Sony thinks it’s a good idea to track your DNA to prevent piracy
Website playstationlifestyle.net uncovered recently a Sony patent that describes a system to track your fingerprints, iris, and dna in order to prevent hacking and piracy, as well as for targeted advertising purpose. Sounds like a great idea… not.
Your Identity and your privacy are today the major assets giant tech companies fight to control. Google has proven that targeted advertising is a very profitable business, and all companies want their share of the loot on your personal information. Beyond this, companies like Sony, that sell digital products, are spending considerable amounts of money to protect their products from piracy, through the use of malware DRMs.
In and “ideal” world, DRMs would recognize the person who paid for some specific digital content, and let that person use the digital content on whatever hardware they want, whenever they want. This was, actually, the promise of DRMs and of the cloud. But practically, what DRMs actually are today is a strong limitation in how you can use your purchased content, which is usually restricted to a few devices (it used to be 5 for Sony, it is now 2), a few allowed copies (something that goes against the law of many countries), and is in general a major pain in the a##. People who bought Ubisoft games recently might know what I am talking about. Bottom line is, DRMs are not doing what they are supposed to do.
Sony think they might have a solution, by providing a patent which proposes to recognize a user through biometrics, such as their fingerprints, iris, or DNA. Such a system they say, would allow to create a system such as “By associating content with an authorized user, each download may be made unique so that only the authorized user (e.g., one who has paid for the content) will be able to access it. Such a technique may be used to prevent hacking or copying to steal music, software, video games or other copyrighted content“.
In other parts of the patent, Sony explain: “the invention can be used to prevent unauthorized sharing of online accounts. A biometric identifier, such as a fingerprint ID, that is generated during ordinary use of the online content allows the content server to determine whether a user attempting to access an online account is the user associated with that account.”
Sony also mentions improvements to targeted advertising, when your device (potentially your console) knows who is actually currently using it.
Well, I’m all for the possibility to play the content I purchased everywhere I want. But storing my DNA on the servers of the number 1 target of hackers worldwide is definitely not the solution to that. How about we simply get rid of DRMs, and let people enjoy the content they purchased however they want? Last time I checked, selling mp3s without DRM seemed to work pretty well for companies like Apple and Amazon (Affiliate link). HumbleBundle is doing great with DRM free video games, etc…
Hopefully, this is one of those patents that get filled but never used… How about you, would you like Sony to play with your biometric information? Do you think hacks in the future will require you to alter your DNA with the help of radioactive injections?
Source playstationLifestyle.net, thanks to @Bobo_PK and @KaKaRoToKS
6 Words, just 6 simple things:
WHAT THE F#@& AM I READING!?!?
*reads in silence*
*sets PSP on fire before donning tin foil hat and latex gloves*
You fool! The PSP is the only Sony handheld that’s safe!
this will never become real. sony could most likely be sued for all they have and more for this.
Now im going getting rid of everthing Sony.
Me too man. My next gen console is for sure xbox 720!
I think in the insane event this actually comes to pass that a lot of people, even the ones who normally wouldn’t think about DRM or any of this stuff would look twice and probably pass.
F*ck that sh*t.
http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20110209
that will probably happen lol
and thanks to the touch screen on the Vita already probably used
No current Sony console is capable of this, the touch screen on the Vita can not record fingerprints. Don’t jump the gun everyone.
and why not it has a cam and touch has finger prints and usually patent are tested first now not sure about dna but think about it afaik no one has cracked the vita yet and it is a 4 core processor so possible
This is no different than getting a barcode on the back of your neck. The corporations and government want us all numbered, filed and controlled. Ubisofft actually announced on Sept 5th they gave up and came to their senses about DRM, a better example is diablo 3 tho. Doesn’t Sony understand even DRM can be hacked and bypassed?
Holy invasion of privacy, Batman!
psnheader.jpg
There is no sane people that will fall for that
Any sane person can fall for anything if it is presented in an appealing enough manner.
its that kind of thinking that will allow it the vita has dual touch dual cameras some with 3g n gps and maybe even rootkits like the ps3 call me paranoid but im sure they can see what were up to if they want already
lol, the idea of that would be good if only it was used to activate a system, not tracking. again sony focuses on security rather than good games and cool features. there missing the big pictures.
Let’s face it, if you use the internet your digital fingerprint is already out there. You can Google anyone and dig up information about them. That is about as far as it goes for me, because there isn’t much that is interesting about me in the first place. I’m just your average gamer trying to scrape enough coin together to live a half way decent life. But biometrics… that’s where I draw the line. If it came down to that I’d stop buying games and media all together and find other hobbies. Well if it does happen I might be bored enough to visit the gym a little more often lol.
We might as well ask them for all their source code for all of their devices and their official SDK. See what they think about that.
I do not like this idea.
you know guy’s i am seek for this sony always making a restriction i am not enjoying my ps vita to play co’z of restriction. its like i am work on company that i am using my assigned pc to work with i can’t store music i cant browse to the internet i only have a limited access to use my assigned pc i cant install a software that i needed to use for graphic designing same as ps vita. at the first i am convince that the ps vita are pretty cool gadget co’z of touch screen and so on but when i both my ps vita i said to my ps vita damn you ps vita co’z of your restriction, i cant even copy my mp3 music to my ps vita, i just needed to connect to internet just to download musics on my system. sony must realized that the person who buy a system like ps vita have a full acess to do the things they want to do to our system, its like i am renting my ps vita to them. sony must think that what the people may feel if they do this and how people may enjoyed the product with out any restriction. the bottom line is i buy this system why you put restriction its mine that why i buy it to your retails its out of your business what ever i want to do with this system. even how strong sony’s restriction, one will showed to break there security. thats all sorry for my English i’m not good in English
thanks and regards to all.
Well it wouldn’t work for me so I could sue them. I am completely bald with No Fingers & Toes. I am also a free bleeder so they can’t take my blood I would die. Not to mention I am blind and dumb. Sorry Sony but I still play your games cause I like the sounds they make when my nubs hit the buttons.
I’m starting to think to get out of the game scene…
All I can say is Sony is Atari 2.0 bigger badder and a lot more bugs that means if they keep it up most likely lose all user base in next few years and I for one us to like sony now all it is to them is bottom line make more money and *** on customers
Rap up FU Sony this is the straw that broke this horses back mic sloth even didn’t go this far
I’m inclined to agree. Lately I’m starting to get the feeling Sony is going to go the way of Sega (R.I.P. Dreamcast) except less awesome. Part of me hopes they don’t and part of me thinks they deserve it for their EULAs.
This cant be real.
Want prof
Maybe read this
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=50&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=DNA&s2=Sony&OS=DNA+AND+Sony&RS=DNA+AND+Sony
lol, People are pretty dumb, so I could see this sort of thing slowly catching on in some voluntary areas of life, before being mandated by governments in more formal situations.
But mainly it might just lead to the death of their business model, if enough people are put off by it and decide to only use some hacked version of whatever future hardware requires this.
From simple 8 bit games to this? dang i guess things do change
So now they now they want to make sure the content is YOU! and not your kid who came home from school and started playing while you’re at work…
Lol Sony is trying to do everything to protect their latest device.. If that wont work, whats next.. cops in your house ? 007 is going to spy you ? Come on sony this is getting stupid..
First off, fingerpriting and iris scans are both unsecure methods of determing a person. I have a fingerprint tool on my laptop and it works with my mom, my dad and me. Iris scans are better, but are in no way “easy” to do, and again pretty easy to circumvent (just put sunglasses on with mr. X Iris scan). As for DNA, in no way they can sequence your genome or even parts of it. (current genome sequences take weeks) A full human genome takes +/- 3GB of storage aswell, and still take a good cluster to assemble. So in order to see a DNA sequencing tool in a PSP, its gonne take a while 🙂 Also unlike sciencefiction you cannot get DNA from your fingers, it needs to be prepared. Large chance that your psp would sequence a bacterial genome instead of yours. Also DNA is not as unique as you would think. The larger the scale, the more you need to sequence to get a unique ID. Considering Sony is a global country this would require a full exome sequence. (current price is around 1000$ for low coverage sequencing)
Also there is already a current ethic discussion if DNA is a private mather, as unlike gaming, insurance company’s could read if you have a higher chance for disease X or Y, which is kinda scary.
To round up :
– DNA sequencing : not gone happen for at least 30 years, technology isn’t here.
– Fingerprinting : already deprecated.
– Iris scan : to easy to fake.
What I think you are seeing here in this patent is a noob system to recognize the player. But in no way this will be perfect enough to link this to DRM.
Not many times, but I call myth on your article, radioactive injections do not alter your DNA 😉 .
I agree with all you stated and it is well stated but still in a gaming system of any kind is just ridiculous 😀
Oh, you’ll regret saying this, next VHBL will require you to inject yourself with radioactive chemicals just for homebrew, I swear 😛
next article: how to run isos using radioactive chemicals and VHBL !
how to get kernel exploit through bathing in popcorn
sounds illuminatic to me
“Feed” in real life..
this kinda sounds like those sci-fi movies where they inject whatnot to people and track them down or prison them.. 😀
We will have to be real carefull about Sony. They are well known by being more towards to the dictatorship maybe even some kind of comunists. Once they start with some kind of control with finger prints or things like this, our liberty is quik banished. So be carefull guys, DO NOT ACCEPT EVERYTHING from them.
I will stick with all the other systems that are out now LOL. I do not need the next best thing if there taking my freedom away. I still play the PS1 anyway. =D
Truly these people are worse than Hitler.
Sony is new Hitler. LOLZ
Uh oh! Dark Alex and Geohot are gonna have to crack the “IPL” of our DNA so we can “inject” ourselves with a cIPL to hack ourselves 😛
fingerprint and iris security systems are some of the easiest systems to crack now
why is sony wanting to use those?do they want to be hacked in a week
the tv show mythbusters has busted both on tv
and dna is worthless with the number of humans in the world today
dna is only different in 997,000 people, with close to 11 billion humans on the earth, this gits jacked very easy
there are currently 1700 proven federal legal cases in the US of people wrongly accused over dna similarities in the past 4 years
did sony just have some people name out ideas for securites off the top of theyre heads and not think maybe we need to see if these are good securities
its like they just dont think any more
This people remids me of Shinra Electric Power Company, it is not going to be long before Sony starts recruiting SOLDIERS.
lol!
Or maybe they plan to combine all the best DNA they could gather and create a perfect gnome army 0_o
An arm of developers that overtime will turn their backs against the company that created them. Then developers all over the world and fans alike will be free to do with their games and systems as they like. No more DRM and we all will be singing the song of our people!
That would be a nice thing.
Sorry for the double post, maybe they want to combine all the DNA in order to create a new breed of developers that are both super smart and super sexy.
It’s just a patent, relax.
Trololol! And all that tracking DNA technology has a cost, and WE WILL PAY for it along with the cost of the device XD
Sorry, but i have to say that the topic is kinda misleading. This is simply a patent, where the invention _can_ be used to prevent piracy. This is not the only thing the patent is about, and no where does it say that Sony think it is a good idea to track your DNA to prevent piracy. I do agree that it is a ridiculous idea though.
The idea of tracking DNA is also very unrealistic. There isnt a cheap and simple device for home usage that simply can scan your DNA.
This sounds like the dumbest idea I have ever heard. A DNA tracker on a handheld device? Yea good luck with that. Sony really needs to put their s–t together or they are going to end up like Nintendo making stupid Super Mario games for “kids” that haven’t outgrown the 80’s.
Its not just about a handheld, but about a device in general. I do think it is ridculous anyway though. Not only the idea, but how realistic is it that a home electronic system has a device that can read and store DNA easily? Sounds very unrealisitc to me.
I wonder what this pantent is actually for. Seems kinda useless, but its also very general. The “can be used for DRM” is just one part. There could be other use for it as well i guess.
lololol at idiots taking this seriously hahahahahahahahaahahahahah
hahahaha ikr, and you’ll be the first maggot to get his/her dna stolen from a public restroom.
i could totaly see this going bad just like all the other anti hacking ideas they come up with it dont stop hackers just gives them a challange and the only people that actualy pay and suffer are the legit people that pay and dont actualy cause about this because they dont hack i agree with what wololo stealing music has actualy worked out for some and the music indistery isnt hurting at all sony needs to back off plane and simple