Sony threatens to ban PS3 jailbreakers from network
For your own protection
Sony has threatened to permanently banish all PlayStation 3 users from the its online game network if they use jailbroken consoles.
Customers who don't want to lose access to the PlayStation Network “must immediately cease use and remove all circumvention devices,” Sony Social Media Manager Jeff Rubenstein blogged on Wednesday. “By identifying PlayStation 3 systems that breach our guidelines and terminating their ability to connect to PlayStation Network, we are protecting our business and preserving the honest gameplay experiences that you expect and deserve.
Wednesday's ultimatum comes five weeks after Sony accused more than 100 hackers of copyright infringement for publishing the means to unlock the game consoles. Although Sony claims the legal action was necessary to prevent pirated games and software from running on the PS3, the company has yet to provide evidence that any of the defendants did so, or advocated doing so.
Sony's lawsuit alleges violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which makes it illegal to circumvent technology intended to prevent access to copyrighted material. Three weeks ago, the federal judge hearing the case tentatively ruled that Sony was likely to prevail on those claims and ordered well-known jailbreaker George Hotz, aka, GeoHot, to turn over all code and computers used to develop his hack.
More recently, Sony has expanded its legal offensive to other PS3 hackers by requesting subpoenas that, among other things, would force Google to identify people who viewed videos posted to GeoHot's private YouTube channel.
The PlayStation Network is the sole source of bug fixes and firmware updates for the consoles. ®
COMMENTS
Must ban modded consoles to stop cheaters
I'm not quite sure why everyone continues to lick Geohots arse. He knew how Sony would react if he were to go too far but went ahead anyway to boost his own reputation. So great, he's managed to give more power over the console to a minute percentage of hackers but ended up forcing Sonys hand and loosing the Other OS feature for a much larger percentage. Yeah nice.
Sony have no choice but to ban users who mod their consoles. Look at XBOX live for example. When the mod chips and firmware hacks first came along, many non-modded users stopped playing on XBOX live and/or stopped paying the XBOX live subscription because of modded users cheats. This means there's less players, less interaction for other users. It's a tumbling effect that can kill an online gaming service very quickly.
If people are going to use an online gaming platform, especially if they're going to pay for it, they must believe that it's fair and cheat proof.
The only FAIL here is geohot and his followers for fucking it up for the rest of us.
Should Sony have removed Other OS? No.
Should Sony ban modified consoles? Unfortunately, to save online gaming from cheats, Yes.
I remember the days
When Sony used to be known as a company that made decent gear.
keep believing the hype
Yeah keep believing they do it to protect their customers. Kind of like when they protected their beloved customers (thieves the whole lot in their mind) with illegal rootkits and used their R&D to invent DRM so draconian that it pushed honest paying customers to pirate the game just to avoid the inconvenience (Spore, etc DRM) when its only purpose was to squeeze retailers from resale. Sony's customer first approach is probably they have sold 100 million less PS3 than PS2 and taken a bath on profits lately.
waaa!
"we are protecting our business and preserving the honest gameplay experiences that you expect and deserve"
the first part could be true, the second is pure hogwash.
you lost sony, now stop acting like a spoilt child.
Actually I agree....
..why not.
Yes I have a problem with them downgrading the kit, but at the same time it THEIR network.
Here's away to look at it, it's your machine, you do what you want with it. It's their servers, their netowork, their infrastructure. They can do what they want with it.
What happens if a modded machine takes out 20,000 other connected to the network? Sure you lot would have something to say>.."Ooo Sony, they should fo done something to stop this...Waaahhhh".
No different to our work network. sure bring in you personal kit. Don't blame us when it gets encrypted, programmes removed and settings locked down.
Let the down votes roll in, maybe I can set a record.
