

PS3 Hacker Raised All the Legal Funds Needed to Beat Sony in a Weekend - Mikecsi
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/107899-PS3-Hacker-Raised-All-the-Legal-Funds-Needed-to-Beat-Sony-in-a-Weekend

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alexqgb
Meanwhile, back in Redmond, Microsoft (!) has opened the Kinect to 3rd party
developers.

I doubt this was done to deliberately underscore the galactic idiocy of their
chief rival. Still, the contrast between the two approaches is pretty
astonishing.

~~~
redthrowaway
Microsoft's new 'hacker-friendly' approach is refreshing, but I'll be
interested to see how long it lasts or how deep it goes. It's a great way to
curry favor with developers, which is critically important if WP7 is to be a
success, but when push comes to shove I have a sneaking suspicion we'll see
the old Microsoft take over.

~~~
CrazedGeek
For a recent example:

[http://www.joystiq.com/2010/11/03/xbox-live-indie-games-
move...](http://www.joystiq.com/2010/11/03/xbox-live-indie-games-moved-to-
specialty-shops-on-new-dashboar/)

(They did end up fixing it a little later, though.)

------
iuguy
I'm surprised it took that long. Sony seem to have a magical Streisand effect
button somewhere that gets triggered for insane reasons. Remember the BMI
rootkit scandal, and the subsequent reaction? The AIBO case referenced is
another example of Sony's auto-Streisand function in the legal team.

The best part of all of this is that Sony's legal team have very clearly not
properly considered the implications of him _winning_ the case. They thought
they could just bully him out of it by making it cost too much to defend. If
the case is settled in his favour then there are massive ramifications for
jailbreaks across the board.

~~~
hartror
_Note: This analysis is not a statement of agreement with their actions, just
providing some insight._

I am not surprised either but I don't think Sony can be compared with
Streisand. From Sony's perspective this makes perfect sense and isn't some
emotional over reaction, Someone has gotten around their security and if they
don't pursue this it will be seen as an open invitation to hackers on all of
Sony's platforms. As a platform company and a content company they're doubly
incentivised to pursue these sorts of actions in the courts.

Even the OtherOS debacle makes sense from their perspective. They make a loss
on each console they sell[1] and rely on strong games sales to make up the
difference. At launch they had a horrible attach rate (games sold per console
sold) and much was made of its use as a cheap computing cloud platform. So
removing the ability for new consoles[2] to act as a platform apart from its
primary gaming role helps Sony's bottom line.

[1] They certainly did at launch not sure if that is the case any longer,
historically consoles are sold at a profit once they reach middle age and
production costs come down. The Wii was an exception and was sold at a profit
from day one, but that is a souped up Gamecube so the factories didn't need
much updating.

[2] I haven't updated my console so it can still run Linux for example.

~~~
jgoewert
One of the addition things that needs to be mentioned akin to the bottom line
is that the OtherOS feature was used to convince the EU that the system was a
"Computer" not a "Gaming Console" which gave them significant cost reductions
on import tariffs and taxes.

The removal of this feature aftermarket amounts to a shill game.

------
daniel_reetz
I am so glad to be present for the early stages of this kind of emergent
support network. Recent examples from Reddit (who often choose to support
people with no "internet standing"), job offers here at HN, and the intense
support people like myself have received over at MetaFilter are almost totally
unprecedented. And I'm not even going to bring up Anonymous.

Now that I'm in a decent employment situation, I plan to share that $ecurity
with people like GeoHot whenever possible. Cheers to everyone involved, this
is great news in a sea of awful.

~~~
shrikant
Completely OT: but I would suggest that one of the options for people who have
problems in their lives is to search through MetaFilter for "prior art" and
the surrounding support/advice.

It took me a little while to accept that my problems were far from unique, and
once I got over that and reached out (as a lurker - I only read through
archives, didn't post anything), I'd go so far as to say that MeFi saved my
life from a downward spiral.

I love the Internet.

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kgo
I'm complaining about escapistmagazine, not the poster. I am interseted in the
update. But...

Headline:

PS3 Hacker Raised All the Legal Funds Needed to Beat Sony in a Weekend

Less than one paragraph away.

... as he received enough money for the first phase of defense in about 18
hours.

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johnswamps
Here's a direct link to geohot's blog posting:
[http://geohotgotsued.blogspot.com/2011/02/first-round-of-
don...](http://geohotgotsued.blogspot.com/2011/02/first-round-of-donations-is-
closed.html)

------
fleitz
Excellent, I was wondering how his fund raising was doing. Geohot has given a
lot of himself to the community and it's heartwarming to see the community
respond with support in his time of need.

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SoftwareMaven
If Sony did not take a loss on every console sold, I wonder how much of an
issue this would be. Ff they sold a PS3 that was 50% more expensive but with
the feature "install whatever you want and don't worry about getting banned
from PSN" could they could solve that problem?

Of course, the content folks at Sony (who thought the rootkit was OK) would
probably never allow for it. Not that I'll ever buy another Sony product
unless they can prove a changed heart and a commitment to bring back the
quality that put them where they are.

~~~
yardie
Does it really matter what they sold it for? If they sell it at a loss what
about all the other things that are sold as a loss, daily? Like clearance
items, loss leaders, etc.

Here is the facts. I bought a PS3 4 years ago for gaming. It has done that
purpose very well, but the games currently coming out are lackluster (except
the Drake series). I'm moving on from platform gaming because I'm paying more
and getting less, each year.

Sony has gotten all the money out of the PS3 I'm going to give them. If I can
keep my $600 shiny, black brick from collecting dust than I should be within
my rights to do so.

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Bossman
This is great news. I really hope he gets a very good defense.

