PSX-SCENE Forum Discussion for Sony PlayStation/PsOne/PS2/PS3/PSP/PS VITA
  • Sony Charged with Breaking the Same Legal Act as Geohot

    It appears Sony's bad karma has turned around and bit the company in the rear end. In a court case stemming from Sony's decision to remove OtherOS, Sony is facing accusations of breaking the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The ironic twist to this story is that the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act is the exact same Act that George Hotz is being charged with breaking.


    Here is and interesting Sony’s defense on this matter:

    One of Sony’s defenses is rather interesting, as the company claims that it had no way of knowing gamers who bought the hardware would want to use these functions for the life of the system, and the multiple warranties and Terms of Service all said that Sony had the right to remove functions from the hardware.
    From the court documents filed by Sony:

    To establish the implied warranty of fitness existed, Plaintiffs must allege that SCEA had “reason to know” of their special purpose, i.e., to use the PS3 in perpetuity for all advertised features and functions including the Other OS; that Plaintiffs relied on SCEA’s expertise; and that SCEA had “reason to know” of their reliance on the continued availability of all features and functions. Plaintiffs have not only failed to allege these requisite facts, they indeed cannot due to the explicit language of SCEA’s Warranty, SSLA, and Terms of Service. Specifically, because SCEA had the right to terminate or alter any feature or function, it had no reason to believe that Plaintiffs purchased their PS3s particularly with the expectation and belief that all features, including the Other OS, would be available for the “life” of the PS3.
    PS3Hax's Take on the matter:

    So in a nutshell Sony is saying that after your warranty is up, they can remove what ever feature they want. If you wanted to keep your OtherOS, they all you had to do was not update, however by not updating you then loose PSN feature, making this a loose-loose situation. It will be very interesting how Sony will defend against this in court. Karmas a bitch isn’t it?
    Source: PS3Hax
    Source: ArsTechnical
    Comments 57 Comments
    1. Playhead90's Avatar
      Playhead90 -
      Sony is ****ing Corrupted
    1. rawdawg7's Avatar
      rawdawg7 -
      first that is all
    1. joshyeo's Avatar
      joshyeo -
      lol they are a bunch of shit heads hew like sex with there dads **** U Sony i hope u get ur asses sued offf
    1. Thorn's Avatar
      Thorn -
      hahah OUCH sony are in for it now serves them right for harrassing there customers
    1. Bryan Dowling's Avatar
      Bryan Dowling -
      Sony Just Got Fuuuucked!
    1. DominatorAzab-PSG's Avatar
      DominatorAzab-PSG -
      Sony = 0
      Hackers = <----

      1. 0<----
      2. Sony Is RAPED!
    1. FlashDrive101's Avatar
      FlashDrive101 -
      THERE IS A GOD!

      I still don't see how Sony was able too even get this far in the place. The power of corruption and money! Now lets wait for all the Sony ****roaches like Turkish to arrive here now.
    1. Stovokore's Avatar
      Stovokore -
      this is what happens when Japs try to manipulate American law
    1. Stalin-chan-PSG's Avatar
      Stalin-chan-PSG -
      **** Sony, what a bitch ass company.
    1. x3angel-PSG's Avatar
      x3angel-PSG -


      hahahhahah
    1. Thorn's Avatar
      Thorn -
      its not just the japs its probably just the north american branch that did it the japanese probably would have hired geohot where as the NA branch took him to court
    1. Deacon's Avatar
      Deacon -
      Well i said this a few times before, and i knew this would happen sooner or later, i think we all saw this coming, removing a advertise feature from a product sometimes backslashes, and i guess in Sony's case it just did and did it hard , but wow the irony.
    1. caf's Avatar
      caf -
      Finally, im also interested to see if sony used any open source code in their firmwares, i mean after all isnt linux open source? did they violate by not distributing the linux source code that they used in their otheros?

      i did not have a ps3 with linux so i have no real idea how other os worked. except it allowed linux.
    1. el_cid-PSG's Avatar
      el_cid-PSG -
      Howard Stringer, an American, is president and CEO of Sony.
    1. maurice-PSG's Avatar
      maurice-PSG -
      This case has been going on for almost a year, hasn't it? Why hasn't been a judgment yet? Either way, Sony is wrong. How can you accuse someone of the same thing you are doing? WHERE ARE THE FANBOYS AT??!!! I'm surprised a certain someone hasn't went ahead and defend Sony after getting butt plugged by them.
    1. peeer-PSG's Avatar
      peeer-PSG -
      Finally! Sony can have a taste of their medecine.




      Quote Originally Posted by caf View Post
      Finally, im also interested to see if sony used any open source code in their firmwares, i mean after all isnt linux open source? did they violate by not distributing the linux source code that they used in their otheros?

      i did not have a ps3 with linux so i have no real idea how other os worked. except it allowed linux.
      The XMB had the option Other OS in the settings where you could install Linux in a seperate partition.
    1. ISOHaven-PSG's Avatar
      ISOHaven-PSG -
      The only nitch here that I see causing an issue is that PSN access is not available on older FWs. Sony is well within their right to remove OtherOS. But they can't keep you from using features it currently has in order to keep your original purchase in tact.

      PS3 slim owners are of course ****ed in that regard.
    1. hemmer's Avatar
      hemmer -
      well what i dont understand is since they say if you wanted to keep it you shouldnt have updated then why do they make it where you cannot downgrade you can only upgrade what if someone else did it while using your system or you didnt know since im sure that it didnt say in the upgrade txt hey listen we are taking out otherOS feature so if you upgrade you lose otherOS but get psn. and if they left you that option and let you backtrack to whatever fw you wanted then we could just be like ok fine if we want otherOS then we have to use old FW but guess what since i bought mine and it came with 3.4 how can i use otherOS and how can i downgrade to a FW that supports it i bought a ps3 slim not knowing that otherOS was even taken out until i go tit and started to research because i knwo that you could install linux on ps3 then i found out oh well they removed that part and im like WTF is that shit
    1. gamer2020's Avatar
      gamer2020 -
      here turkish turkish....i got your scooby snack for you!!!
    1. mDt's Avatar
      mDt -
      Not trying to hate on behalf of modders or anything, but is it just me or does the PS3Hax quote kind of "lose" power due to bad punctuation and spelling errors? I see the site fixed the "lose-lose" portions, as it didn't seem like they "loosed" anything, but they haven't updated "Karma's a bitch".

      Don't mean to nit-pick; just sayin', that's all.