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Copyright

by Mike Masnick

Wed, Feb 23rd 2011 7:40am




Filed Under:
control, copyright, geohot, ps3

Companies:
sony


Sony's PS3 Lawsuit Is About Control, Not Piracy

from the can't-let-go dept

As GeoHot/George Hotz continues to fight his legal battle against Sony for daring to restore functionality to Sony PS3s that Sony had deleted, he's apparently been able to raise a bunch of money for his legal fund through donations. That's nice to see. He's also put up this amusing (and seriously NSFW) rap about the lawsuit:
Seems like he didn't need copyright as an incentive to create that one, huh? Anyway, what struck me as the most prescient statement in the linked article above, however, was this line:
"Sony tried to sue a guy for getting his AIBO to do non-Sony approved tricks, making it apparent that they don’t really care about piracy, they care about control."
We actually wrote about Sony's response to AIBO hacks a decade ago, and it's absolutely true. Copyright is supposed to be about incentives to create. But it's generally been twisted into a tool for control against "stuff we don't like."

22 Comments | Leave a Comment

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  1.  
    icon
    Spaceboy (profile), Feb 23rd, 2011 @ 7:46am

    It's always been about control with Sony. And questionable legal tactics are nothing new either. Anyone remember what Sony did to Bleem?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleem!

    Sony sued them into bankruptcy even though Sony lost every lawsuit against them. They will try the same tactic with Geohot.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Feb 23rd, 2011 @ 7:49am

    Geohot might do himself a favor by not putting up stuff that could get dragged into court of show his ill intent.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  
    icon
    :Lobo Santo (profile), Feb 23rd, 2011 @ 7:56am

    Re:

    Comment think I not wording advance thought proof-reading elk silt pie.

    ;-P

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Feb 23rd, 2011 @ 7:59am

    Re: Re:

    manure eating you like.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  5.  
    icon
    CarlWeathersForPres (profile), Feb 23rd, 2011 @ 8:00am

    Mike,
    How many IP lawsuits aren't about control of your product?

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  6.  
    icon
    :Lobo Santo (profile), Feb 23rd, 2011 @ 8:08am

    Re: Re: Re:

    Ooooh, tetchy!

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  7.  
    icon
    Dave (profile), Feb 23rd, 2011 @ 8:14am

    And yet Sony is involved with AllVid

    What I don't get is how Sony can constantly pull stunts like this, from the rootkit fiasco on down, yet latch on to AllVid and demand that cable companies open up their services to 3rd-party boxes. Seems like Sony is just asking big cable to cede control over to them, rather than actually "be more open." How can you trust a request to be more open from Sony?

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  8.  
    icon
    el_segfaulto (profile), Feb 23rd, 2011 @ 8:15am

    Re:

    Oh snap! I just put together a series of videos on how to do network penetration testing using some packet sniffing tools and common sense! Now I'll be responsible for everything anybody ever does with this...in perpetuity! Tell my girlfriend to water my plants.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  9.  
    icon
    Dark Helmet (profile), Feb 23rd, 2011 @ 8:16am

    Huh...

    Color me a little bit surprised, but that nerdy white boy can flow....

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  10.  
    icon
    The eejit (profile), Feb 23rd, 2011 @ 8:32am

    Re: And yet Sony is involved with AllVid

    Sony rolled a natural 1 on their Irony check.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  11.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Feb 23rd, 2011 @ 9:21am

    Re: Re: And yet Sony is involved with AllVid

    "Sony rolled a natural 1 on their Irony check."

    The geek is strong with this one......

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  12.  
    identicon
    PRMan, Feb 23rd, 2011 @ 9:51am

    Re:

    "I'm just trying to put Other OS back, Sony sued me. Some guy made his robot dog do tricks, Sony sued him. I'm just trying to own my own stuff." (Paraphrase)

    Yeah, real ill intent there.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  13.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Feb 23rd, 2011 @ 9:52am

    Re: Re:

    It's an admission of guilt, no?

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  14.  
    icon
    Gwiz (profile), Feb 23rd, 2011 @ 10:10am

    Re: Huh...

    *** searches through crayon box looking for color "Surprised" ***

    Must be an extinct color, like "Indian Red" or "Flesh"

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  15.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Feb 23rd, 2011 @ 11:45am

    There's a Sony fanboi here trying to defend Sony's hatred of consumer rights!

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  16.  
    identicon
    HothMonster, Feb 23rd, 2011 @ 11:48am

    Re: Re: Re:

    There is doubt that he made the code. The question is whether or not it was illegal for him to do so.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  17.  
    icon
    Richard (profile), Feb 23rd, 2011 @ 12:44pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    It's an admission of guilt, no?
    Guilty of speaking in Gracechurch St.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  18.  
    identicon
    TryLearnSomething, Feb 23rd, 2011 @ 12:50pm

    Sony own the software the consumers don't.
    The software license (EULU) states that Sony can remove the other os feature.
    Too bad.
    Don't like it?
    Guess what it's stated on the back on the box when you buy it.
    Don't like it?
    Too bad go buy a computer and quite whining over a OS,
    and remember YOU DON'T OWN THE SOFTWARE yea yea you own the hardware but not the software.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  19.  
    icon
    Gwiz (profile), Feb 23rd, 2011 @ 1:22pm

    Re:

    and remember YOU DON'T OWN THE SOFTWARE yea yea you own the hardware but not the software.

    What is kind of ironic about your statement is that the "Other OS" being used in a lot of cases is GPL/Linux which is software expressly licensed to allow you to modify it as you see fit.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  20.  
    identicon
    athe, Feb 23rd, 2011 @ 4:37pm

    Re:

    Problem is that their enforcement of the EULA in this manner contravenes consumer protection laws in some countries... You can't advertise that a product does something and then take that away.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  21.  
    icon
    G Thompson (profile), Feb 23rd, 2011 @ 7:54pm

    Re: Re:

    Exactly, which is why the EULA is voidable in places such as Europe, South America, Australia, New Zealand, SE Asia. etc etc.

    America is the only major country where consumers are not protected. isn't capitalism great! ;)

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  22.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Feb 25th, 2011 @ 5:14pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    So much for sensible criticism of capitalism.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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