Sony's legal battles explained by Groklaw.net

Judge Judy will settle this shit.

If your like me, you may be wondering why in the hell the PS3 seems to be a hot bed for hackers and why its big daddy Sony is in the headlines almost daily. To say the least there is a struggle between Sony and a percentage of its users that has gotten to the point where legal action is being taken by both sides. 

Until GeoHot came into my life and released the news that he was jailbreaking the PS3 and handing out all the keys to the castle, I wasn't paying attention much to the PS3 hacking scene. Once that happened Sony has taken action on him and the debate between hacking, freedom, piracy, software licenses and corporate power have been all the rage.

The basic gist of what happened is this. Sony realized that having the ability to install Linux (or other OS) on the PS3 was becoming a security risk by way of piracy and hacking (i.e. losing cash). So Sony decides to release a firmware update that when installed removes that function and if you chose not to install it you would lose access to PSN and the ability to play any new game. This of course pisses off all the Linux users out there and they file a class action lawsuit. Then in order to get Linux back onto the PS3, hackers have taken arms and spent the last year trying to jailbreak the system so people can have freedom to do what they want on the hardware. Now Sony is mad/crazy taking names. The innocent gamers suffer.


If I wanted to write a ten page blog post explaining it all to you, I couldn't. I don't have the legal knowledge or the stamina to do it, but luckily www.groklaw.net has done it for me with an article detailing aspects of the case with transcripts of the current class action lawsuit against Sony for the removal of the Install Other OS feature. It's particularly interesting since its directly related to Sony's new case against GeoHot and sheds some light on the perspective of both parties. Some things you read may make you angry or upset, but at least you'll have a better understanding of both sides either way.

Sony is in a interesting predicament and it seems they are in a losing battle. On one side, they look like dicks. On the other side they get dicked by their users.

Here is the direct link to the article

Who's being the bigger dick? Sony or the hackers?