News Sony to track Geohot website users

You do realise that their banning process appears to be based on one having viewed the video/blog/etc on how to jailbreak? That's about the equivalent of arresting every male out there for being a rapist just because they have the necessary "tools". Doesn't seem quite right to me...

 

Sony hasn't banned anyone for that nor will they. How do you ban people that view videos on their PC? Your analogy is also riddled with holes. Nobody signs T&C agreement before they get their "tools".

I agree with Sony pouncing on this security hole. The PS3 is sold at a loss, so that means they have to recoup the sales through games. Guess what happens when people pirate games?

 

This is nothing to do with losing access to sony services, this is about the bizarre understanding of courts that decide they are allowed to give sony access to millions of people private information and in the case of youtube people viewing habbits, that is wrong on so many different privacy levels, this issue has went a lot further than bitching because he broke the terms and conditions!

EDIT: Anyone else notice geohotps.3.blogspot.com doesn't appear to be a valid blog?

 

an IP address is about as private as the t-shirt you wear to go out.

 

I'm not sure that's true anymore, I think they now profit from each unit sold. This effort of theirs could even be an attempt for them to try and sell more consoles to try and make the most of the situation. Some people (like me) dabble in the idea of having more then one PS3: to have a console, streamer and Bluray in the living room and another room. One might theoretically be more tempted by the thought of having one to run emulators and various homebrew on, and simply keep it off the PSN network, whist using the other for online gaming needs.

 

Sony hasn't banned anyone for that nor will they. How do you ban people that view videos on their PC? [/QUOTE]

This.

They won't ban you unless they detect that you are running an altered firmware.

Not like it matters since you can unban yourself.

 

If I thought it would make a difference, I would put his videos on repeat on as many PCs as I could find. However, it won't matter. In other news, screw Sony. Aside from the PSX/PS2, their quality has been on a serious slide for a while now. Aside from that, this is just the latest in a long, long string of things that should have pissed off enough people that Sony should be bankrupt by now. For my own part, it was the rootkit incident (the original blog post by the guy that found it was amazing, btw.) After that, no more new Sony products in my house. People need to take a f*cking stand when companies pull sh*t like this. Instead, even the people ranting and raving over Sony's evil ways today will be in line at Gamestop next week stuffing more money in their coffers. There's a lot of places I won't shop/brands I won't buy now, but I don't think I know anyone else IRL that will actually take a stand. As a slightly OT example, Spike Lee has made it clear many times that he's not interested in a white audience, yet white people continue to see his 'joints'. He doesn't want your money! Stop giving it to him! Obviously Sony is more interested in bad PR than producing quality product. Show them the end result of that decision. If you're really on George Hotz' side, stop buying Sony products and get in touch with them and let them know why. Seems pointless, like writing to your Senator/MP, but at least less hypocritical than ranting about how bad Sony is while you've got a Six-Axis controller in your hands.

 

Wouldn't really help in this case - it is the ISPs providing the site's connectivity that are having to divulge the details.

I'd expect this sort of mass snooping to increase in future - of course, proxies and anonymity networks like Tor would stop such casual investigation of people's online activities.

Boycotting Sony (as well as Nintendo and Microsoft's XBox - they're little better) is a Good Thing here and I've been doing so for several years.

 

I think what some people are missing, the ones mainly that say I do not hack my Console.

Geohot did not I repeat did not release anything that would allow piracy, and the cheating that was happening on psn was already going on.
Point 2. This is more about your right to do what you want with your own Machines. I agree that if you use the PSN then your console should be perma-banned because you have broken their TOS that is what you agree to when you click accept that any breach of the PSN is a bannable offence.

I have a PS3 use it mainly for media use got few orig games but I am a pc Monkey by heart, I have modded my ps3 and I have never even used the PSN once, If Sony win this case it will have major implications because we know how clever lawyers and big companies are at wording there TOS. This would be like buying a car and being told by Ford you can only use their partners tyres window wash and air freshener. I think we're too lazy and really do not care how much consumer rights were allowing to be taken away from us. The right to choose to do what we want with our own products.

 

Thats a fairly hopeless analogy. If you modify a car the manufacturers warranty would be immediately voided, they are often voided if you don't get it serviced it at the dealership! Forget about using it as much as you want either -vehicle warranties generally run out after 100,000 miles (even Vauxhalls 'lifetime' warranty!). If you modify your car and don't inform the insurance company your insurance would be invalidated -get caught without valid insurance and you risk losing the car.

I think losing access to the PSN for breaching the T&C's is really quite acceptable, especially in comparison to car ownership!

 

Ah yes, missed that line where they mentioned that they could not confirm if the ban was based on actual or suspected jailbreaking.

If actual, that's perfectly acceptable of course. T&C and all that. But still, the decision to sell at a loss is a non issue with respect to what's an appropriate reaction. After all, no one forced them to do so. And more than 1 army/scientific department have bought ps3 with absolutely no intention of ever buying a single game. We don't see Sony kicking up a fuss about that.

 

Sony isn't going to ban anybody with those IP addresses that it pulls. The article has a very misleading subtitle that was taken out of context. i addressed this in a previous post as well.

Why do people feel that they have to jailbreak a console? I mean, really and truly what is the bloody point? Homebrew? The PC has more homebrew and better homebrew than the PS3 by far. Not to mention that it's even easier on the PC and the community is larger.

Sony is learning from its past mistakes (PSP piracy and "harmless" jailbreaking) and trying to keep the PS3 as locked down as possible.

 

Good one spectre456 - thanks for pointing this out and hopefully bringing a bit of sanity back to the thread. No one has suggested Sony is going to ban people based on the IP addresses Google has to provide of users who viewed the YouTube video or read the blog, or those of people who downloaded the hack. The purpose of the disclosure is to allow Sony to build a case against Hotz. That having been said, it is still, in my view, entirely disproportionate to allow Sony free access to unredacted personally identifiable information about individual users and their browsing habits.

 

i think the access to google records is so they can say look at the potential numbers involved, if every one who watched the video, actually jailbreaked their ps3, potentially millions, proof would by individual ip numbers, not 1 person from 1 ip address viewing it 10 times

 

I'll just quote myself again since a lot of people seem to just post without looking at the state of the discussion:

 

Pretty much this.

There is a reason my next camera will be a Nikon and not a Sony, despite meaning I need to buy all new glass.

Is there anything to stop someone from creating an alternative Playstation network? That would seem a logical next step to emasculate Sony's power over their customers.

 

Sony's lawyers? Bet they could frame it under a DMCA violation and have the servers taken down.

 

What makes a PlayStation different in an iPhone in regard to jailbreaking? The ruling should apply...

 

I'm not sure it doesn't.

The USPTO said that you can legally jailbreak your phone, they didn't say that Apple had to keep letting you use the appstore. The difference here is that Apple doesn't own the network your phone works on whereas Sony do own the PSN.

To extend the phone analogy though, I still don't see why an alternative network couldn't be created. Can Sony claim it's illegal for you to connect to any other network but theirs with their device? I'm sure they would try.

 

This is why so many people have 360's instead of PS3's atleast with an xbox jailbreak you don't get your dang xbox logged outta xbox live. Sony is basically throwing a sh*t fit because some of its customers starting jailbreaking and playing around with its products. The iphone was jailbroken, xbox was, and every other console or gaming console from MS has been jailbroken, get the f*ck over it Sony! Jeez, if this is the result of a little code being broken (probably not so little but i'm not a programmer), then what's gonna happen when their next console comes out and it's jailbroken in 24 hours. You can't stop a hacker from hacking into that console unless it's made of steel and even then the more persisten ones will probably still get into it (blow torches are sure useful ).