Sony Recognizes That Openness Is A Competitive Advantage
from the finally dept
It may have taken the (very) long way to get there, but it looks like at least some folks over at Sony have figured out that openness can be a competitive advantage, and have decided to support the open ePub ebook format for its ebook reader. Now, there are lots of caveats here. Amazon has effectively been able to capture the leadership position in this market, while Sony has languished, so partly this is a hail mary pass -- which we've seen happen elsewhere as well. And, of course, despite it being an open format and the fact that Sony is ditching its own DRM, the new format will still have Adobe DRM -- so this isn't a truly opened up solution, but it is a step. It may be difficult for Sony to recapture the lead in this market by this point, but it seems like that the open ebook platforms will only gain steam (and eventually Amazon will end up supporting it as well). It's the natural progression that we see over and over again: a closed platform may help define the market, and then weaker competitors often circle around an open platform, realizing it's their only chance to fight back against the lock-in of the market leader. While it often takes some time, the open platforms do tend to get better and better, even to the point that the original leader is eventually forced to adopt it as well.
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Mike Masnick Makes A Fool Of Himself
What an idiot.
Let's see...
For almost three years now everyone who is lucky enough to own a Sony PS3:
* Let's you easily install any off the shelf laptop drive - no over priced proprietary harddrives like some other company forces you to
* Let's you easily install a completely open source OS on your PS3 and run any Linux/open source software on the system
* Has the gold standard for console online systems that is similar to the open and developer friendly PC gaming online world
But hey! Some random fanboy is running his mouth off and making himself look like a fool.
Way to Mikey!
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Re: Mike Masnick Makes A Fool Of Himself
Console fanboys are a scary bunch. They are so incredibly deluded because they have to be in order to justify the absurd overpricing of the entire video game market.
The funniest thing about console fanboys? They think exclusivity deals are pro-consumer. What a bunch of flaming morons.
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Re: Re: Mike Masnick Makes A Fool Of Himself
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Re: Re: Re: Addison Makes A Fool Of Himself
This article is not debating video game consoles...idiot. None of the points you make have anything to do with DIGITAL rights management. Get your head out of your ass or go away.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Addison Makes A Fool Of Himself
Go play on some other site.
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get lost, fanboy
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Re: Mike Masnick Makes A Fool Of Himself
Sony doesn't 'let you', they didn't make it 'easily' installable, and in fact they didn't help the effort at all. The ability to run Linux on the PS3 is purely due to some very skilled Linux hackers that took the time and effort to reverse engineer a way to install other software on the PS3. Sony gets NO credit for that.
Although even after all that effort it's not incredibly useful, the performance is pretty bad.
The rest of course is all questionable fanboi crap.
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Re: Mike Masnick Makes A Fool Of Himself
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Re: Re: Mike Masnick Makes A Fool Of Himself
Let's see loser:
Sony: 20 first party development studios cranking out PS3 games
Nintendo: 10 first party dev studios
Microsoft: 3 first party dev studios - LOL!
Poor baby! Over 5 times as many developers putting out exclusives for the PS3 this. But, hey!, the RRoDbox does have a whole bunch of crappy downgraded PC ports to fill out the joke games lineup!
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Re: Mike Masnick Makes A Fool Of Himself
Has the gold standard for console online systems that is similar to the open and developer friendly PC gaming online world
LMAO! Yea that's why the PS3 is in LAST place by far for console sales. Moron. Plus, everything ^he^ said... +1
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Re: Re: Mike Masnick Makes A Fool Of Himself
I bet you just love your fake vgcharz sales numbers!
The PS3 is the third fastest selling console in history.
Does that make you cry? Poor baby!
Fastest selling consoles in history:
1. PS2
2. Wii
3. PS3
So much for 'captializing on the one year 'head start'' for Microsoft and its POS RRoDbox...
Sony already kicked the 360 into last place in both Japan and Europe. Only one more region to go...
No wonder Microsoft has thrown in the towel and is giving up trying to compete with Sony and has been closing down their first party console studios and aren't giving up on trying create new Xbox hardware.
But hey! Slapping a ripoff of Sony's EyeToy style motion controls on old Xbox 360 hardware is gonna be a HUGE HIT!
LOL!
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Re: Re: Mike Masnick Makes A Fool Of Himself
The PS3 is outpacing the 360 by some 4 or 5 million units worldwide at similar point of time on the market. Even worse for Microsoft is that includes the many millions of replacement 360s people have bought and continue to buy for the RRoD hardware failure fiasco.
Not really hard to imagine how huge the sales gap will be for Sony over Microsoft when the price drops to 300 dollars soon for the PS3 and then down to 200 dollars.
Twice as expensive and outselling the 360 shows that the massive graphics superiority the PS3 is showing over the 360, gigantic first party exclusive developer advantage, and rock solid reliability and engineering is the winning strategy and is why Sony is defeating Microsoft once again so easily in the console market.
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It's still Sony to me
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Re: It's still Sony to me
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Little Stevie
LOL! Congrats dimwit, you just make yourself look a total idiot.
"Boot Other OS" is right there is the damn PS3 XMB System Menu you pathetic little fanboy! Yellow Dog Linux was the distro Sony worked with and since then many other distros are now supported.
What a loser!
Little Stevie, time for you to shut up.
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Re: Little Stevie
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Re: Re: Little Stevie
Let's just do a little 'openness' comparison:
Sony:
> Any off the cheap shelf laptop harddrive can be used to upgrade the PS3
> Free online networking with lagfree dedicated servers just like the open PC gaming
> Standard webbrowser included with every PS3
> Any OS can be easily installed and run on the PS3. Full support for it is right in the PS3 formatting tools and system menu
> Graphics - developers can use the industry standard OpenGL to access the PS3 graphics hardware that runs on every platform on the market Windows,Linux,Mac,iPhones,Android,etc.
> Any off the shelf keyboard and mouse can be used with the system
Microsoft:
> Only proprietary and overpriced Microsoft drives can be used.
> 50 dollar a year laggy P2P gaming that is locked down by Microsoft and hostile to developers who want to provide free content and mods like they are able to easily do with the PC and PS3
> No webbrowser - all network access is only through Microsoft proprietary communication
> Locked down hardware that is only runs the proprietary Microsoft Xbox OS
> Developers are only able to use Microsoft's proprietary directx APIs that no one but they use
> Keyboard and mouse support is locked out by Microsoft
So, not only is Microsoft getting utterly humiliated graphically by Sony's PS3 this gen, it is being done so by the most open console ever created.
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FAWK SONY!
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"Open" DRM, too!
It's still the same old Sony. "We own your stuff, not the other way around."
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Re: "Open" DRM, too!
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A real comment that's actually on point..
Apparently they learned nothing from Apple/Mac, either. In the early days of PC's, Macintosh was a much better computer than IBM's: Macs had a GUI on a full color screen, it had GUI's partner the mouse, and also music. The PC had NONE of those things. But, then IBM (basically scrapping their patents, but saving their business) said, "If you want to make a PC like ours, here's EXACTLY how you do it." Then, like with Betamax and VHS, competition drove down the price of an "IBM clone" and now there are FAR more IBM clones than there are Macs on the market today and at a much lower price.
I guess those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it!
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Re: A real comment that's actually on point..
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PS3
With their gaming and electronics becoming more open, hopefully the Sony Music and Sony Pictures divisions will start to modernize their business models a little more too.
But seriously, this doesn't need to turn into a PS3 vs 360 debate, they're both good consoles with a lot to offer.
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Re: PS3
I have seen all the listed open HARDWARE examples, but that really never has been an issue debated (at least not on techdirt).
Ever try to back up your PS3 games? I haven't, but I am curious as to what DRM may prevent this.
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Re: Re: PS3
The games seem pretty open with their DRM though. You can download them on up to 5 machines through your psn account(with the exception of a couple games like Warhawk and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue). I've never tried to back them up, but I think you can download them an unlimited amount of times since it's connected to your psn account.
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Re: Re: PS3
Yes, along with millions of other PS3 owners.
Backing up your saves is built right into the PS3 system software. Just hook up any USB drive to your PS3 and it is trivial to back and restore your game saves.
Please stop spreading lies.
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Re: Re: Re: PS3
Reading comprehension, dude. The question was about backing up the *games*, as in the actual disks. Not save files.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: PS3
PSN games
Movies
Music/audio
All are easily backed up with a single command on the PS3.
PS3 game discs are of course not legally able to be copied - just like every other form of disc based media.
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Attention console war participants
That is all.
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Re: Attention console war participants
No consumer should accept that. Fanboys beg for it tho.
/boggle
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Re: Re: Attention console war participants
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This isn't taking into account that I'm a very amateur XBLA game developer of course. ;)
Sony's attempt to adopt an open standard does seem to be a bit of a "hail mary" play with the inclusion of a DRM system and not a broader move to open standards in general. Ironically if you search for "Sony Open Standards" in google will bring up Many results about this their ebook reader... but not much else.
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Addison
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Not to feed the troll, but...
This is a fact, take it as you will.
Beyond that and actually On Topic, Sony is a weird company. Their games divisions isn't bad. (As long as you stay away from the Sony Online part) Sony Music and Sony Pictures can die in a fire. Bought a music CD and that was how I learned about DRM, because it wouldn't play in my car, and I couldn't copy the tracks to my computer or any player so I could listen to them elsewhere.
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My 2 cents (on sale now!)
Sony appears to be seeing the potential and is stepping lightly, not plunging like a blind idiot, into a place we'd all like to see them AND THEIR COMPETITORS go. This is encouraging, what with the PS3, their ebook and whatever may come next. Let's encourage THEM and give them thought-out ideas and critique.
Let us not be hateboys because of the past, but merely cautious. Thank you.
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Sony Reader Owner
Adobe's Digital Editions software is way easier to work with, though right now the Reader doesn't do a very good job of re-sizing or re-flowing text from those PDF files (or ePub files, for that matter). I'm hoping Sony will provide a firmware update to fix this once they go ePub.
Neither option is DRM free, but the move to ePub is a step in the right direction. Truly, the best software for the Sony Reader is the free open source program, Calibre, by programmer Kovid Goyal.
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Sony? Open? Bahahaha
Support for DMCA via campaign contributions/lobbying cash
The Root kit installs from the music CDs
Ever try to get hardware specs for sony hardware so you can support it with open source - they have a history of not even bothering to try to help.
And so now, they are magically "open" - Pull the other one, it recites War and Peace.
I'll wait for the ruckus when they pull the support in a software update in the future.
When a vendor comes out with a really OPEN ebook, then I'll care about the platform.
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Sony-Poor Quality and Service
Sony built a great reputation over decades and has squandered it in a few years. Apple and Google, both members of the Piracy Coalition are doing the same today.
Ronald J. Riley,
Speaking only on my own behalf.
President - www.PIAUSA.org - RJR at PIAUSA.org
Executive Director - www.InventorEd.org - RJR at InvEd.org
Senior Fellow - www.PatentPolicy.org
President - Alliance for American Innovation
Caretaker of Intellectual Property Creators on behalf of deceased founder Paul Heckel
Washington, DC
Direct (810) 597-0194 - (202) 318-1595 - 9 am to 8 pm EST.
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Sony-Poor Quality and Service
Sony built a great reputation over decades and has squandered it in a few years. Apple and Google, both members of the Piracy Coalition are doing the same today.
Ronald J. Riley,
Speaking only on my own behalf.
President - www.PIAUSA.org - RJR at PIAUSA.org
Executive Director - www.InventorEd.org - RJR at InvEd.org
Senior Fellow - www.PatentPolicy.org
President - Alliance for American Innovation
Caretaker of Intellectual Property Creators on behalf of deceased founder Paul Heckel
Washington, DC
Direct (810) 597-0194 - (202) 318-1595 - 9 am to 8 pm EST.
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