Sony Sues PS3 Hackers, “Can Ban Pirates At Any Time”
- Categories: Games, News
- Date: Jan 12, 2011 21:47 JST
- Tags: Copyright, Crime, DRM, Internet, Litigation, PS3, Sony, Technology
Sony’s reaction to the complete compromise of the PS3’s security is to launch a wave of lawsuits against the hackers responsible, whilst speculation about them mounting a Microsoft-style mass ban of pirates and hackers is mounting.
After the release of the initial “jailbreak” was the subject of a brief cat-and-mouse game of crack and counter-patch, PS3 hackers crowed that they had irreversibly cracked the PS3’s encryption system, throwing the console open to all manner of potential hacks, cracks and cheats (a few bearded freaks may even attempt to run Linux on it again).
Sony is predictably none to pleased about all this – its response has been to take legal action against the crackers, alleging violations of the DMCA and various other laws and demanding a temporary restraining order be placed on the hackers in order to stop them distributing their work online or otherwise.
With much of the information already public and further details and the inevitable piracy tools easily leakable through anonymous channels familiar to pirates, Sony’s chances of posing anything more than a short term hindrance to the development of piracy on the PS3 seem negligible – although it did experience moderate success in shutting down crack hawkers.
Meanwhile, a significant amount of speculation rages about whether Sony will engage in mass bans of PS3 pirates as Microsoft has done extensively.
Its actions to date seem to demonstrate it has a formidable ability to monitor user activity (if they sign into PSN) and can remotely ban and “brick” consoles at will, but that it is as yet very reluctant to do so.
Although its reaction so far has only been to block PSN access to active pirates and rely instead on security patches, with the ruin of its underlying security architecture there is potential for all kinds of new cracks – Sony may soon feel mass bans are the lesser evil, particularly if confronted with hordes of pirates stealing DLC and cheating in multiplayer, the inevitable result of the kindly hackers’ efforts.
The PS3’s ability to spy on user activity is already formidable – the most sophisticated example of this being the ability of the PS3 to snoop on the videos a user plays on the device to discover if they come from an unauthorised source using secretly embedded watermarks, and refuse to play them if so.
The technology is even effective on camera recordings of the protected works – if Sony bothers with anything near this level of sophistication in detecting pirates, it may be in a position to ban vast numbers of users should they unwisely take their console online.
None of this has any real impact on offline consoles however, so the anti-piracy effect seems likely to be limited at best.
Whilst hackers and the mass of pirates they rather unconvincingly claim to have nothing to do with have apparently won a crushing and total victory, Sony has nonetheless managed to keep the PS3 platform piracy-free for longer than virtually any other comparable system – a technical achievement rather more impressive than the inevitable cracking of their protection.
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0:
u not what: FUCK U N00B!!!
Calm down, guy.
Sony’s reaction to the complete compromise of the PS3′s security is to launch a wave of lawsuits against the hackers responsible, whilst speculation about them mounting a Microsoft-style mass ban of pirates and hackers is mounting.
Sony going Microsoft-style? 2011 won't be the year of PS3 if they're going to do something like that.
If this keeps up next they'll lawsuit the people who use the hacks :/
@w334b00 ur ass shud'v been suspended already! so get ur ass outta here b4 i fuck u up with a shotgun!
hey sony, ps3 wil suckass if u do dat!
@notracist1 (not-racist2)
fail troll is fail
if makes you feel better, i facepalmed at you
@TenguSan Don't forget to facepalm at w334b00 too.
i usually do.. i am just waiting for the excuse to *readies another facepalm*
Edit: *decides to give w334b00 a facepalm without a reason for good measure*
I'm definetely not down with this shit. *facepalms at Sony*
Sony finally snapped huh?
They only kept it piracy free for this long because we had Linux.
After they took that away all bets were out.
unfortunately Sony will probably have no choice but to purge their network of anyone who has any kind of mod or hack on their system.. since now they can no longer prevent it from occurring otherwise.
If you have a PS3 with a mod or any kind of hack (illegal or not), dont wont to remove it, and you have it connected to the net.. either get used to not ever going online with it again, or get used to the idea of owning an expensive paperweight (since Sony will probably try to completely disable the console, like the PSP).
facepalm.jpg
(for many things)
It's like...
"When you can't beat them in software, hit them with legalware."
That's cheating, Sony!
@not-racist: Okay brah.
"Its actions to date seem to demonstrate it has a formidable ability to monitor user activity (if they sign into PSN) and can remotely ban and “brick” consoles at will, but that it is as yet very reluctant to do so."
If they hack in and brick the Consoles, we can sue Sony for hacking into our systems then.
But Regardless, This won't really accomplish anything. Sony has lost the battle.
Their last option is to sue anybody they can, just to, as they say it, "make up lost money", which is bullshit, they got plenty of it with the increased sales.
@MasterJ633
I don't think they are doing it for money.
I doubt Geohot has much cash to give to them anyway.
Making Geohot's life very expensive seem to be an acceptable alternative to them though.
sony just mad cause they're stylin on them
Didn't the US Congress/Supreme Court say it's legal to jailbreak devices or was that only for the iPhone?
internet tough guys...
you know what i want to pirate most?
on disc dlc, thats realy it.
and i never really go online anyway, except to buy dlc and games, so if i cant do that legaly if i pirate on disc dlc, i may as well pirate it all...
see they made me a criminal because they made it a brickable offense, to unlock what is already on disc.
I couldn't care less with online. So yep, I'll be having an unlocked PS3 soon. They should thank those hackers, what was keeping me from buying PS3 was the fact that there are only 3 games I want badly. Now I'll be able to find out if there are more games I want badly =D
im curious as to what is proportionally the most damaging. internet piracy. or real 18th century piracy on the high seas.
"Internet piracy" is not even a valid description. Nothing material was ever stolen that way and certainly not in a violent manner.
It was coined that way by the music industry because their limited intelligence couldn't come up with anything more suitable.
Also, by calling it "piracy" they make it look intimidating. That way they essentially put downloaders on the same level as murderers and thugs.
Downloading, in general, is not as harmful as copyright holders want to make us believe. Not even close.
Lol. So they're going to sue everyone to milk some money from them and then ban them all so they have to go out and buy new consoles. Bastards.
anonymous
12:51
i have to agree and disagree. the people who openly bitch about piracy lose next to nothing in reality, and probably gain so much more because of it, look at photoshop as a PRIME example, everyone pirated it, got use to it, and now businesses have to buy it because everyone knows it.
in the case of movies and music, you lose not customers, because we wouldn't buy it.
now here is where it gets interesting
there have been indie game developers who have cited that for every 1 copy they sold, it was pirated 10 times.
piracy effects the small people FAR more than the big people, however the big people sue the shit out of people and take a loss because it stops people from doing it. but the indie that need the money cant at all.
its their own fault was pissing off the hackers Sony GG U LOSE
inevitable is inevitable...
but even though i admire the hackers despite taking their time, im surprised at sonys reported rage
i expected them to be announcing the ps4 any time now and caring less with each day
lol, there isnt going to be anything that happens to these guys, a bunch of the violations that sony is sueing these guys for are bogus if not completely weak:
examples:
Violating the PlayStation Network's Terms of Service (OOOOOHHZZZ NOOOOZ!)
Interfering with Sony's relationships with other PSN customers (REALLY??? How???)
Trespassing on Sony's ownership right to the PS3 (BS bud)
basically once the courts through this out since the hackers are not out to make money NORE are out to crack games (at least the germans aren't) the worst that will happen is that these guy's psn accounts will be banned D: how will you ever survive?? oohhh right... make a new account on another IP....
So if the avis and divx videos i play aren't 'secretly watermarked' my ps3 would be banned and bricked? That's pretty extreme if they monitor that.
They don't do that yet, as I have run plenty of video files old and new without trouble, all unauthorized.
They probably do monitor the video files, but I guess they don't care to enforce the 'secret watermark' as long as things are going well for them.
The PS3 will "just" refuse to play those files, I doubt they would ever take any further action.
Okay brah.
dude lets be civil here
well...ok?
apparently customers have no rights to do as they please with the goods they buy with their own hard earned cash
so apparently hacking a game console is illegal some-how good luck taking that into court Sony
The idiocy in this post is overwhelming.
Agreed, most overwhelming.
There is a difference between hacking and pirating. But you probably can not understand this.
lol.... future pirates are butthurt-ed with unsung's statement.
Why did this one get down voted? Pirates are throwing pussy tantrums oh well! Right?
That's Life.
Move on.
hacking the console, no (to my knowledge). hacking the console and distributing the hack around so that others may freely make illegal mods and hacks, yes.. very.
don't like it? grow up
Sure, they're allowed to do whatever they want with the product, but keep in mind that no matter who hacks their system, at one point or another they WILL start downloading games instead of buying them, and that's where problems start.
Using the excuse of "playing back-ups" is invalid. I don't know ANYONE who'd keep buying games on a steady basis when he had internet access and a hacked console. I mean, the only reason to hack is to play games for free.
My PS3 lens assembly broke after 5 months from purchase (I put the blame on a famous >100h game I played for making continuous access to the disc, travelling the lens back and forth all the time). Optical mechanism is probably the most delicate piece of hardware in the console, so I'd more than welcome a feature that allows me to backup my disc on HDD and relieve the stress on the lens. It could easily avoid piracy by requiring the original disc be inserted to launch the game and then switch reading from HDD.
If Sony is stupid enough not to legitimately allow such a useful feature, then I'd say I have a very good reason to hack.
Sony would legitimately allow it if they sold the product. Any 3rd party doing it is modding your console and voiding your EULA. You guys have to read those agreements that you agree to. Companies make them that way to basically fuck you if you don't play their way.
"Easily avoid piracy"
Not now it won't. Keep in mind that these are the ROOT keys-the LOWEST level of security there is on the PS3. Anything and everything created by modders can be signed as though it's officially from sony. That shit sony uses to detect the watermarks? Create a patch that returns 'all-clear' no matter what. Bypassed.
The HDD thing you suggested? Same thing. Sign a patch that disables it or causes it to think that there is a disc in there with the root key. What about if sony probes your hardware to see if you have that disabling patch installed? Simple. Create a patch that returns an 'all-clear' message every time, again signed with the root key.
Only fine if you keep the hack to yourself
But of course, he won't because he like his friends to download the same things he does...
It's a sad cycle...
That said you knew the "rules of the game" when you bought your console.
Both MS and Sony work via the "razor blade" model, and recoup a good chunk of their cost via games.
If you want free control, you shouldn't have bought a PS3 and should instead have bought a PC.
You sign an agreement saying you will not mod, hack, or pirate on the PS3.
In doing so you break a legal binding contract- you can be sued for this.
That isn't a contract. That is a user agreement. It is how the company manages not to get sued for shutting off your console if they detect you hacking, ect.
@Sodium Chloride 01:24:
I'm not responsible for a company's faulty business model.
@Anon 02:32:
I didn't sign shit when I bought my fat PS/3.
FWIW, I didn't sign up for/don't use PSN, I don't update my PS/3 firmware, and I don't own any PS/3 games.
I bought it as a BD player / experimental Linux PC.
I think there will be many happy people at organizations which are using PS/3s in their supercomputer clusters -- they were hosed when Sony removed the "OtherOS" option from the Slim PS/3, since they couldn't get replacement parts.
Now they can once again get replacement, and additional, units and have them work.
Missing the point that MANY of those agreements are unenforceable by state/federal/country laws all over the world and in the United States.
"...to do as they please with the goods they buy with their own hard earned cash"
It's not the hacking they are pissed about but rather the illegal distribution of games, which hurts the companies that make games for its console.
I doubt sony can do much as long as there is no "illegal distribution of copyrighted material", but as soon as there is they'll cling onto that for lawsuits.
Mind you I'm not defending sony, just trying to be objective here about the actual criminal act. It's not as simple as you make it seem.
Sandalphon, the fact is that about 90% of the 'pirates' would never have bought the games in question anyway.
Need I also remind that awhile ago they were trying to say that USED games were just as bad, if not worse, than pirated games?
They need to wake up and realize that DRM just pisses off people who want to PROTECT THEIR INVESTMENT (key term there) by backing up their discs and/or playing the game directly from the hard drive.... WITHOUT the easily scratched disc needing to be in the drive.