I'm surprised it took that long. Sony seem to have a magical Streisand effect button somewhere that gets triggered for insane reasons. Remember the BMI rootkit scandal, and the subsequent reaction? The AIBO case referenced is another example of Sony's auto-Streisand function in the legal team.
The best part of all of this is that Sony's legal team have very clearly not properly considered the implications of him winning the case. They thought they could just bully him out of it by making it cost too much to defend. If the case is settled in his favour then there are massive ramifications for jailbreaks across the board.
Note: This analysis is not a statement of agreement with their actions, just providing some insight.
I am not surprised either but I don't think Sony can be compared with Streisand. From Sony's perspective this makes perfect sense and isn't some emotional over reaction, Someone has gotten around their security and if they don't pursue this it will be seen as an open invitation to hackers on all of Sony's platforms. As a platform company and a content company they're doubly incentivised to pursue these sorts of actions in the courts.
Even the OtherOS debacle makes sense from their perspective. They make a loss on each console they sell[1] and rely on strong games sales to make up the difference. At launch they had a horrible attach rate (games sold per console sold) and much was made of its use as a cheap computing cloud platform. So removing the ability for new consoles[2] to act as a platform apart from its primary gaming role helps Sony's bottom line.
[1] They certainly did at launch not sure if that is the case any longer, historically consoles are sold at a profit once they reach middle age and production costs come down. The Wii was an exception and was sold at a profit from day one, but that is a souped up Gamecube so the factories didn't need much updating.
[2] I haven't updated my console so it can still run Linux for example.
One of the addition things that needs to be mentioned akin to the bottom line is that the OtherOS feature was used to convince the EU that the system was a "Computer" not a "Gaming Console" which gave them significant cost reductions on import tariffs and taxes.
The removal of this feature aftermarket amounts to a shill game.
I think it's a cultural issue from what I understand in Japan there is a saying that goes something along the lines of "The nail that sticks up must be hammered down". Geohotz is definitely a nail that sticks up.
I am so glad to be present for the early stages of this kind of emergent support network. Recent examples from Reddit (who often choose to support people with no "internet standing"), job offers here at HN, and the intense support people like myself have received over at MetaFilter are almost totally unprecedented. And I'm not even going to bring up Anonymous.
Now that I'm in a decent employment situation, I plan to share that $ecurity with people like GeoHot whenever possible. Cheers to everyone involved, this is great news in a sea of awful.
Completely OT: but I would suggest that one of the options for people who have problems in their lives is to search through MetaFilter for "prior art" and the surrounding support/advice.
It took me a little while to accept that my problems were far from unique, and once I got over that and reached out (as a lurker - I only read through archives, didn't post anything), I'd go so far as to say that MeFi saved my life from a downward spiral.
Meanwhile, back in Redmond, Microsoft (!) has opened the Kinect to 3rd party developers.
I doubt this was done to deliberately underscore the galactic idiocy of their chief rival. Still, the contrast between the two approaches is pretty astonishing.
A company supporting their involved, early adopting developer base? What?
In all seriousness, its a huge marketing backfire for Sony to act in this manner, and a huge plus for Microsoft in it's respective choice. I understand the "magic black box" theory of product development as it referes to the 99% of the population that doesn't mod, but that 1% is a vital asset who's influence far exceeds their numbers.
These two populations are inherently different, and should be treated as such. It would be a bad marketing move in this day and age to force typical users to hack, and its an equally bad move to force hacker users to follow suit.
Perhaps somebody at Sony HQ is reasoning along the lines, ``it's more important to be talked/written about, than it to be only positive news'' -- all this bickering about PS3 keys and Other OS feature created quite a bit of publicity anyway.
Microsoft's new 'hacker-friendly' approach is refreshing, but I'll be interested to see how long it lasts or how deep it goes. It's a great way to curry favor with developers, which is critically important if WP7 is to be a success, but when push comes to shove I have a sneaking suspicion we'll see the old Microsoft take over.
Excellent, I was wondering how his fund raising was doing. Geohot has given a lot of himself to the community and it's heartwarming to see the community respond with support in his time of need.
If Sony did not take a loss on every console sold, I wonder how much of an issue this would be. Ff they sold a PS3 that was 50% more expensive but with the feature "install whatever you want and don't worry about getting banned from PSN" could they could solve that problem?
Of course, the content folks at Sony (who thought the rootkit was OK) would probably never allow for it. Not that I'll ever buy another Sony product unless they can prove a changed heart and a commitment to bring back the quality that put them where they are.
Does it really matter what they sold it for? If they sell it at a loss what about all the other things that are sold as a loss, daily? Like clearance items, loss leaders, etc.
Here is the facts. I bought a PS3 4 years ago for gaming. It has done that purpose very well, but the games currently coming out are lackluster (except the Drake series). I'm moving on from platform gaming because I'm paying more and getting less, each year.
Sony has gotten all the money out of the PS3 I'm going to give them. If I can keep my $600 shiny, black brick from collecting dust than I should be within my rights to do so.
The best part of all of this is that Sony's legal team have very clearly not properly considered the implications of him winning the case. They thought they could just bully him out of it by making it cost too much to defend. If the case is settled in his favour then there are massive ramifications for jailbreaks across the board.