3 ms·

This was exactly what I dove into the comments to say. You're 100% correct; this is routine discovery. Look, do I like the merits of Sony's arguments? Absolute

by voxmatt 16y ago

This was exactly what I dove into the comments to say. You're 100% correct; this is routine discovery. Look, do I like the merits of Sony's arguments? Absolutely not. Do I hope this kid wins? Yes. But there's nothing that nuts going on so far; save your anger for the verdict. As an aside, who ever is advising Sony is an idiot. The bad publicity this is getting Sony has already far outweighed the value of any verdict they get (in both monetary and deterrent value), and anyone could have seen that before they even filed the lawsuit.

jrockway 16y ago
As an aside, who ever is advising Sony is an idiot. The bad publicity this is getting Sony has already far outweighed the value of any verdict they get (in both monetary and deterrent value), and anyone could have seen that before they even filed the lawsuit. Not sure I agree. Who is not buying a PS3 because of this? Who has stopped buying games? Nearly nobody, and the lawyers are on salary anyway. The risk that Sony takes by allowing "hacking" to happen is that nobody will write software for their platform, and then the platform dies. Content-creating megacorps want uber-strict DRM, or they take their ball and go home (or to Microsoft). It's stupid of them, but Sony doesn't want to go to a meeting with a content house and say, "anyone can pirate your stuff if they want to". Hence all the DRM schemes that don't work. They are not to prevent you from copying things, they are so Sony (or Amazon, or Hulu, or...) can tell the content creators "oh yeah, your shit will be secure". It's not, but they made the bean counters happy. So really, this seems like the right action for a psychopathic corporation to take. Maximize BS and maximize profits. It's a shame someone with a clue is caught in the middle.
- Natsu 16y ago
  > Not sure I agree. Who is not buying a PS3 because of this? Who has stopped buying games? I've boycotted Sony since the rootkit. I guess I might be "nearly nobody" but I have put Sony products back on the shelf several times in the past few years.
  - dereg 16y ago
    With almost 50 million units sold, I can assure you that the consumers that a fraction of a fraction of those consumers know what a "rootkit" is. The costs of the lawsuit are likely much greater than the opportunity cost in lost sales due to bad publicity, so they are well aware of the costs involved. I don't agree with their stance regarding this issue, but you can't blame them for wanting to protect their platform.
- timwiseman 16y ago
  Not sure I agree. Who is not buying a PS3 because of this? Who has stopped buying games? Nearly nobody, and the lawyers are on salary anyway. I take your point, I have yet to see an organized boycott. Nor would this by itself cause me to have any hesitation about Sony. Yet, this taken together with some of their many other actions in attempting to control the PS, primarily removing the other OS option, has affected my opinion of Sony and what they are likely to do in the future. I'm not about to take a sledgehammer the PS3 I have now. Yet, when the next generation of consoles comes out, it will weight as one factor about which one I go with.
- technomancy 16y ago
  > Who is not buying a PS3 because of this? Yeah, everyone who's disgusted by Sony enough to care will have stopped buying their products a long time ago, probably starting with the rootkit debacle.
CamperBob 16y ago
The bad publicity this is getting Sony has already far outweighed the value of any verdict they get (in both monetary and deterrent value), and anyone could have seen that before they even filed the lawsuit. Sony shipped rootkits on audio CDs, and people still line up to give them money. I don't think a DMCA trial, or 100,000 of them, is going to matter to Sony's loyal customers.

by voxmatt 16y ago

jrockway 16y ago

As an aside, who ever is advising Sony is an idiot. The bad publicity this is getting Sony has already far outweighed the value of any verdict they get (in both monetary and deterrent value), and anyone could have seen that before they even filed the lawsuit. Not sure I agree. Who is not buying a PS3 because of this? Who has stopped buying games? Nearly nobody, and the lawyers are on salary anyway. The risk that Sony takes by allowing "hacking" to happen is that nobody will write software for their platform, and then the platform dies. Content-creating megacorps want uber-strict DRM, or they take their ball and go home (or to Microsoft). It's stupid of them, but Sony doesn't want to go to a meeting with a content house and say, "anyone can pirate your stuff if they want to". Hence all the DRM schemes that don't work. They are not to prevent you from copying things, they are so Sony (or Amazon, or Hulu, or...) can tell the content creators "oh yeah, your shit will be secure". It's not, but they made the bean counters happy. So really, this seems like the right action for a psychopathic corporation to take. Maximize BS and maximize profits. It's a shame someone with a clue is caught in the middle.

Natsu 16y ago
> Not sure I agree. Who is not buying a PS3 because of this? Who has stopped buying games? I've boycotted Sony since the rootkit. I guess I might be "nearly nobody" but I have put Sony products back on the shelf several times in the past few years.
- dereg 16y ago
  With almost 50 million units sold, I can assure you that the consumers that a fraction of a fraction of those consumers know what a "rootkit" is. The costs of the lawsuit are likely much greater than the opportunity cost in lost sales due to bad publicity, so they are well aware of the costs involved. I don't agree with their stance regarding this issue, but you can't blame them for wanting to protect their platform.
timwiseman 16y ago
Not sure I agree. Who is not buying a PS3 because of this? Who has stopped buying games? Nearly nobody, and the lawyers are on salary anyway. I take your point, I have yet to see an organized boycott. Nor would this by itself cause me to have any hesitation about Sony. Yet, this taken together with some of their many other actions in attempting to control the PS, primarily removing the other OS option, has affected my opinion of Sony and what they are likely to do in the future. I'm not about to take a sledgehammer the PS3 I have now. Yet, when the next generation of consoles comes out, it will weight as one factor about which one I go with.
technomancy 16y ago
> Who is not buying a PS3 because of this? Yeah, everyone who's disgusted by Sony enough to care will have stopped buying their products a long time ago, probably starting with the rootkit debacle.

CamperBob 16y ago

The bad publicity this is getting Sony has already far outweighed the value of any verdict they get (in both monetary and deterrent value), and anyone could have seen that before they even filed the lawsuit. Sony shipped rootkits on audio CDs, and people still line up to give them money. I don't think a DMCA trial, or 100,000 of them, is going to matter to Sony's loyal customers.