So... PSN has been taken down by a group of hackers.

[Eanikran]

Its like itunes and apple, if you lose your music because iTunes is a piece of sh*t software you can't redownload them for no charge and you have to pay to talk to them over vido chat and only video chat. And you can only play that song on five computers. At least they decided to unlock the songs now so people can put them in video editing and other stuff like on your PS3.

[Brainiac]

I'm just gonna leave this here:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/109611-Credit-Card-Breach-May-Cost-Sony-24-Billion

[Nyx]

When you buy something you agree to the terms you bought it under and just not liking those terms doesn't give you the right to do anything except stop using it.

I understand your point of view, but I definitely disagree.

Nowadays, EVERYTHING comes with some type of contract. It's insane. You can't just do stuff anymore, it has to be done a certain way. Not everybody who breaks the rules does so maliciously (and I know you're not implying that).

One example is digital rights management in video games. I should be able to install a game I purchase (new or used) to as many PC's as I own and I should be able to play w/o the disk. But almost EVERY PC game these days has DRM (except for the awesome "Humble Indie Bundles"!!) I'm sick of being told how to use products I've acquired legitimately. If it's not being used for "bad", than it's nobodies business what you do with it. Not even the manufacturers.

You could argue that these companies are within their legal rights to force these rules on us, and I wouldn't disagree. They are within their legal rights. But (to be extreme) so was Selfridge and even Quaritch if I understand it correctly.

Don't worry, I'm not a fan of drm either but this isn't the same as killing people and there are better ways to fight it than attacking the thing you want to use. Pirating and hacking and stuff like that only bring on more safety measures, and no one wants that.

['Itan Atxur]

Don't you think that their are enough of us out there who would buy the product legitimately even w/o all the security measures (minus ones that protect financials) for the product to be profitable? If I wanted to, I could very easily get all my software for free and just not play online. I know plenty of pirates. But I don't and I know 99% of us here don't pirate software either. Obviously I don't know everything about software or how many people actually do pirate, but it seems to me that not enough people do it to make decent products unprofitable.

[Nyx]

Yeah, I think you're right about that, and a lot of the safety measures end up hurting the paying customers more than the pirates (and whatever else), I just mean that more hacking and pirating isn't going to make things better.

As for PSN, I only think they should've told people earlier what was really taken but keeping it offline to fix things is a good thing. Personally I can wait a bit longer and have it safe. And people who want other functionality can just use a different device.

[Txantslusam Skxawng]

Also, what's been lost in this whole mess is how the attack affects the little guys. The independent developers who sell their games exclusively from PSN haven't made a dime in the last week, and probably won't for a good long time as consumer confidence in the PSN will take a long time to return. Unless Sony bails them out, the devs behind games like Pixel Junk Shooterand Mod Nation Racersare screwed, and I think that's the real tragedy here.

Those hachers really feel proud now...

...Sorry, but I can get a little mad about this. And I really, really, really have a long fuse.

['Itan Atxur]

Also, what's been lost in this whole mess is how the attack affects the little guys. The independent developers who sell their games exclusively from PSN haven't made a dime in the last week, and probably won't for a good long time as consumer confidence in the PSN will take a long time to return. Unless Sony bails them out, the devs behind games like Pixel Junk Shooterand Mod Nation Racersare screwed, and I think that's the real tragedy here.

Didn't even think about that.

[Niwantaw]

Wait a second...

If they were trying to take sony down why did they take credit card info?
As it is unlikly to cause sony much issues without causing MASSIVE issues to the people who's personal infomation it is. Which basicly means that if they are trying to take down sony like this  they are a hell of a lot worse than sony ever was.

[Sіr. Ηaxalot]

Also, what's been lost in this whole mess is how the attack affects the little guys. The independent developers who sell their games exclusively from PSN haven't made a dime in the last week, and probably won't for a good long time as consumer confidence in the PSN will take a long time to return. Unless Sony bails them out, the devs behind games like Pixel Junk Shooterand Mod Nation Racersare screwed, and I think that's the real tragedy here.

Those hachers really feel proud now...

...Sorry, but I can get a little mad about this. And I really, really, really have a long fuse.

I don't think that those developers live exclusively from their games, and if they do they should account for "bad times". That PSN is down wont affect much aside from a possible constant flow of money.

Wait a second...

If they were trying to take sony down why did they take credit card info?
As it is unlikly to cause sony much issues without causing MASSIVE issues to the people who's personal infomation it is. Which basicly means that if they are trying to take down sony like this  they are a hell of a lot worse than sony ever was.

If you were hacking a large corporation, and somehow stumbled over a large database of creditcard information, I think you would take it "because you can". Even if your main plan isn't to steal peoples money you may buy some small stuff just to create media attention. You only need a few people alerting the media about unknown transactions after a hack like this to get a whole lot of attention. It will also affect Sony a whole lot more if credit card data is stolen than if Peoples accounts are stolen and the service is offline.

I'm not saying that I'm defending it, just that I can kinda see why they are doing it.

[Txur’Itan]

I wish I could say more than this, but I can not understand why they would go after Sony, and not go after Microsoft, Nintendo, Apple?

I think that I suspect a differing agenda at work than frustration over copy protection efforts or the removal of a feature other consoles never had.

[Eanikran]

Tam, this is really starting to piss me off. Hacked or not, you don't need to shut down a network for TWO F*CKING WEEKS to fix a little loop that allowed some hackers in. I swear, if this sh*t is still going on into summer, or for much longer than another week for that matter, fiery hate spam mail WILL be sent to this giant bucket of sh*t.


//rant.

[Txur’Itan]

Tam, this is really starting to piss me off. Hacked or not, you don't need to shut down a network for TWO F*CKING WEEKS to fix a little loop that allowed some hackers in. I swear, if this sh*t is still going on into summer, or for much longer than another week for that matter, fiery hate spam mail WILL be sent to this giant bucket of sh*t.

//rant.

I don't really get why preventing access to exploited data had to result in a complete shut down and overhaul, but I don't think they acted inappropriately for doing this.  They probably were blindsided by the approach on the attack, and could not provide a satisfactory quick fix to keep customer data safe.

Leaving the system online would probably caused further theft problems for users who were still on the system.

[Sіr. Ηaxalot]

I wish I could say more than this, but I can not understand why they would go after Sony, and not go after Microsoft, Nintendo, Apple?

I think that I suspect a differing agenda at work than frustration over copy protection efforts or the removal of a feature other consoles never had.

Microsoft - The guys who almost never is involved in any serious lawsuits and actually gave GeoHot a Windows Phone for free as a comfort after Sony sued him. What would motivate anyone of hacking them? Unless maybe 'for teh lulz'.

Nintendo - It's easily the least secure console on the whole market, but Nintendo doesn't really care about it. The only thing they do to prevent piracy and homebrew is a patch now and then that uninstalls certian homebrew software. Patches which often is easy to circumvent. Secondly, Nintendo doesn't have any real online system to hack. Most of the people buying games online for the Wii probably does so with "Wii points"

Apple - ... okay, you maybe got a point here.

[Tsteu nantang]

I wish I could say more than this, but I can not understand why they would go after Sony, and not go after Microsoft, Nintendo, Apple?

I think that I suspect a differing agenda at work than frustration over copy protection efforts or the removal of a feature other consoles never had.

Well if it is Anon its because of the hacker that got sued by Sony.  Where The others don't really have lawsuits out against hackers (that I know of).

It still doesn't make much sense though, because the two sides reached a settlement, this will only prolong the issue and cause Sony to be harsher.

[Eanikran]

I wish I could say more than this, but I can not understand why they would go after Sony, and not go after Microsoft, Nintendo, Apple?

I think that I suspect a differing agenda at work than frustration over copy protection efforts or the removal of a feature other consoles never had.

Microsoft - The guys who almost never is involved in any serious lawsuits and actually gave GeoHot a Windows Phone for free as a comfort after Sony sued him. What would motivate anyone of hacking them? Unless maybe 'for teh lulz'.

Nintendo - It's easily the least secure console on the whole market, but Nintendo doesn't really care about it. The only thing they do to prevent piracy and homebrew is a patch now and then that uninstalls certian homebrew software. Patches which often is easy to circumvent. Secondly, Nintendo doesn't have any real online system to hack. Most of the people buying games online for the Wii probably does so with "Wii points"

Apple - ... okay, you maybe got a point here.

Yeah, why not hack apple? Jobs is an a$s, and itunes sucks, they deserve it!

[Niwantaw]

I wish I could say more than this, but I can not understand why they would go after Sony, and not go after Microsoft, Nintendo, Apple?

I think that I suspect a differing agenda at work than frustration over copy protection efforts or the removal of a feature other consoles never had.

Well if it is Anon its because of the hacker that got sued by Sony.  Where The others don't really have lawsuits out against hackers (that I know of).

It still doesn't make much sense though, because the two sides reached a settlement, this will only prolong the issue and cause Sony to be harsher.

I still don't understand why anonymous is involved...(afaik) Jail breaking a console is illegal and just because some companies are prepared a blind eye doesn't mean that anyone who doesn't is the "bad guys".

and if it's anti copy protection why sony? Sony are nowhere near the worst for that.
(E.A. springs to mind on the games front. Apple on the music front)

[Sіr. Ηaxalot]

I wish I could say more than this, but I can not understand why they would go after Sony, and not go after Microsoft, Nintendo, Apple?

I think that I suspect a differing agenda at work than frustration over copy protection efforts or the removal of a feature other consoles never had.

Well if it is Anon its because of the hacker that got sued by Sony.  Where The others don't really have lawsuits out against hackers (that I know of).

It still doesn't make much sense though, because the two sides reached a settlement, this will only prolong the issue and cause Sony to be harsher.

I still don't understand why anonymous is involved...(afaik) Jail breaking a console is illegal and just because some companies are prepared a blind eye doesn't mean that anyone who doesn't is the "bad guys".

and if it's anti copy protection why sony? Sony are nowhere near the worst for that.
(E.A. springs to mind on the games front. Apple on the music front)

No. It is not illegal. Sony want you to think it's legal, but it's not.

[akiwiguy]

s/legal/illegal/

And yeah, it's not illegal.
Sony were saying that Geohot's PS3 was only 'rented' from them, and that he wasn't allowed to do that to Sony's property. Which is a load of bulls***, because he brought it with his hard-earned money from a store.
You'd get pissed if you didn't actually own something you paid hundreds of dollars for? Especially if it's something physical over say a Windows licence.

My 2c

[ExLibrisMortis]

Ok, Let's debunk some misconceptions I've read so far. Anonymous did not hack the personal information database. This was done by a third party opportunistic source. Anon has claimed no responsibility over that portion, and adamantly deny they took part in that.

The reasons, yes there are many, that Sony in particular is being targeted heavily is largely due to the GeoHot case being the straw that broke the camel's back, as the adage goes. http://geohotgotsued.blogspot.com/ Contains a lot of the information regarding the plight against Sony.

Jailbreaking IS, NOT, ILLEGAL. It is mostly Sony, along with other big name software/hardware companies that are using scare tactics upon you to say that their EULA's, or End User License Agreements, have any legal basis. They have no standing in court, and have been shut down by various judges as having no legal backing.

The reason why you don't mount a large scale attack against multiple different companies is then you start to draw majorly unwanted attention. Anon is essentially a rogue revolutionary/terrorist group, depending on who's labeling them at the time. When you run such organisations, you want to pick and choose your battle so that you can achieve the greatest outcome, while warranting the littlest backlash possible. Also, its no secret that the three major gaming companies, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony are pitted against each other. I wouldn't be surprised if the other two weren't congratulating/supporting them in some capacity. That's pure speculation on my part though.

[Txantslusam Skxawng]

Seems like we ( PSN users ) are going to get 30 days free PS Plus membership and some other stuff. Jup, they are trying to keep the customershappy by giving them free stuff.