The ongoing battle between Sony and digital freedom fighters could inspire its own PS3 title. Less _God of War_, more like a slapstick, unending game of Whack-a-Mole.
The ongoing battle between Sony and digital freedom fighters could inspire its own PS3 title. Less God of War, more like a slapstick, unending game of Whack-a-Mole.For those who missed last week's showdown between PS3 hacker George "GeoHot" Hotz and electronics giant Sony, here's a brief post-mortem: Sony has settled out of court with the nefarious hacker after agreeing to a permanent injunction that prevents Hotz from distributing software or information that could lead to future unauthorized modifications of Sony's PS3 game console. A satisfied Sony dressed the agreement as a victory for their camp, saying that the injunction serves the company's mission "to protect our intellectual property and our consumers."
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Except it really kind of doesn't. And now, not only has Sony refused to acknowledge their participation in this increasingly silly anti-piracy cat-and-mouse, they've also been hit back with one last "up yours" from Hotz — a $10,000 donation aimed at preventing companies like Sony from trouncing on consumer rights ever again.See ourvideo interview with Tim Wu on information empires and technological freedomPrior to the conclusion of the debacle, Hotz accepted donations to pay for his legal fees and promised to donate any excess funds to a worthy cause. Yesterday he made good on that promise by donating his extra 10 G's to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the consumer advocacy group dedicated to combating infringements on consumer rights by hardware manufacturers, service providers and other foes of open technology culture.
"This money goes to the EFF in hopes that America can one day again be a shining example of freedom, free of the DMCA and ACTA, and that private interest will never trump the ideas laid out in the constitution of privacy, ownership, and free speech," Hotz writes. The beautiful thing here is that the conclusion of the case, although technically a stalemate, represents a dead-end for Sony, who can only go so far as to stop individuals from publishing security keys that enable users to unlock their devices.It would seem that unless the law changes drastically, the only possible next move for Sony and others wishing to continue this fight is to find a different target. And while it remains to be seen how effective this 'bird crashing into a window' strategy really is, the outlook doesn't seem especially bright, especially when considering how each failed attempt serves to further bolster the morale and resources of the opposing side.
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Connections:
Keep On Hacking In The Free World: Anonymous Rises To Defend PS3 HackerBeating Quantum: Meet The Next Generation of HackersRest Easy, It's Legal To Jailbreak Your PhoneCMD & CTRL: Motherboard Meets Tim Wu: On Net Neutrality, Information Empires and Freedom
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