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In the wake of PS3 unlock hacks released by Geohot and fail0verflow, Sony has felt it necessary to issue a statement warning users away from such activities. In a recent statement, the console maker made it clear that the use of these tools to run pirated content will result in a permanent PSN ban. This is a similar stance to that of Microsoft on Xbox piracy.
There is some fuzzy language in the Sony document, posted on the US and EU blogs. For instance, they say that "Consumers using circumvention devices or running unauthorized or pirated software" will be blocked from PSN services. This makes it sound like simply modding your console will result in a ban. We hope that Sony won't be that heavy-handed, but it's not impossible.
Sony is already on the warpath over this issue. The hacker that originally discovered the PS3 root key, George "Geohot" Hotz, is being sued by Sony for DMCA violations. While Sony is within its rights to pursue legal action, and to ban customers from its PSN service, we have to wonder if it is a good idea to do so.
Comments are closed on this article
Johnny Depp Jr.
March 02, 2011 at 2:03am
The PSN Network is Sony's house, and you're a guest in the house.
If you would like to continue to be invited to Sony's house, then you must follow their house rules.
If you have mods, then we don't want you online and potentially ruining our multiplayer experience
Whpony96
February 18, 2011 at 11:20pm
Are you kidding me Sony has been so lenient with all the hackers out there. Microsoft was shutting down hackers YEARS AGO! If that dumba$$ George "Geohot" Hotz would have left the PS3 alone you people who loved the “Other OS” option would still be there. The person you should be pissed at is George "Geohot" Hotz and NOT SONY.
These hackers are ruining the experience of playing online. COD is nowhere as fun as it could be. Right now 90% of all the Level 15 players got their level by using a hack. As soon as they ban all the hackers from PSN it will be a wonderful game to play. I love the fact that the hackers will not be able to update the games and get fixes.
I am looking forward to the Hackers being banned and I love the fact that they will have to purchase another PS3 just to get on and start all over from the bottom again. (Hopefully SONY uploads some sort of “drive lock” that prevents the drive from being transferred from one PS3 to another one without being reformatted first)
Thank You Sony! Keep up the vigilance and don't stop till they are rightfully punished!
vectorizer
February 18, 2011 at 9:36pm
I love my PS3 (BluRay, Netflix, VUDU, DLNA player for me; game console for my son);
I hate Sony.
Was so excited about Other OS when I got a PS3 in '07, I took time off from work to get Linux installed. It was great that it had that option, and also supported swapping the commodity hard drive. I thought, maybe, Sony is finally being a little bit open. Then they took away Other OS, which prompted the recent hack (there's a great video of the talk explaining it BTW). Now they're acting again like the evil corporate d**ks that installed root kits on their CD customers' PCs.
kiaghi7
February 17, 2011 at 3:42pm
Sony wants people to purchase their software, and not use any methodology to circumvent their draconian controls over your hardware you have rightfully purchased...
But to ensure you "obey", they will prohibt you from accessing their legal network of software exchange and purchase if you chose to not accept their iron-grip on your throat, thus forcing the individual to chose piracy in order to attain PSN software...
I don't see how that can possibly blow up in Sony's face at all...
Laserwulf
February 17, 2011 at 1:13pm
I don't own a PS3, but I do have two PSPs: one downgraded to 1.5 firmware, the other stock. A practice that really burns my butter is that newer PSP games will require a certain firmware version... and there happens to be an update on the UMD. I couldn't care less about PSN (XBL is a much nicer experience), but if the PS3 games likewise try to modify an offline console, that's unacceptable. It would be one thing if the fact was disclosed on the package, but why would Sony do that when gamers will just roll over & accept the status quo?
mindstate
February 17, 2011 at 1:05pm
Sony is a POS company IMO anyway. Who cares about PSN man? Honestly if a person needs Online play to have fun with their console then theyre not real gamers.
So Sony can shove their Bans up their asses
Laserwulf
February 17, 2011 at 1:17pm
So... everyone that plays Madden, Halo, GoW, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, GTA4, or CoD online isn't a "real gamer"?
Giffdawg
February 17, 2011 at 10:14am
I am the go-to guy for tech purchases for just about everyone I know personally & professionally, and I now tell them all to avoid any Sony products like the plague.
Vigilant Satyr
February 17, 2011 at 2:09pm
If you jailbreak your iPhone it doesn't pose a direct threat to Apple's iPhone business model. Apple doesn't sell the iPhone at a loss and make up the difference by selling apps.
Piracy issues aside, Sony does not want a market for games/software to evolve outside of their control.
Balgaroo
February 17, 2011 at 12:59am
One for modding and one for PSN, which really I hardly ever play. Xbox live is much better. Even then, I prefer playing on a PC more than either. Oh well, I will still get to play with all that modded content. Probably pirate a few games just to see how its done. Really not a big PS3 player. My first blueray though.
phreek
February 16, 2011 at 9:59pm
Oh no! Sony, think about all those millions and millions of people that couldn't run Linux on the PS3! I mean look at the numbers of PS3 that's running Linux before you guys remove the support for it!
/s
rawrnomnom
February 16, 2011 at 9:57pm
i had a handfull of sony products laying around when this started, when they pulled this shit i gathered them all up and sold them. good riddance sony
PCLinuxguy
February 16, 2011 at 9:56pm
I get that modding the consoles might be bad for the companies having it happen, but by locking things down like that makes it seem to me like instead of buying, let people rent these for way way cheaper than the selling price. I mean if it's truely ours because we bought it, we should have the right to do whatever the F we want with it. I mean that would be like Chrysler getting pissy about a Challenger owner swapping the stock exhaust pipes for aftermarket ones. I say screw you back Sony, if I buy one of your precious consoles, then it's MINE after that to do what I want with it. Now that's not to say pirating crap is nice but come on.
Joe The Plummer
February 17, 2011 at 7:20am
It is yours, however the PSN network is not. Sony is banning you from PSN which means no multiplayer and no updates. So you have the right to mod your console, but Sony has the right to deny you access to PSN. So yes, you bought the hardware and can mod it, just understand what you lose by doing it. Now if Sony said they were going to sue everyone who mods their console, then that would be wrong.
PCLinuxguy
February 20, 2011 at 8:52pm
I feel that unless you're pirating content from the PSN then they really shouldn't be dictating what the end user can and cannot do with the device. Much like the 360 debacle of some owners having legit backups of their games and getting banned from the XBox Live network. Yes, not all of them were innocent,but rather than ruin it for everyone, perhaps if they did more or better research and make it so that only those doing illegal activities are shut down instead. Just seems like common sense to me. Good points though.
Daemon
February 16, 2011 at 10:43pm
Agrees 9999.99% with PCLinuxguy, why pay $700 and up for a piece of machine to run at home and pay for the internet, the electricity and so on, just to run sony's toys if we can't do as we please with them? Highway robbery I say. You'd think Sony was run by the powers that be in darkest China. I have vowed to never own a sony product, not even their televisions or an eReader. Sorry Sony ZIP-ZILCH-NADA for YOU!
And yes, rental markets might make sense in this case. I personally wouldn't even rent them not with greedy corp's runnin the show.
Vegan
February 16, 2011 at 9:14pm
This is like how Nintendo "punishes" Wii pirates by blocking them from accessing the Shop Channel. Uhhh, that's not going to be an incentive for people who weren't buying your stuff anyways.
aarcane
February 16, 2011 at 8:09pm
it might be time for some of us to go buy a starter PS3 (Used from our local game-tailer? + 1tb drives from newegg) and renew our gamefly memberships...
aarcane
February 16, 2011 at 8:05pm
banning your fans for liking your product (but being too poor to pay your exorbitant prices), or in Sony's case, for wanting the features that they paid for that were working previously, until they were disabled....
I'd be pissed off too if I took my car in for an oil change, and the dealer disabled the AC because it's not supported anymore.. If they told me I wouldn't be able to use my oil replacement plan that I pay good $$ for if I were to buy an aftermarket AC, I don't think I'd ever buy another car from them again!
Unfortunately, the majority of the PS3 owners and players would just roll over and buy a new car where AC is still supported, and will probably continue paying sony to keep EULAing away their rights.
ShyLinuxGuy
February 16, 2011 at 8:01pm
Sony, go bankrupt and wither away. I (and almost everyone else) won't shed a tear. Besides, it won't hurt the American economy much--it is a mostly Japanese company. It's not like it's 3M, GE, Microsoft or the Big 3 in Detroit--I'm guessing Sony has only a few US employees and a handful of headquarters and manufacturing facilities (if any) here.
Sony's complaining about this hack thinking it's strictly for piracy. It's not, until the individual person using the hack decides to use it that way. The complaint really has no basis, because publishing companies would have stomped out Canon and Sharp a long time ago for manufacturing and selling copy machines. They are released without obvious intent of copyright infringement, yet I'm sure there's a few people using copiers just for that purpose (though less often nowadays). This guy, Geohot, is in a position similar to the copier manufacturers, as an example.
I don't play games nor do I own a console, but this is really unnerving. If the courts rule in favor of Sony, it's just that, they get a short term (one hour) victory. But, Sony will realize that their PS3 sales are going to the deep south. Virtually every site I've been to has mentioned at least a modicum of Sony's actions, and skimming the comments, a lot of people won't even buy a Sony TV because of this.This publicity is going to cost them more than they'll reap from Geohot--if they get ANYTHING from him. They evidently don't worry about their bottom line too much, or they're really null in the head. Any competent executive would avoid creating negative publicity if it can risk sales and public perception, but Sony's executives must have gotten their business degrees at Walmart.
And for Apple being worse than Sony: Yeah, Apple has their ways, but look at the Hackintosh community. Apple seems to not care too much, despite it being against the EULA for running a Mac OS on a non-Mac (despite the Psystar deal--they SOLD the systems, that's another deal). Are they going after individual Hackintoshers? No, not yet, and they have yet to show any indication of doing so.
Boycott Sony! (I own none of their stuff anyways).
arch20002013
February 16, 2011 at 7:24pm
I used to want a PS3 and every time i saw it on sale, I would really consider it. Then they took off the other os option. That killed it for me. I loved the fact that I could run Linux on it and that was a great selling point for me. But now it no longer does it and I have no interested. Even less when they do things like this. If i buy it, I want to be able to do whatever to it and with it. Thats a big reason why I dont like Apple either. Im not a big fan of Microsoft, but have run accross fewer problems with being able to do what I want with my PC, so I tollerate them. It will be interesting to see what longterm effect this has on Sony and ther gaming division.
Chewieshmoo
February 16, 2011 at 5:28pm
The same people that would bother to mod could care less if SONY bans them from PSN lol!
don2041
February 16, 2011 at 5:27pm
Don,t worry Sony I wont Hack any of your products because I won,t own them, I promise !
Keith E. Whisman
February 16, 2011 at 4:34pm
If Sony and Microsoft had it their way everyone would pay them everything they have everyday just for the privilage to live on the same planet as they do.
