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Hacked Sony Emails Reveal That Sony Had Pirated Books About Hacking

Posted by timothy on from the elephant-books-all-the-way-down dept.

An anonymous reader writes Sony has done a lot of aggressive anti-piracy work in their time, which makes it that much funnier that pirated ebooks were found on their servers from the 2014 hacks that just went on to WikiLeaks. Better yet, the pirated books are educational books about hacking called "Inside Cyber Warfare" and "Hacking the Next Generation" from O'Reilly publishers.

33 of 59 comments (clear)

  1. Sony pirating e-books? by rcase5 · · Score: 2

    Is this Slashdot or The Onion?

    1. Re:Sony pirating e-books? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Is this Slashdot or The Onion?

      Slashdot.

    2. Re:Sony pirating e-books? by dinfinity · · Score: 3, Insightful

      One of my highschool teachers when inquired as to why he was allowed to drink coffee while we were not, responded with this:
      "Quod licet Iovi non licet bovi."

      I've always detested this way of thinking, as it is just a stupid rationalization for the real reason: "Whatever, fuck you, I can get away with it."

    3. Re:Sony pirating e-books? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Evidence, please? Unless you were on Sony's servers, or were the person doing the hacking, it seems to me that someone could insert whatever the hell they wanted into this cache of files. CEO of Sony watches nasty porn! -- says anonymous person who could've added the files and who apparently already has a grudge against Sony to begin with.

    4. Re:Sony pirating e-books? by rudy_wayne · · Score: 2

      Is this Slashdot or The Onion?

      both will make you cry...

      ZING!!

      But seriously. This is humorous and ironic, but not at all surprising. Every organization that has engaged in extensive "anti-piracy" actions has been found, almost without exception, to be involved in some sort of piracy themselves.

    5. Re:Sony pirating e-books? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Sony has used a GPL mp3 player in their root-kit CDs without providing the source code.

    6. Re:Sony pirating e-books? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Um, no it doesn't. That's not even close. It translates to "What is permissible for Jupiter is not permissible for an ox", meaning that gods can do what cattle cannot.

    7. Re:Sony pirating e-books? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      The problem ist that the assholes justifying their entitlement with this sentence are usually closer to the ox than they are to being a god.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    8. Re:Sony pirating e-books? by Opportunist · · Score: 2

      Oh sure, it's the great hacker conspiracy.

      Let's go with Occam's Razor, shall we?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    9. Re:Sony pirating e-books? by arth1 · · Score: 1

      That's a good thing. At least oxen exist.

    10. Re:Sony pirating e-books? by Immerman · · Score: 1

      And entitled assholes existing is a good thing because...?

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    11. Re:Sony pirating e-books? by arth1 · · Score: 1

      Because "I may not like you, but I don't want you dead."

      That kind of thinking is what makes us humans better than gods, who tend to be rather vengeful.

      But not as good as oxen. Which are really good when slathered and barbecued.

    12. Re:Sony pirating e-books? by Immerman · · Score: 1

      Who said anything about death? I thought we were discussing non-existence. How many unicorns died to establish their non-existence?

      For that matter, how many people have you barbecued? We should be delicious - biochemically similar to pork, and nice and tender since so few of us engage in significant amounts of physical labor.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    13. Re:Sony pirating e-books? by sconeu · · Score: 1

      Isn't the psychological term for it "projection"?

      *I* do it, therefore you must do it too!

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    14. Re:Sony pirating e-books? by Noah+Haders · · Score: 1

      you weren't allowed to drink coffee in high school? is that a mormon thing?

    15. Re:Sony pirating e-books? by dinfinity · · Score: 1

      Woops, I meant in class.

    16. Re:Sony pirating e-books? by arth1 · · Score: 1

      Who said anything about death? I thought we were discussing non-existence.

      What's the difference?

    17. Re:Sony pirating e-books? by hawguy · · Score: 1

      One of my highschool teachers when inquired as to why he was allowed to drink coffee while we were not, responded with this:
      "Quod licet Iovi non licet bovi."

      I've always detested this way of thinking, as it is just a stupid rationalization for the real reason: "Whatever, fuck you, I can get away with it."

      That's not a rationalization for "Whatever, fuck you, I can get away with it," thats exactly what it means.

      But really, what other answer did you expect? Sounds like you were disappointed that he didn't make some attempt at rationalization and instead he told you the truth.

    18. Re:Sony pirating e-books? by dinfinity · · Score: 2

      No, that is not what it means.

      There are legitimate cases where the proverb applies and he was very clearly implying this was such a case (his added reasoning was that teachers were better able to handle coffee without making a mess than adolescents). In fact, there are many legitimate cases encoded in law. One need only look at age limits to see that this is the case, although the juxtaposition of 'god' and 'cows/oxes' is perhaps too inflammatory for the proverb to be used often.

      Anyway, my point is that a lot of people in power positions place themselves above the law with (very) questionable rationalizations. We all do it when doing things such as speeding, but feelings of self-importance exacerbate the behavior.

    19. Re:Sony pirating e-books? by OneSizeFitsNoone · · Score: 1

      Actually, it's just the taking note of the reality of facts.

    20. Re:Sony pirating e-books? by OneSizeFitsNoone · · Score: 1

      "Do as I say, not as I do".

    21. Re:Sony pirating e-books? by Immerman · · Score: 1

      Ask the unicorns.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
  2. Is this news really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Most books on computing and "IT security" can be found right from Google as direct download links right from the search results. You don't even have to tip toe into and around spammy sites anymore. This is really true for any generally popular computer book.

  3. Re: Wrong Pirate by 91degrees · · Score: 1

    Sony is a big company that makes ebook readers. There are plausible explanations as to how they might have a legitimate non-DRM copy.

  4. Re: Wrong Pirate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    TFS just talks about "Sony", but it's not the entire Sony brand. This is just Sony Pictures Entertainment. Nothing to do with the ebook readers.

  5. Contributory Indirect Copyright Infringement!!!!!! by CanEHdian · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Slashdot is linking to Daily Dot is linking to a tweet from the author is linking to a pirated copy of the book!!! AARRRHHH!!!!!!!! They're all going to be charged with Conspiracy to Contributory Indirect Copyright Infringement of whatever the MPAA/RIAA/*AA write in their next bill to sign by their politician/employees.

    --
    When the copyright term is "forever minus a day", live every day like it's the last.
  6. Re: Wrong Pirate by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    Of all the books in the world, of THOSE two books?

    Besides, for something like this some "standard" dokuments that satisfy some, well, standards would be more likely.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  7. Re:Even if they did pirate the books by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No, it means that whoever wrote the book should now be entitled to a few bazillion bucks, payable by Sony. Or so says Sony et al. when it's the other way 'round.

    Why is this different now that Sony is accused instead of being the accuser?

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  8. Re: Wrong Pirate by Rashkae · · Score: 1

    You did see the part where those were O'Reilly books right? I can buy a legit pdf right this minute.

  9. Re:Contributory Indirect Copyright Infringement!!! by John.Banister · · Score: 1

    I don't think Tim O'Reilly cares.

  10. Re:Wrong Pirate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Doesn't surprise me. Who else would fear piracy the most, other than someone who'd do it themselves, if they could get away with it.

  11. Microsoft too? by zygotic+mitosis · · Score: 1

    Maybe 15, 20 years ago, I remember reading that someone had opened some (Win 98? Me?) binaries in an editor and found evidence of a warez signature. Google is failing me -- anyone remember this??

  12. my favorite by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    grand theft auto, a game about robbing raping and murdering, contains a copyright notice.