 |
| From Engagdet - Unlock the Potential...? |
Basically Hotz created some software tools that allowed the PS/3 to start-up bypass the TPM and run other applications - TPM is a key-based security hardware device that verifies that hardware or software can be run on a given device - in this case the PS/3. This work was based on work done by "failOverFlow" which created the basic TPM bypass late last year.
Sony has sold about 35 million PS/3s world wide as of March, 2010. Xbox, as of that same time frame, has sold about 40 million units, and Wii about 71 million units.
Now lets look at iOS (iPhone), Microsoft Windows 7 phones and Android as a bit of a comparison.
In 2008 and 2009 Apple sold about 35 million iPhones and is forecast to sell about 100 million iPhones by this year. Android, the Google phone OS has already passed Apple in terms of units sold. Windows 7 phone sales and still barely noticeable.
Sony appears to be somewhat of an also-ran here... Perhaps they think punishing this guy will increase their stature in the market...?
Hacker-wise things are a bit more interesting. As I mentioned above GeoHotz was able to hack the iPhone in 2007 to run on alternate networks. Jailbreaking (allowing the phone to run non-Apple approved apps) has been around about as long.
Android has also been hacked - even though its technically an open-source system. Google, though, is not real big on the idea.
Finally, with a Windows 7 phone Microsoft basically admits the phone will be hacked up front and sort of provides some support for this in the sense that it just tells you to "be careful" (see image above).
Now all of this software is protected under the US DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act). While this act makes it a crime to steal movies or songs the DMCA does not allow companies to prevent interoperability at a software or hardware level.
At the core of all this is how is something like the an iPhone different from your car? Imagine if GM sold cars with the stricture that it could only be services by a GM dealer. Would you still buy a GM car?
Sony itself has been down this road before (see this link) in the late 1990's with the original PlayStation. A company called Connectix reverse engineered the original PS and was sued by Sony.
The problem Sony faces is that while the software itself may be copywritten the functions it performs are not entitled to copyright protection. Thus I might have a Bios that is copywritten but the function its performs, e.g., talking to a game controller, is not copyrightable.
Thus with the car analogy the actual documents designing the hub onto which your tire is bolted can be copywritten. But the notion that only wheels with that exact bolt pattern, and hence made only by the company that designed the hub, can be used on the car is truly nonsense.
I predict that Sony in the long run will lose out and relent as Apple and Google have with their respective DMCA cases.
Unfortunately for Mr. Hotz Sony's strategy is, even though they know they will lose, to cost him so much money in legal fees that they effectively bankrupt him.
Now this is the real problem and I think things like the DMCA should protect people against this common legal tactic.
By the way, all those radio ads for creating your Nevada corporation are pure nonsense. Though you may conduct your business through such a corporation all someone need do to attack you personally is sue both you and the corporation. And that's the issue here. Though Hotz may not have actual broken the law Sony will have effectively punished him by causing him so much legal cost that he will be bankrupt.
And that's both the point and the real secret.
First and foremost no matter who you are or what kind of legal protection you think you have as long as someone knows your real name you can and will be sued in a situation like this. Had Hotz created a company to publish his PS3 jailbreak Sony would simply have sued both him and the company.
No comments:
Post a Comment