game experience... a player who has expert game knowledge. In your non-existent game knowledge and non-existent game skills you know of no way to do what the expert player did. And obviously it's not possible for anyone to be that much better than you. Obviously they cheated.

Cheating category 2, 37%:
You have no clue how the internet works, and you don't understand how internet lag and packet loss can cause strange behavior in games, so every time there's a lag glitch or packet loss glitch in the game and the game-effect is bad for you / helps your opponent, obviously they cheated.

Cheating category 3, 8%:
People actually cheating by exploiting bugs in the game itself.

Cheating category 4, ZERO PERCENT:
People actually cheating in any way that is even remotely related to Geohot.

-

Unsuccessful discovery?

[Dachannien]

Dollars to donuts says that SCEA's ridiculous discovery campaign (under the pretense of a jurisdictional dispute) either already turned up less than they'd hoped or was starting to draw enough opposition from the subpoena targets to make this an extremely expensive battle that could never possibly achieve their desired result.

Re:Unsuccessful discovery?

[melikamp]

Why not? He doesn't get anything out of the prolonged litigation. The permanent injunction is not a loss, but just a way for Sony to save face. It's almost a way of paying Sony for crediting him and publicizing his discovery to such a wide audience. Basically a victory for Hotz and everyone who wanted to mod their hardware.

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Re:money back!

[Anonymous Coward]

It was stated from the start that any unused donations would go to the EFF, actually.

It's a pity he settled, but given the corruption of the USA's court system compared to the free world's, and the USA's imaginary property tulipmania, it's understandable.

Re:So... win/win right?

[3vi1]

>> Sony gets to keep their closed system

Right. Because when Hotz settled, all the keys magically disappeared from the systems of the hackers who had already downloaded them - and fail0verflow ceased to exist.

Think of the children!

[Mister Fright]

Sure, it's protecting your intellectual property. But how is something like this protecting consumers? From what?

Bullied into settlement. Nice.

[erroneus]

When you have a super-heavyweight company like Sony coming after you, issues such as "merit" simply don't matter as much as how much hurt they can put on you.

Meanwhile, Sony wouldn't have settled so easily if they didn't have something to lose in all of this. I hope our "hero" Geohot was aware of this. It was kind of like our hero, "Lindows" who fought back against Microsoft and won, for the most part, by threatening Microsoft's trademark over Windows. So I have to wonder if anyone else can pick up this ball where Geohot left it. It's not like the secret isn't out.

What Sony Really Said

[Anonymous Coward]

[COMPELLED TRUTH=ON]'Our motivation for bringing this litigation was to protect our intellectual property from our consumers.’[/TRUTH]

looking for these?

[Anonymous Coward]

erk: C0 CE FE 84 C2 27 F7 5B D0 7A 7E B8 46 50 9F 93 B2 38 E7 70 DA CB 9F F4 A3 88 F8 12 48 2B E2 1B
riv: 47 EE 74 54 E4 77 4C C9 B8 96 0C 7B 59 F4 C1 4D
pub: C2 D4 AA F3 19 35 50 19 AF 99 D4 4E 2B 58 CA 29 25 2C 89 12 3D 11 D6 21 8F 40 B1 38 CA B2 9B 71 01 F3 AE B7 2A 97 50 19
    R: 80 6E 07 8F A1 52 97 90 CE 1A AE 02 BA DD 6F AA A6 AF 74 17
    n: E1 3A 7E BC 3A CC EB 1C B5 6C C8 60 FC AB DB 6A 04 8C 55 E1
    K: BA 90 55 91 68 61 B9 77 ED CB ED 92 00 50 92 F6 6C 7A 3D 8D
  Da: C5 B2 BF A1 A4 13 DD 16 F2 6D 31 C0 F2 ED 47 20 DC FB 06 70

Re:looking for these?

[TheRaven64]

Mod parent down. There's no point in modding it up, because now that Sony has 'achieved [its] goal' no one will possibly be able to read the parent post nor make use of its contents, no matter how high it is moderated.

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[account_deleted]

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Re:Pretty nice actually

[chammy]

Sony didn't plug any leak. The ps3 master keys don't go away with a ruling by some court. Softmods, homebrew, etc will still continue coming out like they were prior to the settlement. Some people might be scared but others probably still have an axe to grind.

Re:Pretty nice actually

[PRMan]

I went to Fry's this weekend and asked the guys at the desk for hand sanitizer when I realized that I had accidentally touched a Sony product.

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[account_deleted]

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Intimidation vs. precedent

[fprefect]

I'm sure if Geohot hadn't been so diligent about his methods and avoiding the various license traps, they'd have gladly pushed this through to the bitter end and made an example out of him.

Clearly Sony is happy to use the legal system to intimidate modders, but isn't interested it taking this case far enough to establish a legal precedent that runs contrary their own interests. Must be nice to have deep enough pockets that you can throw lawyers at a problem until it goes away, or you lose interest and "settle".

That's just a terribly poor analogy

[name_already_taken]

Your analogy doesn't work. In some cases, it is illegal to modify something you own. Going with the weapon theme, a sawed-off shotgun comes to mind. Even if you have a legitimate reason to make the modification, it's still illegal, in the US, to reduce the length of a shotgun to less than 26" overall and an 18" barrel. Doesn't matter if such a modification could make the weapon more useful during legal use.

Wait a minute - you're comparing wanting to use product features that were advertised by the manufacturer and then taken away, to something that is specifically prohibited by Federal law?

Shotguns are not advertised as having the feature of being able to saw off the barrels to a shorter length. Many people do saw off the barrels to the legal length, but no shotgun manufacturer advertises this as a selling point, regardless of how useful it might be.

Sony advertised that the PS3 product could both run "Other Operating Systems" such as linux, and it could also use the PlayStation Network. Those are both useful features, and they are not violations of Federal law (which your shotgun example would be).

They then updated the software on the product (PS3) such that you could either choose to retain the Other OS functionality, or the PSN functionality, but not both. That is stealing, or if it's not, it's at least the intentional introduction of a defect into the product. Customers should either retain all the advertised functionality of the product, or be compensated for the loss of that functionality.

Here's a car analogy:

You buy a new Toyota Boringmobile. It gets cold where you live, so you buy it based on Toyota advertising that it has heated seats. They also advertise that is has the ability to safely transport you and your family from place to place. Those are two advertised features: 1. Safe transportation, 2. heated seats.

You pay money for the car. Toyota gives you title to, and possession of, the car. You drive it home. You are happy.

Toyota sends you a notice: "Bring your Boringmobile into any Toyota dealership for a free service to make sure it continues to fulfill it's promise of safe (if rather dull) transportation". There's a recall on the tires or something like that.

You visit your Toyota dealership, and they replace the tires with new ones which work exactly like the old ones, but you needed to do that for safety's sake - Toyota's notice to you more or less said so. At the same time, Toyota disables the heated seats.

Wait a minute! You paid for heated seats! But they don't work any more. Toyota says "Well, you agreed to that in the terms of service - it was on page 38 of the agreement you agreed to by driving to the dealership"

But wait a minute, contract law doesn't work like that - they can't take features back without compensating you (Generally in a contract, "consideration" i.e. money, has to change hands in exchange for taking or providing goods and/or services). You take Toyota to court (most likely as part of a class action), and get either money or your heated seat functionality back.

What has happened here is that Sony has stolen functionality from the owners of a physical product that was bought and paid for.

The proper shotgun analogy is that you had a double-barreled shotgun and you could shoot both barrels, or just use them to store two shotgun rounds if you chose to never fire the shotgun. After an update, your Sony shotgun will now only fire the first barrel. The second barrel is now just for storing a spare round. Don't like that your gun doesn't work as advertised any more? Sorry, it had to be done so that you could continue to use Sony ammunition. Except that it didn't, did it?

Re:Value of homebrew

[Lumpy]

Because it's something he cant do or incapable of learning and is worthless to him so it must be worthless to everyone else.

Leaked PDF detailing the injunction terms

[polyp2000]

Didnt take long for the details to get leaked..

Here is the info you are looking for
127-stipulation.pdf

N :)

Re:Leaked PDF detailing the injunction terms

[AnonymmousCoward]

So to sum this up, basically Hotz lost. Sony has specifically barred him from doing anything with the ps3 (besides playing it; unless I missed something?), and in return the lawsuit is dropped, but essentially Hotz won nothing. I say he, and all his donors, got the shaft.

Re:Leaked PDF detailing the injunction terms

[vegiVamp]

So if I read that right, GeoHot is now
  * bound by any Sony eula, regardless of wether he ever saw it
  * prohibited from opening up any Sony product even to simply replace a fuse

Well played, Sony.

Re:So... win/win right?

[mrchaotica]

No. The best possible outcome would have been a precedent-setting judgement against Sony. Property law -- up to and including the anti-circumvention clause of the DMCA -- was on Hotz's side, but until that gets made clear in court companies like Sony will continue to pretend that their Imaginary Property rights somehow trump device owners' actual property rights. And the longer that pretense is allowed to persist, the more people might actually start to believe it.

Re:Dear Sony staffer

[jdgeorge]

And mine too, apparently. Really cowardly way to go about supporting the company, guys.

You made an unsubstantiated, inflamatory implication in your post, accusing Sony of astroturfing their forums. As if there aren't plenty of Sony fanboys who would do that for Sony, for free.

Your comment was modded 40% Troll (and 40% Interesting and 10% Insightful, so far) as a result. You seriously think it's Sony employees/fans who are modding your Slashdot post down?

I'd speculate that the Troll mods on your post have nothing to do with supporting Sony.

Re:Value of homebrew

[smelch]

Dude, you're a complete dipshit asshole. I'm sorry, I'm just trying to tell you the truth here. When I was in Algebra with my first graphing calculator I wrote all kinds of games for it, not because the hardware was real advanced or because I could get good performance out of it, but because it was there and the platform was neat. I made something fun on a calculator that I can take everywhere and send to other people. How cool is that? Of course I could have written something much faster with color on a PC, but who gives a shit?

Now I write a lot of XNA stuff, not because the Xbox is faster or more suitable for anything but because I want to write a game on the XBox, its a cool platform. Sure, it also runs on windows when I do that, but I only test on Windows before pushing to the 360, and often have to tweak things that worked on windows but not on the 360. Its not about how close to the hardware I am, or using PPC or the gamepad even. Its a platform, I want to know how to use it. Just because you aren't interested in it doesn't mean anything. Its cool to do something like that on a game console.

I wrote stuff for my Droid when I first got it too. I wrote a little app that pulled the list of videos from my computer and I could play or queue them up to be played on the PC and it also had basic remote-like functionality (Stop, pause, rewind, fast forward). I have never, ever used it beyond testing. So why do it? Because I fucking wanted to and it was mine and it was interesting and it was an end unto itself. Nobody gives a shit what you think about homebrew or anything else they want to do with their property. Its their property so fuck Sony and fuck you. Have you ever considered the brewing itself is the reward? Clearly you don't do any development, or you're a pretty shitty one if you don't get that.

GeoHot settlement info...

[sortadan]

The settlement was posted here

It basically says that Hotz (ans associates) can't mess with Sony's shit (distribute a 'circumvention device') or encourage other to do so any more unless congress or an other court rules that Sony's terms of service aren't legal or enforceable. If he does then he has to pay 10k each time, up to a cap of 250k. It also says that if there are further disputes about this from they will be California, and from Hotz they will be in New Jersey.

From BlogSpot comments...
"George Hotz said... I will address the donations in a forthcoming post, and I think people will be happy"