#other os

[gamingbus-blog]

I'm honestly surprised if this is the truth. Basically, what Sony is doing is saying to the hackers "OK, we get it. You win. We'll give you what you want, and region-free gaming is one of those things."

I honestly thought Sony would go in the other direction. See, the whole hacking business started because Sony pulled the plug on OtherOS. They pissed off the Linux people, and the Linux people can be... devout. OK, they're batshit crazy. The irony in this is that Sony was the only company that extended their hand to the Linux crew in the first place. While Microsoft was locking down their OS, creating 100% proprietary hard drives (that they could charge a massive premium for), and permabanning consoles that even looked at Xbox Live funny, Sony didn't permaban anyone, (still) allow anyone who wants to upgrade their default drive to do so (even the old 20GB systems can have a 2TB drive if they really want), and allowed people to install any OS they wanted. I disagreed with their decision to pull OtherOS back, because it pulled away something people purchased the system for, but they still did allowed it in the first place. No one else was daring anything like that.

Of course, the Linux freaks think sometimes have a warped idea of ownership. Yes, I agree with their ideal: I bought it with my money, I own it, it's mine. But their cavalier attitude towards piracy bothered me. "Hey, it's not our fault that people are going to turn what we did to bring OtherOS back into a way to play pirated games. As long as I get my operating system, they can do what they want". It's the equivalent of saying "so what if I gave a crazy guy a loaded gun? It's not my fault he shot four people". That's exactly what happened: Geohot's work gave back OtherOS, the pirates took off with it, and we ended up with a war where hackers accessed over a million PSN accounts. We still don't know if credit card information is in danger for those that haven't cancelled their cards already.

After all of that, I figured Sony would lock things down tightly. Why extend your hand to feed people that have shown they will bite it? Hopefully, this shows that Sony's going to be more open, not less.

[syntheticparable-blog]

PS3 "Other OS" Removal May Violate Norwegian Law.

The Norwegian Consumer Council says Sony's removal of the "Other OS" option in the PlayStation 3 is a clear violation of the country's Marketing Control Act and plans to file an official complaint with the Consumer Ombudsman. A lot of PS3 owners got a bit of a nasty surprise back in March 2010 when Sony decided to remove the console's "Other OS" option. Sony claimed that the removal of the option, which let users install alternate operating systems like Linux, was a necessary security measure, but that didn't fly with a lot of owners, some of whom very predictably launched lawsuits. Source: The Escapist                Forbrukerrådet

But the Norwegian Consumer Council is taking matters a step further. "Sony claims a universal right to change or remove functionality from the gaming console," said Thomas Nortvedt of the Norwegian Consumer Council. "In our opinion this is in clear violation of the Marketing Control Act, and not the least it's a breach of trust between the consumer and Sony."

The council received several complaints about the Other OS removal but Nortvedt said digital services aren't covered by Norway's current consumer laws. As a result, users are at the mercy of license agreements that deprive them of meaningful protection, demonstrating "just how little protection the consumer has in the digital age."

"There needs to be a limit to what constitutes a reasonable change to products we buy. Terms of service that grant the manufacturer full access to literally downgrade the product or limit the functionality are unreasonable and in clear violation of the Marketing Control Act," Nortvedt said. "When a company uses terms like updates or upgrades, it is reasonable to expect a significant improvement of the product and not the risk of being stuck with a lesser product."

This is a case that bears watching. The Norwegian market on its own may not have enough heft to make Sony tremble but it could set a rather unwelcome precedent and inspire other nations to follow in its footsteps. If nothing else, a successful complaint could trigger similar actions from aggrieved consumer groups around the world, causing a legal and PR headache that Sony would probably much rather avoid.

Yet while Norway spearheads this particular battle over digital consumer rights, it remains mired in irrelevance when it comes to lions and tigers. Norway? More like Snoreway.

Andy Chalk | 31 Jan 2011 3:32 pm Filed under: andy chalk, norway, other os, ps3, sony