Slashdot Mirror
Sony Agrees To Pay Millions To Gamers To Settle PS3 Linux Debacle (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: After six years of litigation, Sony is now agreeing to pay the price for its 2010 firmware update that removed support for the Linux operating system in the PlayStation 3. Sony and lawyers representing as many as 10 million console owners reached the deal on Friday. Under the terms of the accord, (PDF) which has not been approved by a California federal judge yet, gamers are eligible to receive $55 if they used Linux on the console. The proposed settlement, which will be vetted by a judge next month, also provides $9 to each console owner that bought a PS3 based on Sony's claims about "Other OS" functionality. Under the plan, gamers eligible for a cash payment are "all persons in the United States who purchased a Fat PS3 model in the United States between November 1, 2006, and April 1, 2010." The accord did not say how much it would cost Sony, but the entertainment company is expected to pay out millions. On March 28, 2010, Sony announced that the update would "disable the 'Install Other OS' feature that was available on the PS3 systems prior to the current slimmer models." This feature, Sony claimed, would be removed "due to security concerns." Sony did not detail those "concerns," but the litigation alleged piracy was behind the decision. A gamer can get the $55, but they "must attest under oath to their purchase of the product and installation of Linux, provide proof of their purchase or serial number and PlayStation Network Sign-in ID, and submit some proof of their use of the Other OS functionality." To get the $9, PS3 owners must submit a claim, at the time they bought their console, they "knew about the Other OS, relied upon the Other OS functionality, and intended to use the Other OS functionality." Alternatively, a gamer "must attest that he or she lost value and/or desired functionality or was otherwise injured as a consequence of Firmware Update 3.21 issued on April 1, 2010," to get $9.
So, basically, the lawyers get a fee of millions, but they have made it so hard to actually register for the fifty-five dollar rebate that pretty much all the users will get: zero.
Horray for America.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
Installing YDL 6.1 on my PS3 was my first Linux experience. I ran it over composite RCA to my TV so it wasn't much to look at, but it was step one in me becoming a computer guy.
I latter put YDL 6.2 on it and that had a much easier install, as I recall.
I went without upgrading to the OtherOS firmware for a year or so, but eventually some game I wanted to play required a newer firmware so I bit the bullet and installed it. I manually removed the Linux partition before the upgrade so I can't confirm whether the tales of the system not reclaiming the Linux partition if upgraded with it still in place were true.
Still have my PS3, only replaced the original 60GB HDD a few months ago. Didn't realize at the time I bought it in January 2007 I would be getting the most capable version of the hardware... early adoption went well for once. Only real downside compared to the newer models is how loud the cooling fans are.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
Get all PS3 owners to Object to the settlement and demand the remedy of Specific Performance. Sony will be ordered by the court to restore 100% of the OtherOS functionality present before the update, which we paid for.
Look shit head, the Air Force built a supercomputer cluster out of 1700 PS3s. The Cell is hot shit if you know what you're doing (which excludes you, of course).
Copyright (c) 1990 - 2014 Dice. All rights reserved. Use of this comment is subject to certain Terms and Conditions.
The US Navy would disagree with you.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
Pretty sure this mid-sized fiasco wasn't mentioned at the Sony shareholders meeting on the 17th. Unfortunately, my Japanese isn't that good, so I could have missed it, and I've already discarded the documents.
Only memorable thing at this year's meeting was the late start. Some old fellow charged the stage and got in a shouting match with the CEO for several minutes before they could persuade him to leave. Not sure, but he might have been the same crackpot who was blocked about 5 rows back two or three years ago. I was seated on that side, but around the 12th row that year. In between, there were two minor ruckuses (ruckii?) at the meeting last year, but this year the overall tone of the shareholders seemed to be much more placid, if not downright bucolic.
Actually, one more thing comes to mind. Seemed rather more intensely Japanese this year than in some past years. Still no gift for attending, but they did bring back the exhibition of new products.
(I attended the NEC shareholders' meeting yesterday, and that one was seriously forgettable. Used to be that all of them were on the same day...)
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
It was still strong enough to defeat two androids.
It never affected them until one of the PS3s in the cluster broke and there were no remaining PS3s capable of running Linux. So yes, I'd say it affected them a lot.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
Actually, the reason they left out PS2 emulation was because of how error-ridden it was. There's a compatibility list of all PS2 games somewhere, and the compatibility varies wildly between the first five PS3 models. The ones with the actual PS2 hardware in them support some games but not others, and the ones with the software emulation support games the hardware-based ones didn't but then don't support some of the games the hardware-based ones did. What "non-compatible" means can also vary wildly: I specifically remember that Persona 3 (the base game before the FES expansion) had an issue where it would randomly wipe/corrupt save files at a point thirty or more hours into the game on some systems and not on others, while the FES expansion had the same issue but with different versions.
The other problem was that Sony had no way of patching most of these bugs since in a lot of cases they resulted from ugly hacks in the code that were used to make the game run properly on the PS2 hardware and short of re-coding large portions of each non-compatible game there was no real fix for it.
Whether it affected them or not, I'd bet they can "attest under oath to their purchase of the product and installation of Linux, provide proof of their purchase .... and submit some proof of their use of the Other OS functionality"
Looks to me like Sony owes the USAF $96,800
Depends on country as to whether or not it's legal.
In the US for instance, media shifting is legal, but circumventing the copy protection to do so isn't, so you're still screwed.
It was still strong enough to defeat two androids.
That's when it became perfect.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
Buggy shit didn't happen until they went to half-hardware half-software emulation.
IIRC there were a few (very few) games that had trouble even on the first PS3's because the PS3 tries to implement a "perfect TRC exact PS2" so that games that break the TRC's and use various tricks, have issues. Which are worse on the models without the EE like the CECHE I have.
There are also PSone games that have issues when run on anything other than an actual PSone, that includes the fully hardware compatible PS2! One example is the X-files graphical adventure game, the graphics glitch out and it is unplayable on a PS2 or PS3.
There are games that DO run better on a PS2 or PS3. One example is the PSone port of Diablo. Original reviews state how it can be a bit choppy on a PSone...and it is. However if you play it on a PS3 it is no longer choppy.