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.

Comments

Lawyers get millions

[Geoffrey.landis]

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.

Re:Lawyers get millions

[mfh]

This is injustice handed to the people by the state. Once again, the state settles problems for corporations at the expense of the average citizen.

The cost of actually doing all the things they are asking to the user is greater than $55 in terms of time and effort. Most people will not do it.

So instead of claiming $55 from Sony, I will pledge never to give them another dime. I have so far paid them probably in the range of $2000 or maybe more? But I won't buy anything else from them until they pledge and prove they are a company that places a higher value on users than on their own authority over users.

Users > Companies.

Re:Lawyers get millions

[jtownatpunk.net]

"Dear Diary: Today, I installed Linux on my PS3. It was a glorious day."

Re:Lawyers get millions

[mrchaotica]

So instead of claiming $55 from Sony, I will pledge never to give them another dime.

You hadn't already done that six years ago, when the removal of OtherOS happened? Or before that, when they released the rootkit CDs? Or before that, when they pushed proprietary DRM'd MemorySticks instead of MMC? Or before that, when they pushed proprietary MiniDiscs?

(I might have gotten those out of chronological order, and I'm sure I missed a few entirely... Sony is evil in so many ways it's hard to keep track!)

Re:Lawyers get millions

[Anonymous Coward]

That's how it's meant to work. A class action is not for making money - it's a way to challenge a company's behaviour without spending years of your life in court, without spending a fortune in legal fees, and without assuming personal risk. You're barely involved at all, while the lawyer does all the work, takes on the financial burden and isn't even guaranteed to get paid at all. If you're looking into making profit from suing people then you have plenty of other options to use instead.

Re:Lawyers get millions

[HiThere]

The thing to notice is that the evil stuff they did didn't really start until after their management was swallowed by Hollywood. Prior to that Sony was an excellent company producing superb technical goods.

So, to me, this is another example of why you should never trust anyone associated withe either the MPAA or the RIAA. And that explicitly includes SONY.

Re:Lawyers get millions

[LostMyBeaver]

The joys of law.
  - Sony loses lawsuit regarding a change they made in 2010
  - Six years later, you have to show proof that you bought a game system probably 7 years earlier... which you didn't keep because you bought the slimmer model or a PS4 or traded it in for something at the game store.
  - The terms required to collect the $55 recompense are more or less unachievable except for that one guy who got the PS3 for Christmas and his mom actually saved the receipt for her accounting.
  - The amount of time required to earn the $55 is about the same as McDonalds pays their french fry cooks.

So... for the $55... who would give a shit? This will cost Sony $2,000 in recompense and $1,000,000-$10,000,000 in legal fees.

Re:Lawyers get millions

[LostMyBeaver]

Sadly, as a former Obama supporter, that was the deal breaker for me. His entire White House legal staff was plucked from RIAA and MPAA :(

https://www.wired.com/2009/04/obama-taps-fift/

Re:Lawyers get millions

[Anonymous Coward]

"Dear Diary: Today, I installed Linux on my PS3. It was a glorious day."

Dear Diary, day 2. The RSX is locked out, and the PS3 Linux is utterly crippled and unusable as a general purpose machine. I guess I could muck around with some cell programming, but that's pretty much PPC which I did years ago. Ho hum.

Dear Diary, day 3. Oblivion arrived today.

Dear Diary, day well into the future. Completed Ob', well, it broke when I reached the end of the grey fox quests. Let's see what exciting things are in this mandatory OS update.

Dear Diary, day +=1. Turned on the PS3 today, and noticed OtherOS option has gone, and I can't released the partition it used without a complete wiping of the system.

Re:Lawyers get millions

[Opportunist]

False dichotomy. You act as if I have to buy something else.

Re: Lawyers get millions

[MBGMorden]

why are you playing a port of a PC game? This doesn't make sense.

Because some people can't justify the cost of building/maintaining a gaming PC so they buy a console at a much lower price (that they'll get 7+ years out of) and play games there instead?

I've got other stuff to worry about than dumping $700 every other year into a PC just to play the same same games that are available on a $350 console that will last nearly a decade.

YDL 6.1 on the PS3

[mister_playboy]

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.

How about we reject the settlement?

[mysidia]

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.

Re:How about we reject the settlement?

[meerling]

Vastly different architectures, so those comparisons, despite being in the same units, is still not worth a lot.
You see, the Cell is RISC, while the Intel chips you mentioned are all CISC.
If you don't know the difference, look it up.
Short version, they do very different things well, so a pure measurement of flops is pretty useless to compare.

Re:yet really....

[slashdice]

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).

Re:yet really....

[Yvan256]

...the cell was a dumb idea.

It was still strong enough to defeat two androids.