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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.

8 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 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."

    2. 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.

    3. 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.

    4. 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.
    5. 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.

  2. 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.
  3. 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.