Sony Offline Entertainment (Hacking of PSN and SOE)

[Raytheon]

http://anonnews.org/?p=press&a=item&i=787

A delicious letter to Sony. Enjoy.




The letter to Sony:

Dear Greedy Motherfuckers SONY,

Congratulations! You are now receiving the attention of Anonymous. Your recent legal actions against fellow internet citizens, GeoHot and Graf_Chokolo have been deemed an unforgivable offense against free speech and internet freedom, primary sources of free lulz (and you know how we feel about lulz.)

You have abused the judicial system in an attempt to censor information about how your products work. You have victimized your own customers merely for possessing and sharing information, and continue to target those who seek this information. In doing so you have violated the privacy of thousands of innocent people who only sought the free distribution of information. Your suppression of this information is motivated by corporate greed and the desire for complete control over the actions of individuals who purchase and use your products, at least when those actions threaten to undermine the corrupt stranglehold you seek to maintain over copywrong, oops, "copyright".

Your corrupt business practices are indicative of a corporate philosophy that would deny consumers the right to use products they have paid for, and rightfully own, in the manner of their choosing. Perhaps you should alert your customers to the fact that they are apparently only renting your products? In light of this assault on both rights and free expression, Anonymous, the notoriously handsome rulers of the internet, would like to inform you that you have only been "renting" your web domains. Having trodden upon Anonymous' rights, you must now be trodden on.

If you disagree with the disciplinary actions against your private parts domains, then we trust you can also understand our motivations for these actions. You own your domains. You paid for them with your own money. Now Anonymous is attacking your private property because we disagree with your actions. And that seems, dare we say it, "wrong." Sound familiar?

Let Anonymous teach you a few important lessons that your mother forgot:
1. Don't do it to someone else if you don't want it to be done to you.
2. Information is free.
3. We own this. Forever.

As for the "judges" and complicit legal entities who have enabled these cowards: You are no better than SONY itself in our eyes and remain guilty of undermining the well-being of the populace and subverting your judicial mandate.


We are Anonymous.
We are Legion.
We do not Forgive.
We do not Forget.
Expect us.

[Insanecyclone]

Basically it's a bunch of butthurt kids that expect to accomplish something out of this.

[Penthesilea]

can you post the article? a link helps very little

[*Shinzon*]

Yes ok, we should support people who are angry that a product they bought was altered by the company who owns the product. Fucking retards. I hope they get every penny out of Geohotz, and all those who paid Geohotz for the hack. When you buy something like a ps3 your subject to their TOS. I guess the internet missed that message eh?

Edit: here's the article off Kotaku:

Just hours after the hacker collective Anonymous threatened to take down the PlayStation Network and major Sony websites, the PSN — the service that allows PS3 gamers to compete online and download games — has been going on and offline. The official PlayStation blog and Sony's U.S. PlayStation site are also loading slowly, if at all.

An official PlayStation Twitter account noted just before 1pm ET today that: "PSN currently undergoing sporadic maintenance. Access to the PSN may be interrupted throughout the day. We apologize for any inconvenience." The service was down after that though appeared to be functioning again by 3:30 ET.

We've contacted Sony to find out if they believe these outages are due to Anonymous' attacks and, if not, what they're doing to prepare for them.

Anonymous says they plan to attack Sony to punish the company for suing hacker George Hotz who cracked the PS3's firmware. Hotz, also known as Geohot, is now embroiled in a legal and ethical conflict about whether he had a right to mess with Sony's tech or if they are protected by U.S. law to keep him out and can both shut him down and look through his Paypal records to see who may have been giving him financial support.

[Ragnell]

I have to wonder if the people they're fighting for appreciate what they're doing in this case.

This, it would be cool AFTER the verdict but this can hurt him more than help him

[*Shinzon*]

Sony has already been given permission to sift through his financial records to track sales and transfers of money related to the hack and the circumvention of sony's copyright and patent protections. I'm sorry but Geohot and those supporting him, like that obnoxious and ridiculous interview on G4 awhile back of " FIGHTING FOR OUR FREEDOM!!!!!!111" is insanity. I understand the fighting for what you want, but these fucks aren't entitled to anything they are fighting over. Even more so are those arguing they should have access to the source codes of the PS3 software.

[archibaldcrane]

Yes ok, we should support people who are angry that a product they bought was altered by the company who owns the product.

Um...

That's kind of the point. The idea is, if you buy a Playstation, you should be able to do basically whatever you want with it - alter the software, install your own shit on it, etc - because you OWN it.

If Geohot was including Sony's proprietary code in his software hacks, then he will get fucked. If everything he distributed was A) His original code and B) Not malicious to Sony's servers/operations, it shouldn't be prosecutable.

[Jefe]

But, but, I want CFW and be able to use OtherOS. I paid for it goshdarn it! Sony is evil, reminds me of the Ford Pinto problem.

No, but yeah bunch of fucks. Now I can't play... UNLESS I USE GOOGLE'S PUBLIC DNS.

http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/9453/etcr.jpg

[Yugl]

Um...

That's kind of the point. The idea is, if you buy a Playstation, you should be able to do basically whatever you want with it - alter the software, install your own shit on it, etc - because you OWN it.

If Geohot was including Sony's proprietary code in his software hacks, then he will get fucked. If everything he distributed was A) His original code and B) Not malicious to Sony's servers/operations, it shouldn't be prosecutable.

Operations including free PSN DLs and Rips of other games?

[archibaldcrane]

Operations including free PSN DLs and Rips of other games?

Geohot was illegally pirating games or illegally downloading PSN or distributing games for free? If so, yeah, pop him for it.

tl;dr I don't think the person who wrote software to jailbreak my phone should be legally prosecuted (assuming they aren't stealing code in the process). If I, as a jailbreak user, pirate paid software, then I should be prosecuted. Same should apply to video game consoles.

This is like suing gun manufacturers for people getting shot.

[Yugl]

I have no idea myself. I left behind my game consoles and haven't been able to play in almost a year. From what I've seen in the gaming section though, it sure looks like the whole pirating business.

[archibaldcrane]

My point is, enabling others to be able to play games they pirated shouldn't be prosecutable. He makes tools. By themselves, the tools are harmless. If you use said tool to commit illegal acts, you should be prosecuted, not the guy who makes the tool.

[Fhqwghads]

I sincerely hope that the judicial system says "tough titties, Sony. You own a car? You know it's 100% legit for you to modify that car as long as it's deemed road safe, right? Same shit. Case dismissed."

That's the way it should be. Of course thanks to massive lobbying and deep pockets who the fuck knows what the actual outcome will be.

[Raytheon]

I sincerely hope that the judicial system says "tough titties, Sony. You own a car? You know it's 100% legit for you to modify that car as long as it's deemed road safe, right? Same shit. Case dismissed."

That's the way it should be. Of course thanks to massive lobbying and deep pockets who the fuck knows what the actual outcome will be.

I basically posted the same thing bro, didn't work though, but this is what I was getting at.

If you tried to apply this to vehicles, all hell would break loose. Imagine having to get written permission from Honda to add a new intake manifold from a 3rd party to your riceburner Civic. Yeah, you bought the car, but the car was Honda's idea and it's Honda's car. You might put all kinds of aftermarket parts in it and take it to a car show or drag strip and win money, money Honda would never see, and that would be stealing.

I hope Sony gets told to pound sand.

[aurik]

The sad part is that success for sony isn't who wins or loses the case.

It's whether they can ruin Hotz's life enough that other would-be tinkerers are dissuaded from doing the same tinkering that he is involved in.

[takethistoyourgrave]

+1 in the "hope Sony is forced to back the fuck off" camp. And if you have been keeping current on what is going on, it is hard not to agree that Sony are a bunch of greedy morons.

[*Shinzon*]

Um...

That's kind of the point. The idea is, if you buy a Playstation, you should be able to do basically whatever you want with it - alter the software, install your own shit on it, etc - because you OWN it.

If Geohot was including Sony's proprietary code in his software hacks, then he will get fucked. If everything he distributed was A) His original code and B) Not malicious to Sony's servers/operations, it shouldn't be prosecutable.

You see, this is the problem with Intellectual property and what the average person considers actual ownership. On the one side you are absolutely right, as a consumer of a product you are entitled to use and operate that product in anyway you should see fit. On the other hand, Sony will argue that it's product is a constantly changing and evolving entity that is altered by the company (via firmware) to operate in a specific manner. The original arguments Geohot made were in regards to linux support that original PS3 systems theoretically could have if allowed by the source codes of sony's software. Linux support has since been locked on older models and the support dropped from newer ps3 models because through linux people could alter the way the Ps3 was designed to operate and subsequently change the way sony would profit on the sale of the system.

Sony makes money, not through one time sales of systems, but through the licensing of products and peripherals sold to function on the ps3, games and accessories. Pirating, which is made impossible through the firmware and source codes of the Ps3, therefore circumvents sony's licensing fees and detracts from their profits. What Geohotz and others essentially did was gain access, illegally, to the very keys that govern how the ps3's system is protected against pirating in order to enable them to reestablish linux support on models that the function was not dropped from which is what hotz will claim was his motive. Herein lies the problems:

Because Geohotz claimed responsibility, and has since been proven to have, gained access to these codes he is therefore responsible for any pirating that results from his discovery. Several other websites have since sold and made profits from selling unauthorized peripherals, USB drives that used the codes Geohotz discovered to play homebrew and pirated games, not to use linux. Sony through the lawsuit is therefore attempting to prove that Geohotz has enabled pirating through his releasing of the source codes of which he is not entitled to. Geohotz released the actual codes, to spite sony which made several attempts through firmware updates to prevent him from discovering the codes, which ultimately failed. He made a huge deal out of it through videos and blog posts bragging about how he could beat them. At the end of the day Sony is going to argue he did it to hurt them monetarily, and they're going to win.


Edit: most people legally don't even understand what sony is trying to establish. Most just want free pirated games and jump on the Geohotz bandwagon.

[Syntex]

People underestimate the power of anon.

I will enjoy watching this unfold.

/popcorn

[Penthesilea]

Anon and their retardedness at it again. Spoiled kids who want want want.

[Raytheon]

Shinzon, I see your point, and understand what you're saying. Legality isn't the issue I have with them. There are so many laws on the books that are simply retarded as shit, that legality is the least of my concerns.

What pisses me off, is this guy is going to get nailed to the cross for adding a feature to the system that Sony didn't, and Sony is pissy about it because they aren't making money off it. How much money could Geo have made, a few grand? Maybe? Sony is worth 137.6 billion dollars. I just don't see how it could be about the money. It's about control, yes of intellectual property, but the shit gets taken entirely too far.

Fine, make him stop selling the mods, maybe even make him pay back however many lolthousands of dollars he made to Sony out of principle. If he goes to jail over this because of some bullshit FBI Anti-Piracy laws, something is wrong with the system. FBI has better shit to do than worry about people making technology better and more functional than the company that designed it. If anything, Sony should be fucking embarrassed for not adding this kind of functionality in the first place. They should hire this guy, not persecute him.

By the way, if no one remembers, the whole iTunes shit didn't stop people from piracy, neither will this. As long as there is media and technology, there will be pirates. It takes months, sometimes years for these companies to develop protection mechanisms to stop piracy, and it takes a tenth of the time for an MIT undergrad to reverse engineer it and post to Demonoid or Pirate Bay. If Sony really thinks incarcerating this guy is going to 'send a message', they're pretty fucking naive imo.