Sony Gets Restraining Order Against Guy Who Restored PS3 Feature Sony Deleted
from the make-it-stop dept
We've already noted the ridiculousness of the situation with copyright law today that makes jailbreaking your iPhone perfectly legal, but jailbreaking your computer gaming console potentially a jailable criminal offense. While some judges have noticed how ridiculous this is, it hasn't stopped console makers from going overboard.Take, for example, Sony's reaction to a recent jailbreaking of the PS3. As you may recall, last year, Sony simply deleted a feature on the PS3 that would let users install alternative operating systems, such as Linux. This feature was used by operations such as the US Air Force to build supercomputers. Recently, a hacker by the name of George Hotz jailbroke the PS3 in order to let people bring back the "Other OS" feature that Sony had dumped.
Sony's response? To bring out the legal guns, get a restraining order against Hotz claim that he violated both the DMCA and the CFAA, and that "all circumvention technology" that Hotz used should be "impounded."
Hopefully Hotz is willing to fight this, and a court is willing to go beyond even what that last judge did, and point out that the laws, as currently written, go beyond what is Constitutional in blocking the way people can make use of their own hardware.
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Filed Under: cfaa, copyright, dmca, hacking, jailbreak, ps3, restraining order
Companies: sony
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What part of the constitution prevents laws that limit permitted uses of property?
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Re: What part of the constitution prevents laws that limit permitted uses of property?
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Re: Re: What part of the constitution prevents laws that limit permitted uses of property?
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Re: Re: What part of the constitution prevents laws that limit permitted uses of property?
Imagine if you buy a Ford automobile and they say that you can't install a Chevy engine in it. They find out you did it and then figuratively destroy your car!!! (Kindle removed retroactively what they claimed post-sale as unauthorized content.)
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Re: What part of the constitution prevents laws that limit permitted uses of property?
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Re: What part of the constitution prevents laws that limit permitted uses of property?
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100402/1856128861.shtml
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Re: What part of the constitution prevents laws that limit permitted uses of property?
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Re: Re: What part of the constitution prevents laws that limit permitted uses of property?
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Re: What part of the constitution prevents laws that limit permitted uses of property?
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
But they can outlaw the use of any property to exercise those freedoms, eh? I don't think so.
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What funny is that Sony says they could fix it...
But why bring out all of the guns against this guy when you can't prove the harm he's doing to your product?
In essence, they truly have other things to worry about such as finding uses for their gaming system, rather than going after people that seem to be finding new ways to use the technology.
If you think about it, the Kinect hacks shouldn't have happened since Microsoft threatened to sue.
But if you look, the Kinect has created an entire MARKET for demand with this specific product.
Sony needs to take note not to fight a tide but embrace it and find other avenues.
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In the case of the PS3, it's a product, and as consumers we should be able to do whatever the hell we want with it. I can mod my car to make it go way faster than the speed limit, but I am not breaking any laws until I actually go over the speed limit. The Jailbreaking software adds functionality back to the PS3 that Sony stripped away, and no one should be put in jail for modding their hardware.
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Honestly, I really don't expect they gave it much thought or it would have been given more than one sentence and would have clarified the issue at hand.
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@AC television nowadays can most certainly control what you watch and there is a government mandated fuel governor in all cars which limits your speed to 120mph or somewhere thereabouts.
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If you're looking for a reference for that idea, then Justice Ginsburg's opinion in Eldred v Ashcroft (2003) is a good one:
So, quite recently the Supreme Court has seen fair use as a safety valve for free speech in the copyright regime.
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Don't forget fail0verflow…
I actually sent that in too, when I suggest this story: Sony doesn't just threaten Mr. Hotz, but also the guys who showed at 27C3 how they broke the "security system" (only in quotes as it is really laughable if you understand the details) on which in turn Mr. Hotz built, when he publicly released the keys needed for signing homebrew software. So please don't just focus on Mr. Hotz.
Cheers,
Drizzt
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Re: Don't forget fail0verflow…
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Sony applied for a TRO, but there has been no ruling. So don't be fooled by the "Sony Gets Restraining Order" headline. They simply filed a request.
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Good Luck with that one
"It [Sony] also wants all mention of the circumvention removed from the Web"
Your Honor, we also respectfully request that you memory-wipe all those who may have heard of this circumvention.
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Re: Good Luck with that one
Your Honor, the defense requests permission to roll on the floor and laugh hysterically for several minutes.
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Re: Re: Good Luck with that one
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Re: Good Luck with that one
then there will be no need to memory wipe anyone else
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Re: Good Luck with that one
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Look at what is referenced in the order...
Didn't take long.
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Re: Look at what is referenced in the order...
1. Play without paying your monthly tithe.
2. Cheat in the game (though without PvP, I don't see where that is a problem).
3. Potentially bring down the servers if they don't like something that your crack is feeding them.
I don't see where any of those arguments is valid here.
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this is also payback for the 'root kit' debacle by Sony. So for 300usd I can get every game there is.
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They want to turn objects into leasing items or something.
You will own nothing and be indebt for the rest of your life if they get their way.
Imagine a blender that ask you to pay more to work on holidays?
Far fetched?
Not if they have their way. Intellectual property laws are enablers for ridiculous claims of ownership.
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Consider if this were Windows
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Re: Consider if this were Windows
Nothing stopping you from wiping windows off of drive and installing Linux or another Operating System.
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Re: Re: Consider if this were Windows
of course I'm with you, why give MS the chance? I just nuke it and go about my day.
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Re: Re: Consider if this were Windows
Perheps I can make better analogy... If you by a car with hi-fi music equipment, and once you take the car to authorized repair center for changing some part, they told you that they have to remove the hi-fi from your car because the vendor told them "they think listening to music during driving is dangerous so everytime from now on, if anyone go repair/changing parts here, they have to remove them or risk losing authorized service provider/dealer status."
Will you accept this?
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Re: Re: Re: Consider if this were Windows
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Future of IP laws.
Can automakers make cars that are limited to the velocities they can go and if you want to go faster you need to "buy" a package that includes that "addon".
Can some manufactures start limiting how household appliance function lets say you need to pay more to have them work at the weekends or they only function in one geographic location?
IP law makes that all possible now.
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Re: Future of IP laws.
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Re: Future of IP laws.
well, that's basically already here, and other than being a terrible business model I don't see any problem with it. It's not really the same as your other two examples, which are spot on and chilling.
Though it actually would be interesting to see someone try that with a car - the backlash from the community could be pretty severe, and might draw more attention to these issues.
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Re: Re: Future of IP laws.
Sony has a patent on geolocation for TV equipment to do just that.
According to some sources somebody told the fallowing to a crowd of people "If people want to see content in their rooms that should be a premium service"
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Or a car that will not accept anything it doesn't recognize as "authentic".
This is real FUD. But I believe people should be worried if anything companies already have shown they are willing to go to extremes to increase their bottom line no matter the cost and IP laws are empowering them to become bolder.
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Future of IP laws.
Can automakers make cars that are limited to the velocities they can go and if you want to go faster you need to "buy" a package that includes that "addon".
Can some manufactures start limiting how household appliance function lets say you need to pay more to have them work at the weekends or they only function in one geographic location?
IP law makes that all possible now.
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The key is now all over the sony hack (hack.. not hacker) scene and in its basic hex mode looks EXACTLY like this. (yep its the key)
I predict that this will soon be printed onto Tshirts, coffee mugs, tattoed onto peoples legs etc and will be like another KEY that had so called DMCA restrictions EVERYWHERE!
And if Sony get granted the restraining order on geohot [that link is great and click on the Old index link too[ this will not dissuade anyone else outside of the USA like myself from spreading the same information everywhere. Especially if that key allows the use of Other OS systems.
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Update on George Hotz and failOverFlow
George Hotz has spoken to the BBC.
"I am a firm believer in digital rights. I would expect a company that prides itself on intellectual property to be well versed in the provisions of the law, so I am disappointed in Sony's current action," he said.
"I have spoken with legal counsel and I feel comfortable that Sony's action against me doesn't have any basis."
Fail0verflow member Marcan, aka Hector Martin posted on Twitter, saying "Ah, so Sony decided to sue everyone under US law. Guess I won't be visiting the US in a while... No further comment on Sony, the PS3, or anything related until I can talk with a lawyer."
The Fail0verflow website also has a comment:
"Our motivation was Sony's removal of OtherOS. Our exclusive goal was, is, and always has been to get OtherOS back. We have never condoned, supported, approved of, or encouraged videogame piracy. We have not published any encryption or signing keys. We have not published any Sony code, or code derived from Sony's code."
Mathieu Hervais, front man for the PSGroove open source jailbreak team (not named in the documents), posted a range of arguments against Sony's allegations on his Twitter account, kicking off by saying, "I've just read Sony's legal document, it's full of crap and the guy who wrote that doesn't know s**t about how the PS3 works."
According to the paperwork, the first hearing is set for 9am today in California (5pm GMT) "or as soon as can be heard".
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This is worsened by the fact that there is no limit to by how much you can multiply the actual cost to get to the "price" of the immaterial. What is the cost of a Van Gogh? A Rolex? A 100 lines intelligent piece of software?
Nobody can write down how much I pay for the immaterial part of a product. So the only workaround is to dilute that part somehow, in the form of a rental, license or such, which amounts to charging as much as possible over time and, commercially this time, to re-marry the two parts.
But this is not a marriage of love.
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1985 infected PCs with Rootkit on audio CDS
SECUROM infected PC with rootkits in the name of piracy.
BOYCOTT BOYCOTT BOYCOTT
NOT 1 MORE CENT!
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erk: C0 CE FE 84 C2 27 F7 5B D0 7A 7E B8 46 50 9F 93 B2 38 E7 70 DA CB 9F F4 A3 88 F8 12 48 2B E2 1B
riv: 47 EE 74 54 E4 77 4C C9 B8 96 0C 7B 59 F4 C1 4D
pub: C2 D4 AA F3 19 35 50 19 AF 99 D4 4E 2B 58 CA 29 25 2C 89 12 3D 11 D6 21 8F 40 B1 38 CA B2 9B 71 01 F3 AE B7 2A 97 50 19
R: 80 6E 07 8F A1 52 97 90 CE 1A AE 02 BA DD 6F AA A6 AF 74 17
n: E1 3A 7E BC 3A CC EB 1C B5 6C C8 60 FC AB DB 6A 04 8C 55 E1
K: BA 90 55 91 68 61 B9 77 ED CB ED 92 00 50 92 F6 6C 7A 3D 8D
Da: C5 B2 BF A1 A4 13 DD 16 F2 6D 31 C0 F2 ED 47 20 DC FB 06 70
Print , expose, share OFTEN!
erk: C0 CE FE 84 C2 27 F7 5B D0 7A 7E B8 46 50 9F 93 B2 38 E7 70 DA CB 9F F4 A3 88 F8 12 48 2B E2 1B
riv: 47 EE 74 54 E4 77 4C C9 B8 96 0C 7B 59 F4 C1 4D
pub: C2 D4 AA F3 19 35 50 19 AF 99 D4 4E 2B 58 CA 29 25 2C 89 12 3D 11 D6 21 8F 40 B1 38 CA B2 9B 71 01 F3 AE B7 2A 97 50 19
R: 80 6E 07 8F A1 52 97 90 CE 1A AE 02 BA DD 6F AA A6 AF 74 17
n: E1 3A 7E BC 3A CC EB 1C B5 6C C8 60 FC AB DB 6A 04 8C 55 E1
K: BA 90 55 91 68 61 B9 77 ED CB ED 92 00 50 92 F6 6C 7A 3D 8D
Da: C5 B2 BF A1 A4 13 DD 16 F2 6D 31 C0 F2 ED 47 20 DC FB 06 70
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Sony Code
riv: 47 EE 74 54 E4 77 4C C9 B8 96 0C 7B 59 F4 C1 4D
pub: C2 D4 AA F3 19 35 50 19 AF 99 D4 4E 2B 58 CA 29 25 2C 89 12 3D 11 D6 21 8F 40 B1 38 CA B2 9B 71 01 F3 AE B7 2A 97 50 19
R: 80 6E 07 8F A1 52 97 90 CE 1A AE 02 BA DD 6F AA A6 AF 74 17
n: E1 3A 7E BC 3A CC EB 1C B5 6C C8 60 FC AB DB 6A 04 8C 55 E1
K: BA 90 55 91 68 61 B9 77 ED CB ED 92 00 50 92 F6 6C 7A 3D 8D
Da: C5 B2 BF A1 A4 13 DD 16 F2 6D 31 C0 F2 ED 47 20 DC FB 06 70
~geohot
props to fail0verflow for the asymmetric half
no donate link, just use this info wisely
i do not condone piracy
I made a video
it's jailbreak time
open the zip, you know how to install
3.55 only
would be pirates, don't waste your time
do not mirror file, link to geohot.com
no donations accepted right now, don't get scammed
homebrew signing source (edited by jwise: Git source tree mirrored here)
make_self_npdrm makes valid NPDRM selfs from elfs
it does not contain any info on decrypting or removing NPDRM
NPDRM is required for interoperability of our homebrew applications
package_finalize turns your debug packages into psuedoretail packages
psuedoretail packages install on a geohot jailbroken PS3
i'm excited to see what you will create
open source SDK @ PSL1GHT (edited by jwise: Git source tree mirrored here)
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Heaven forbid...
Somebody may buy a used one to put Linux on it, or even worse... repurpse their PS3 that they're not using anyways...
The horror!
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Jailbreaking the PS3
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Re: Jailbreaking the PS3
I personally wouldn't donate anyways. Although I support geohots endeavors, I don't support sony. Therefore I won't support something that requires a sony product.
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Re: Re: Jailbreaking the PS3
Maybe someday, but its been some years now and ... seems like every few months there's another story that doesn't reflect well on them.
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Sony is Style Without Substance
Several years ago I purchased three Sony notebooks at a total cost of about $10,000.
All three failed in less than a year, usually while I was traveling.
These computers turned out to be style without substance, the hallmark of Sony. They suffered from poor engineering, both hardware and software.
On top of that Sony service was a nightmare.
I have not purchased any Sony products since. Sony should be avoided at all costs.
Ronald J. Riley,
President - www.PIAUSA.org - RJR at PIAUSA.org
Other Affiliations:
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 (202) 318-1595 - 9 am to 9 pm EST.
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as far as Sony's customer service centers and support services are concerned, they are an absolute disgrace. once a piece of Sony equipment/hardware has been bought (usually at a higher price than equivalent from different vendors, but the same spec, simply because it says 'Sony!), the customer is completely ignored!
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