Apparently we're on twitter tooSome of you might remember that Sony removed a feature of the PS3 last year, the possibility to run linux (known as OtherOS)*. You might also remember that this pissed off some of Sony’s users, enough that some of them filed a class action suit against Sony (for those of you unaware of the concept, this basically means several customers gathered in order to sue Sony, and no, don’t quote me on this, I am not a lawyer and can just grasp the basic concepts of the American legal system).
The case lasted almost a year, and ended up being dismissed. Quoting the judge:
“The dismay and frustration at least some PS3 owners likely experienced when Sony made the decision to limit access to the PSN service to those who were willing to disable the Other OS feature on their machines was no doubt genuine and understandable.”
“As a matter of providing customer satisfaction and building loyalty, it may have been questionable. As a legal matter, however, plaintiffs have failed to allege facts or to articulate a theory on which Sony may be held liable.”
It is now official and dangerous, hardware manufacturers can legally remove a feature from their devices in their firmware updates. You bought the iPhone 4S because you loved Siri? Well maybe the next Apple update will remove it, who knows…
In a sneaky move in order to guarantee that their customers do not fight back, Sony also updated the T&C of the PSN a while back, stating that their customers cannot file a class action suit against Sony. What a great company…
Source Gamasutra
*The reasons for removing the OtherOS feature are still unclear. Some claim this was in relation to piracy (although the timeline disagrees, since the feature was planned for removal before the first PS3 hack was even announced) others say this was a purely financial decision because the feature was too costly to maintain, and yet others say this was due to some legal conflict between Sony and IBM…
-
What happened to the days when gaming consoles were used to just do that, play games?
-
just to be a smartass
since when has OtherOS been called WebOS (HP’s mobile OS that recently was announced to be made open-source ) -
Ooops, thanks, corrected. It seems my personal quest for a touchpad has turned into an obsession
-
-
this is a sad day for everyone. i don’t mind other os and i didn’t particularly care about it but yea, this shows that any company can remove features whenever they feel like it and there is nothing anyone can do about it
-
typo alert, it is “piss off” as in Sony pissed me off. lol
Wololo, you made a good point. My thought after reading the ruling is that the plaintiff/users hired a lousy lawyer.-
thanks, typo corrected. I agree, it seems strange to me too, everything seemed to be on the plaintiff’s side.
-
-
I could care less about the OtherOS feature. For one thing, I wasn’t even aware it existed when I bought my PS3 Slim model, not that it mattered since it was cut from the console. All that it does, from what I see, is make a simplistic Linux computer out of your PS3. Might I ask what’s the point of it?
-
Kinda my point
-
The fact that the majority has been using the console for gaming shouldn’t prevent other users from using the console. What if Sony slowly removes the support for everything but games? What if they prevent you from watching movies, listening to mp3, connecting tothe internet other than to access the PSN?
For many scientists, the PS3 was one of the cheapest computers using Cell microprocessors. It was a reasonably powerful computer for an unbeatable price: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_3_cluster
quoting (2007):
“Essentially, a single PlayStation 3 performs like a cluster of 30 PCs at the price of only one”The fact that Sony doesn’t want to sell their console (at a loss) as a computer for people who don’t plan to buy any games in understandable. The fact that they advertised it as a feature then removed it is what pisses people off. Had the feature not been here from the start, there wouldn’t be any reason to complain.
-
ok,
“The fact that the majority has been using the console for gaming shouldn’t prevent other users from using the console.”
define ‘using’
-
New generation consoles (PSP, PS3, XBox 360) have several features and are not limited to gaming.
People buy the console to use one or several of these features. On the PS3, these features include (but are not limited to): Playing blu-ray movies, Playing mp3s, Playing Blu-ray games, Playing Blu-Ray games online, browse the internet, access the PSN to download/buy games and movies. One of these features was (but is not anymore) being able to use otherOS on a cell processor.
I personally bought the PS3 because it was the cheapest Blu-Ray video player at the time. So I am using the console as a Blu-ray/DVD video player. However I occasionally use it for games too. If Sony removed the video-playback capability from its console in a firmware upgrade (which has now been ruled they can legally do), I would be pissed off.
-
Well you see, video playback support is not really big of an issue, as it does only what its mean to do, play videos (unlike the OS feature). So its highly unlikely that they would do such a thing (remove it).
-
@Alpha Iono: what you say is probably reasonable, however you’re missing the whole point.
It is “unlikely” that they will remove video playback, I agree with you (it would be a very bad business move), but the reasons you provide are completely incorrect.
First of all, you say video playback does only what it is meant to do. I assume (correct me if I’m wrong) that you mean Linux does things it’s “not meant to do” such as providing access to secured levels of memory (i.e. enable hacking). The possibility to poke the memory of the PS3 was not a feature of linux, it was a bug of the PS3. Now, assuming otherOS was removed because it enabled hacking, and assuming that’s what you imply, let me tell you one thing: the gaming features, video playback, mp3 player, and image gallery of Sony’s consoles enabled far more hacking than OtherOS. And I know that for being on the first line of those, but if you’ve been reading my blog you know about that too. As a reminder, most of the exploits on the PSP were found in video games (Patapon, gripshift, minna no sukkiru, GTA, Lumines…) or in “basic” features (images gallery was used twice for exploits on the PSP).
The blu-ray player probably has by default access to some advanced graphics libraries, and could also have exploitable bugs, making it do things it’s not supposed to do. So your point on that subject is completely moot.
Following this way of thinking, the images viewer as well as the possibility to play video games should have been removed a long time ago from the PSP, since those features are a vector of far more hacking than OtherOS. The same goes for the Blu-ray player feature on the PS3 if we imagine it has critical bugs.
It all boils down to a simple thing: what you consider to be a core feature of the system can appear to be useless to other people. I know a bunch of people who bought the PS3 to play blu ray movies and couldn’t care less about gaming. I also know the exact opposite. So I think it’s fair to assume there are people who bought it for its linux support, and considered this as an essential feature of the console (even though I don’t personally know any doesn’t mean these people don’t exist).
So my point stays, just by saying that 90% of the customers use it for gaming shouldn’t be an argument to dismiss the other 10%
Secondly, this is not about what is “likely” or not, it’s about a legal precedence, that states that if a feature is not a core feature of the system, it is ok for Sony to remove it. Tomorrow, they can decide to stop mp3 support on your PS3 and force you to use ATRAC instead, and you won’t have anything to say about it.
Practically, the only reason Sony removed OtherOS was because they weren’t making money out of it. In that case, I think they shouldn’t have included it in the first place.
-
-
-
-
-
You know, I find this very sad, and let alone dissapointing. The purpose of a jurisdiction is to settle a conflict with another. What next? Is Sony going to make it so that no one can sue them? Then they’ll program all PS3′s to stop working after 2 years? We don’t buy Sony products, Sony buys us.
-
Correct me if I’m wrong, but iirc didn’t sony use OtherOS in their marketing? Not 100% sure but if they did wouldn’t that be false advertising since they removed the feature?
-
Yes, they did. Which is why I’m completely confused as to why they won… Oh wait, I almost forgot, this is a corporation and corporations always nearly win.
I’m not happy with Sony winning this and also the news on the Vita about UMD Passport etc is making me less likely to even get a Vita. I might just get it when it’s around 1/4 or 1/2 of it’s retail launch price.
-
No, I believe it would only be false advertising if they still claimed the PS3 has linux support even though it doesn’t anymore.
At the time the ads about OtherOS were relased, the system did support them. Intepreting in any other way doesn’t make any sense, otherwise we could argue that every Commodore64 ad is false advertising, since they claim to be one of the “most advanced domestic computers in the world” or something like that.
-
LOL actually that’s a really good point spektroman
-
-
-
@wololo
Thanks for bothering with me
Reply
Latest entries on our Smart TV dedicated sister site
- Follow us on Twitter for a chance to win a MK802IV (Quad Core Mini PC)
- Review of the Rikomagic MK802 IV (Quad Core Android HDMI Mini PC)
- Tronsmart MK908: Quad Core Android HDMI sticks are here!
- Streaming Netflix on your Kindle Fire HD: watch Netflix on your Kindle from outside the US
- The mk802 IV: Rikomagic announces the 4th Generation of the mk802 series
19 comments
Comments feed for this article
Trackback link: http://wololo.net/2011/12/15/sony-wins-a-legal-battle-against-their-users/trackback/