PS3 Hacked saga.

Just wanted to know what you guys all thought about this, as it could have some serious reprecussions in the future, and if it isn't fixed could lead to the death of the PS3 as a credible system (Much like the Deamcast).

To those who don't know, on January 7th, a Hacker called 'Geohot' (He also broke the Iphone) managed to find the master key for the PS3 and now can run homebrew firmware on the system on PSN.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12116051

What these means is hackers, can now affect hacks to the online community, making fake updates, allowing them to hack multiplayer games (Currently MW2 on the PS3 has been called by IW themselves as unplayable, and they can't do anything until Sony resolves the issue) hacking and changing the number of trophies they have and backed up versions of games (AKA Piracy).

Sony has reacted by suing Geohot and they are currently working on trying to repair the damage.

Geohot, and his fellow hackers claim they did this in retaliation for Sony removing the existing homebrew systems on the PS3.

they can't really be sued. because modifying your personal console isn't illegal, just like doing a 'proof of concept' hack on another personal console isn't either.

Pretty sure what they did violated PSN's Terms and Conditions at the very least, but I don't think that could be a viable court case.

EDIT: From the looks of the court documents (Geohot put them online after he was sent them) They accusing him for facilitating piracy.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/46729037/Sony-Ps3-Tro

providing piracy tools isn't illegal though because it has legal uses.

Not on the PS3 terms of rights, or the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which prevents people distributing Circumvention devices.

they've done it since the original xbox. the idea is that its used to personally backup your own games, especially on the ps3 that doesn't let you install full games.

Doesn't hold water, the act says and I quote.

"It also criminalizes the act of circumventing an access control, whether or not there is actual infringement of copyright itself."

So doing it just to back up your games and not distributing them, is still a violation of the law.

not one that has ever been enforced

Doesn't mean they can't now.

damn it

well, im sure Sony will be more competant then MS with this

That's funny. ^.^
It's going to be fun to see how everything works out.
=D

no, because microsoft already circumvented the problem in the first place. the entire extent of xbox customware is mostly just oldsystem emulators.

this is basically a scenario where the pay service has systems in place to stop unwanted access, while the free service sticks to 2000 online game philosophy

Vigil wrote:Currently MW2 on the PS3 has been called by IW themselves as unplayable

And since when was MW2 ever playable?
I guess this was all it took to make IW realise.

Anyway, who cares what IW say, they aren't even the same company that created the game anymore.

Update: http://vghq.net/2011/03/23/george-hotz-runs-away-to-south-america-lies-about-having-psn-account/

Probably regreting doing this now