-PXG- said:
Whether I want to hack my PS3 because I'm bored, and install OFW after I'm done or backup (not pirate) 100 games, Sony shouldn't give me any trouble. As long as I
1) Don't pirate
2) Don't go online
They shouldn't care AT ALL.
And when it comes to fighthing piracy, let's be honest: The battle is already lost. You don't win by adding DRM and making things inconvenient for legit users. Adding value to your product and giving potential customers incentives, lower/ competitive pricing, flexibility and more freedom (with some semblance of control) is how you stop folks from hacking and/ or stealing your shit. It's that simple. Why add (or take away) things that are only going to piss people off and give them more reasons to acquire your product through unscrupulous means?
Nothing is that simple. For the life of me I'm having a hard time trying to come to grips with what Sony could've done to avoid this, or placate those who would seek to hack their system wide open.
They have the most open console on the market, with strong (or so they believed) protection, but still offered OtherOS support. Even with that support they got targeted, and when they felt their software ecosystem was threatened they eliminated that feature. This was then used as justification for not only cracking it, but distributing key info to allow others to run with it.
Imagine for one moment that you made your paycheck from distributing these games. How would you go about making sure the community wasn't driven to hacks that lead to piracy? Whats the simple solution here? Because from my vantage point they were damned if they did and damned if they didn't, which is why I don't understand the hate. Sure, some of Sony's actions can be seen as draconian, but what alternatives did they really have? If its impossible for them to discern the difference between custom firmware used for fair use purposes, and malware or pirate copies of games, they can only be reasonably expected to target and reject any custom firmware itself. Or do you know the solution they could use to automatically tell the difference?
And since the actual issue here is whether people can hack and reverse engineer anything they own, I have a feeling that any simple answer to what Sony could've done
wouldn't actually matter, as people would feel justified in hacking the system regardless.
In short, there are way too many distractions to the core issues here. And no I don't care, nor would I imagine that Sony would either, if you took your PS3 and put it in an industrial blender. Its when you take certain actions that open the door to piracy, share those techniques, or otherwise adversely affect other online consumers that raises alarm bells and requires that some action be taken.