<Insert obligatory "Is it coming to the West?" post here>
If you hack Sony products, you will be disallowed from hacking future Sony products. Now that is what I call a deterrent.
"Sony got exactly what they wanted"
I am pretty certain that Sony's goals were far larger in scope than assuring that one individual twenty-something would not modify their products in the future.
Shame we did not get that fair use ruling, but on the other hand, the EFF's involvement with the case indicates that they are open to the idea of lobbying on the modding community's behalf two years from now when Congress decides what exemp...
This is a pretty funny outcome when you think about it. There are not many crimes where the only punishment for committing them is that you are not allowed to do them a second time.
"Jailbreaking the PS3 is still illegal"
Not in Spain.
Some good day, the same will be true for the Land of the Free.
"Because no one would to risk themselves from getting sued by Sony"
If the most severe outcome to being sued by Sony is not being allowed to hack Sony products in the future, then how is that a risk?
Oooh, injunction against buying future Sony products, that has to sting.
On the bright side, the Homebrew community just got Showtime Media Player running stable 1080p on the PS3, and Region-free Blu-ray is on the horizon. Thanks, geohot!
Oh my goodness.
"you could always import"
This is true, but I would add that since the console is region-locked, you would also have to softmod the Wii to make the imported copy playable.
"The 3DS just released. Having a bunch of Wii games to buy right now would be counter-productive."
When I think of the massive DS sales of the 2006-2007 time period, my first thought is not 'Just look at how those sales completely handicapped the Wii launch.'
My first thought is 'Holy god, they made a lot of money.'
"It's privileged info now"
Information wants to be free.
"As many people have stated before, if Geohot or all of these hackers had kept their works to their selves, it wouldn't affect anyone at all."
And instead, when freed from the mighty chains of oppression, geohot and company chose to share their newfound liberty with their fellow man. Because that's what heroes do.
Oh, good. More things for Metacritic to be absolutely worthless at scoring.
"Fair Use law would not cover your rights to modification."
Sure, it does. Modification = bypassing copy-protection. Absolutely covered by Fair Use.
"that thinking worked so well for the drug market"
How about a reasonable compromise? We allow PS3 modding, and if it turns the PS3 into a dystopia where software sales fall to zero, then we can make it illegal again. All I'm saying is, give that dystopia a chance. Y...
"he obviously has a brain"
I do not think that is obvious.
Desperate Struggle is better than MadWorld, which was better than the first No More Heroes. I am going to have to go with Travis.
"Your problem is that you believe the proper way to accomplish something is through rebellion"
You say 'rebellion', I say 'civil disobedience'.
"Another problem for you is that you believe $599 grants you the right to ownership (in part or in full) to Sony's intellectual property."
Right to ownership? No. Right to Fair Use? Yes.
"The law supports that it does not."
<...
"Sony owns the PS3 firmware and PSN code. This was modified and redistributed in part by GeoHot."
No, it was not. All geohot distributed was signing tools. Anyone with basic programming skills and the signing keys could write the application, hence why it was significant that he posted the signing keys themselves. Do you seriously believe that a 130 kb file contains the entire PS3 operating firmware on it?
"Meaning, he modified a portion of...
"FYI the codes that Hotz stole were copyright protected by Sony."
No, they were not. You cannot copyright a number.
"Copyright means you cannot steal and/or reproduce these codes without consent from Sony."
Too bad that the copyright you are talking about exists only in your mind.
"Just like movies/music/etc. is copyright protected. You cannot steal and/or reproduce any movies/music/etc. wit...
"Hope Nintendo give BC and free region for that console"
Backwards compatibility is a possibility; region-free, not so much. :-/