Sporadic Reports of PSN Downtime Monday
The drama surrounding the Geohot jailbreak lawsuit keeps getting deeper.
The powerful but mysterious Anonymous hacker group has vowed revenge against Sony for ongoing actions the company has taken against George Hotz in its lawsuit against him. Sony accuses Hotz of, among other things, violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by releasing a jailbreak code to the Playstation 3.
“[Sony's] corrupt business practices are indicative of a corporate philosophy that would deny consumers the right to use products they have paid for, and rightfully own, in the manner of their choosing,” said an open letter released by the organization. “Perhaps you should alert your customers to the fact that they are apparently only renting your products? In light of this assault on both rights and free expression, Anonymous, the notoriously handsome rulers of the internet, would like to inform you that you have only been ‘renting’ your web domains. Having trodden upon Anonymous’ rights, you must now be trodden on.”
Reports suggest Anonymous‘s initial targets were lower level domains in Sony’s corporate structure. Then came multiple accounts that the Playstation Network itself, as well as Playstation.com, went down for periods on Monday. To be fair, Sony advised via Twitter that the PSN would undergo “sporadic maintenance” throughout the day, though many still wonder if the timing is too coincidental. Indeed, as of this article’s publication, there remain a few who cannot access PSN or Playstation.com, or are getting strange errors while doing so.
All the meanwhile, the case between Sony and Hotz continues.
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“[Sony's] corrupt business practices are indicative of a corporate philosophy that would deny consumers the right to use products they have paid for, and rightfully own, in the manner of their choosing
So Sony should just allow programs that let you play pirated games just because it’s your system that you bought?
the Scientology operation was a complete disaster; the movement went to something serious with dedicated people to a bunch of retarded highschool students and jobless 21yo WoW addicts who wanted to hang out to sing anime songs out loud and dance to j-pop while wearing cheaply printed pedobears tshirts.
It turned into a complete disaster and lost all steam and momentum it had; and while it managed to get some media attention at first, the desu desu retardness and the fact that most protests were filled with idiots completely killed any kind of SERIOUS media attention in the long term.. You had guys being interviewed about the protests who would start talking about memes instead or could barely explain why they were there.
Geohot broke the law, knowingly harmed Sony’s business, and then advertised it. And now he simpers like a little child when a business rightfully pursues their interests. We see now also what Anonymous thinks helping “us” means – it really means self-promotion while simultaneously damaging innocent consumers access to Sony’s online community. For the, *ahem*, “lulz.” Seriously these guys are made up of three year olds.
We are living in a world of seriously warped, idealistic kiddies who genuinely believe these individuals warrant sympathy. It is among the most hilarious gaming news events of the past five years.
Serves Sony right. They deserve it.
@Lukar
I always have a simple creed. If you break the law, be man enough to accept the consequences when you are caught. That is the way you play it. When I break the law, I fully accept I may get in trouble for doing so. I am not going to start a petty appeal to the all simpleminded folk to come to my aid for doing so. This is not exactly a law that you need a e-sit in over in order to provide social commentary on the injustice of it.
In reality, there are reasons these protections are in place. Something was done Sony perceived (rightfully, as is now clear) was going to damage their business, and they went after someone who broke the law and advertised the fact they were doing so. This individual is also a tardface. And now we have a second row of retards baying like feaking sheep hurting – tangibly, mind you, unlike the concept this whole bullshit started over – the very consumers they claim to be trying to help. A parade of mouthbreathing piglets.
I hope the baying meme riddled herd open their eyes and realize who is truly responsible for this and what he truly deserves.
Let me try to explain the situation in a story.
Your mom has locked you and your brother in your room with toys she fines safe for the both of you to play with. Neither of you can leave the room without a key. you’re content with what you can do, and don’t even realize your mom restricted the toys you can play with, because you haven’t been outside of the room for so long. But your Brother remembers the cool RC Car that him mom didn’t put in the room, and wants out. Eventually, your brother finds the key and opens to door. He goes out to explore the house. He knows that he can go to the cellar and play with Mom and Dads toys, and it is really tempting at times, but he goes to play with his RC Car. But you demand he stay in the bedroom because mom told you so. He refuses and continues to have fun. Not long after, Mom comes home and sees your brother outside the room and grounds him for the rest of eternity. You watch and make fun of him for not following mom’s instructions.
The idea here is that You are the Boy and someone else is the Brother. The Cellar is Piracy. The RC Car can be anything that you could otherwise not do without hacking.
The biggest one here is the Mom, who is Sony. You know what the problem is?
That I’m relating Sony to your mom. Why should I have to do that? Sony is not your mom, and yet they tell you what you can and can’t do all the time. Apple is the same way. It is not their job to tell me what I can and can’t do, and I don’t think it’s fair that a company gets to decide that. I can understand the argument against Piracy, but the picture isn’t as black and white as that. Some people bought PS3′s for use as a cheap Desktop computer running Linux. Others use them as servers to house data, or play games such as Cave Story via Linux. Contrary to what Sony (and the media) want you to believe, Hacking =/= Piracy.
And there’s my 2 cents.
Go ahead everyone jump on me and call me a moron for not accpeting the glorious truth that Sony is big evil corporation that is keeping the man down from having his legal backups
Cooking up some nice car analogies right now so excuse me I have to go the bathroom and let em out.
But before I go let’s have fun with words!
“Contrary to what Geohot (and the console/handheld scene) want you to believe, Console Hacking = Piracy”
Fuck you Sonical, and fuck yes, Anon. I don’t necessarily love everything they do, but I’m in full throttle support of antagonizing Sony in pretty much any way possible, no matter how petty. This shit is ridiculous. I don’t even own or CARE to own a PS3 and it irritates me.
These idiots broke the law end of story. Now they’re saying they’re gonna get revenge on Sony. I bet nothing is going to happen at all. BTW, does anyone seriously care about tis case anymore?
Piracy is breaking the law. Running homebrew is not. That’s the whole reason this is an ongoing case: because they can’t prove that Geohot actually pirated anything. Maybe he enabled it, and that’s not right — but saying that console hacking is the same as piracy is absolutely absurd.
There is/was a feature, advertised on the back of PS3 boxes called “OtherOS,” if I’m not mistaken. Sony subsequently removed that feature from existing consoles. How is that justified? Someone explain to me what right Sony had to remove an existing feature, other than “They were concerned, herpderp.”
Well, I’m not to sure how to begin this, and I doubt anything I’m about to say will make a difference to anyone here. I totally understand why people are pissed at Sony: after all, Hotz isn’t evil, and just because someone breaks their ps3 or makes it “homebrew” doesn’t mean that they’re pirates who will steal countless games. After all, they forked over hundreds of dollars to have the console–they own it, and should be able to do what they want.
HOWEVER, lets face it: gaming isn’t what it used to be. A decade or more ago this wouldn’t have been an issue. And that’s because this isn’t just about the console, and we know it. Sure, maybe it is for some people, but with the console comes online networking, and tons upon tons of DLC, whether its level packs or games. Basically, if you wanted to pirate a game 20 years ago, it was practically impossible. Now, the possibilities are near endless.
No one can deny it–while they’re are many who wouldn’t (or say they wouldn’t) pirate games or other content, you KNOW that there are just as many, if not more, who will. You think Sony should just let their system be broken completely, and then have it advertised all over the web? Really? Who do you think that news attracted more; some one who was just interested in doing some fun things with their ps3, or pirates? Sony is a company, and they’re have a right to protect their products–not just the ps3 itself, but everything that comes with it which is capable of being stolen. Whether Hotz pirated anything at all, I’m not at all surprised Sony jumped on him–they had to do something. And really, it doesn’t matter, because that clearly isn’t why Sony is pursuing him–it’s because he released the jailbreak key to the world.
Look, I understand why people aren’t happy, but to be perfectly honest, the anger here is misguided. You’re upset Sony is being a jerk to this guy and you, who only want to do “harmless” things to their console that you bought. But, does anyone here really believe we would be having this discussion at all if it weren’t for pirates? NO, because that’s the crux of the entire issue. Sure, maybe you think pirates aren’t all that bad–maybe you’re one yourself–but who here has started a company and created their own product that they sell to consumers worldwide? If you have, you need to speak up.
Get angry at Sony if you want–they’re not the pirates, here, the ones breaking the law, the ones stealing. You can’t have everything you want in life, many times because there are others who will/have taken advantage of the very thing you desire. If Sony let YOU do what YOU want, then they’d have to let everyone do the same–which they can’t do. NO ONE would do that. And if you think Hotz is being wrongly pursued for crimes he didn’t commit, well, he did commit a crime, or at least opened the door for millions to do so. And if he wasn’t wise enough to consider the consequences before he released that key, to take time and THINK about what he was doing, then that’s his fault. Take some responsibility for your actions and accept the consequences when you go and screw something up–Hotz knew what he was doing, no one can say otherwise. Maybe he didn’t pirate anything–but at the same time, if he hadn’t ever done anything, maybe just keep the key to himself, he wouldn’t be in this mess. HIS actions led to this, not Sony’s.
And these hackers are foolish if they think they can take on Sony, a multi-million dollar company–if they think they’re invincible. And apparently their attacks come at the expense of others–now isn’t that a way to fight for the cause of the common gamer: hurting them. They’re fools, and bullies. Now come on, I want to hear some rebuttals.
For the first time ever, I’m gonna have to disagree with ChaoticFox.
I agree with Sonical. I don’t particularly like Sony. I don’t even like most of their japanese, exclusive games. But when you buy a console, you know the rules of the game. Simple as that. If you break the rules, you’ll face the consequences.
IMHO, the gaming industry are not quite in the sad situation that the music business is (iTunes and 1 dollar per song). I can’t imagine paying more than 10 cents for a song. In fact, if I could buy a song for 10 cents, I’d probably have spent hundreds of dollars in music by now.
Not so with games. I don’t think gamers in general have it unfair. At all.
Also, the “desu desu retardness” line made me laugh out really loud.
What laws did Hotz break? It’s suddenly illegal to hack something you paid for with your own money? Hotz owns his PS3, not Sony. Since when does tinkering with a console’s OS/replacing it with your own = piracy?
I agree with Sony. even tho we bought the console, we are still using their service. And obviously hacking into their service is the wrong thing, because it would get out of control like Iphone jailbreaking, & getting official games illegally without paying, just think, would you like someone hacking your stuff? I probably support sony in this case.
Also even tho its his he posted the code to the webpage regardless, so everyone will be buying crap for free. That’s illegal!!!
@Goodman, I see your point, but that doesn’t at all justify Sony’s actions. Sure, piracy is an issue. Sure, Hotz may have intentionally or unintentionally made it easier to pirate… but truthfully that doesn’t mean dick. He has every right to. Breaking a TOS that shouldn’t exist in the first place isn’t really breaking the law.
Sony should be spending their time and effort fixing the exploits and finding new ways of stopping the pirates, rather than trying to bankrupt or imprison the guy who gave the gun to the bank robbers. What does that accomplish other than “making an example”? Is Sony trying to prove it’s the big bad mafia boss in town? “Don’t fuck with us” is the only message they’re sending. It isn’t “we care about our consumers”.
Lastly: “Get angry at Sony if you want–they’re not the pirates, here, the ones breaking the law, the ones stealing” …unless you consider removing a feature of a product you bought and paid for to be theft, which I most certainly do.
You say things like “His actions led to this”… but you’re missing the point about what “THIS” is. Sure, he wouldn’t be in legal trouble right now. Good for him, I guess? But that wouldn’t change the fact that Sony believes they own something you paid for, and that you, as a consumer have literally no rights to your own property. That is what pisses me off. Suing Geohotz for something that ISN’T WRONG, and holding him responsible for the potential actions of others is fucked up in and of itself – but the bigger issue here is that Sony doesn’t have any right to be making these kinds of claims and accusations in the first place and they are stepping all over your rights by doing so.
Sony does NOT have the right to say what you can and can not do with your console. Sony does not have the right to remove functionality, regardless of what their bullshit TOS says. That’s false advertising. That’s theft. That’s bullshit.
Anonymous ***** ME playing on PSN.
WTH the problem with he?
If you want play pirate game, right.
But not use PSN to F*** right players!
@Chaotix
If you accepted TOS, Sony CAN remove functionality.
You buy a PS3, its YOURS. But, if you enter on PSN, and accept the TOS, you enter in Copyright base of sony.
You don’t need agree with the TOS, don’t agree and continue pirace offline.
One thing that everyone seems to be tripping over is the PSN. Did Geohot break into the PSN? Or did he just modify a console? Changing the console itself shouldn’t be an issue. However, even if he used it to mess around with PSN, that’s a violation of the ToS, not the law. I think the real issue here is that Sony wants to make an example of him.
As someone else said, it’s like the cops arresting the gun manufacturer after an armed robbery.
Can Sony prove that these hackers are even using the jailbreaking code FOR playing pirated games? Sony is sorta kinda lacking in hard proof, all I see is circumstantial stuff. Like I have a device that is capable of playing DS ROMs, but you can use the same device to play music files, read books, view pictures, play homebrew games, etc.
But anyway, where does it say in the PS3 ToS that it is unlawful to distribute code that shouldn’t even be THAT different to what an Action Replay does to your system?
Can Sony prove that these hackers are even using the jailbreaking code FOR playing pirated games? Sony is sorta kinda lacking in hard proof, all I see is circumstantial stuff. Like I have a device that is capable of playing ROMs, but you can use the same device to play music files, read books, view pictures, play homebrew games, etc. Want to know what this device is called? A computer. A computer is capable of doing more things than a jailbroke PS3, is Microsoft going to sue all of us if they start to suspect we’re messing with their Windows OS to do certain things they don’t like?
But anyway, where does it say in the PS3 ToS that it is unlawful to distribute code that shouldn’t even be THAT different to what an Action Replay does to your system?
@ChaoticFox: One thing that you said that I think is worth mentioning; the loss of a “feature”. Now, honestly, I cannot imagine running Linux being something that actually factors into whether people wanted to buy an at-the-time six hundred dollar system. But that’s not the big part. You can run Linux on pretty much any ****ty desktop, from what I’ve seen. If someone’s really that desperate for it, a quick perusal of craigslist, for example, can turn up people selling used desktops for fifty dollars. Hell, if you’re really adament about it, you can get a brand new, low to mid range setup at your local electronics store – checking flyers shows these deals – for about the same price a PS3 is now.
I know, that’s not the point, really, but from what I heard the PS3 didn’t even run Linux very well. It wasn’t really designed to be a computer. On top of that, dicking around with the OtherOS option had a tendency to lead to bricking.
I think what annoys me personally about Anonymous is that they DO have some measure of power, but they don’t use it right. They’re either bullying eleven year olds who talk bad about them or going after lesser causes. Why not put their weight behind rights causes? Why don’t they use their abilities to go after some corporations who could stand to take responsibility for disasters they caused? They only did that ONCE; and it’s arguable as to whether or not they got anywhere, because I don’t think Scientology ever lost their tax exempt status, or at least not that I’m aware of.
I really don’t see what they accomplish or why this particular case is worth getting involved.
@dl316bh
It’s a shitty feature I would never care to use, but that isn’t the point. It’s the principle of the thing. If they can do that, they could remove your blu-ray and start charging you a monthly service fee for it, if they so choose. Because that’s the attitude they’re taking.
It’s really the principle of the thing, and if we let one thing slide, what’s to stop them from doing something worse in the future? I don’t give a shit about PS3, I don’t give a shit about Linux. I give a shit about consumer rights, because I am one, and when companies like Sony start thinking they own my shit and can tell me what to do with it, I’m gonna get fucking pissed.
@ChaoticFox: I’m all for consumers rights. I just see the OtherOS thing as something that caused more headaches than anything. If a feature has a good chance of bricking a system, I could see why that wouldn’t be particularly good. Unless there’s something I don’t know about in the Warrenty, I imagine Sony would have to replace it if a consumer did something retarded and ended up bricking their system.
I’ve also got a bit of a knee-jerk annoyance when it comes to Anonymous too, so I admit that may be playing a part in my opinion on this.
The only thing Sony can prevent access to is PSN since they own and operate it. It’s a service they provide. As for the console itself people can do whatever they hell they want with it.
http://i51.tinypic.com/autffn.jpg
Anonymous is rarely in the right, but I agree with this quote-unquote campaign against Sony.
While we’re on the subject, anyone remember Lik-Sang?
I’m with Sonical in this one.
Also whoever said “you agreed with the TOS, you entered the copyright base of Sony”.
Sure you forked over a good chunk of cash to get a PS3 and get to do whatever you want BUT that doesn’t mean piracy is acceptable.
It’s understandable what Sony is doing. They are losing money. It’s business. Period.
So I guess I can say I’m neutral in this case.
I mean, I’m not saying “Sony is being stupid” or “hackers should be stopped”. Like I said, thie case is pretty neutral.
@dl316bh
Again, it’s the principle of the thing. OtherOS could be shit and worthless for all I care. The point is that Sony is displaying a really fucked up attitude. Even if you cut out the otherOS issue entirely, with this case Sony is still acting like a car manufacturer trying to say that “you are breaking the law for painting your car a different color than we sell and we are going to fuck you in the ass for it because we can”. So not cool on so many levels. And like I said, if people just bend over and take bullshit like that, then it won’t be long before other companies follow suit.
I’m not always a fan of Anonymous either. I don’t even think what they’re trying to do will accomplish much. I’m just that irked with Sony’s attitude that even a couple of kids throwing rocks at their windows would make me smile inside.
@GoldenHedgy
They are losing money because bad people are using a neutral code for evil purposes. It’s like I said before, you can’t blame the gun manufacturer for the people who use them. You can’t sue tobacco companies for giving you cancer just because YOU are an idiot who picked up smoking. There is nothing illegal about breaking TOS. Let them kick his account off PSN for violation (If I recall correctly, Hotz has even expressed direct support for banning hacked consoles from PSN), but that’s the extent of where Sony’s rights in this case lie.
If they find out Hotz is a pirate, by all means persecute the hell out of him for it. But even if he WERE an open, admitted pirate, that doesn’t mean that Sony has a right to sue him for distributing a jailbreak key that, by itself, is completely neutral and perfectly within any product-owner’s right to use on his own property.
Well, this article assures that I will never buy a PS3. EVER. Goodbye, Bleach Soul Ignition =(
I’m taking Sony’s side here, because, well, it’s illegal!
No it’s not, Knuckles Chaotix. That’s exactly the point. Geohot hasn’t done anything, himself, that is illegal. He MAY have broken Sony’s ToS, but that’s not the same as breaking the law.
Correction, Yamishi: Geohot isn’t being SUED for doing anything, himself, that is illegal. He could be doing all sorts of illegal shit for all it matters, but Sony seems to think they should focus their lawsuit on something that is in no way against any law. Derp.
@ChaoticFox
The classic role reversal fallacy. “A aren’t adjective B are the real adjective”. I’m not going to bother debating with you if you resort to things like that and “fuck you”.
all i can say is… Why?
“all i can say is… Why?”
Because Anonymous group don’t have LIFE!
I think the “fuck you” should have tipped you off that I wasn’t interested in debating your lack of a point, but that I think you’re an idiot who quite obviously doesn’t understand shit
So some hackers are upset at SONY for not letting them use programs that give them advantages over the HONEST gamers out there. I say get a life and any person caught hacking their system should have their IP BANNED on the network.