Sony continues to arm itself as they are pulling out all the stops in order to combat what they view as piracy across the PlayStation 3 platform.
Saving the “who’s right” discussion for another day, it’s clear that, critics and questions about the definition of ownership be damned, Sony is out for blood when it comes to cracking down on those trying to hack or jailbreak a PS3. Besides going after existing hackers, armed with a judicial system that appears to favor Sony’s claims; firmware updates to block currently-successful hacks; PlayStation Network bans; and the apparent development of an “unhackable” PS3; they’re also working on another weapon to use in their little war:
An anti-piracy legal team.
Meanwhile, XBox developers encourage owners to hack the Kinect, but I digress. BusinessInsider.com found some job listings over at SCEA that mentioned the creation of such a legal team.
Not only is Sony being incredibly headstrong about what they consider a hack attempt, which, to Sony, is tantamount to pirating PS3 games — their true concern here — they are also receiving outspoken support from game developers who don’t appear to understand the concepts of ownership either; or, worse yet, they’re willing to disregard them in order to ensure financial gain.
David Braben is one such developer: "Buying a PlayStation 3 does not give me unrestricted ownership of it. If I ‘dig’ into it, I can’t just sell or even give away all the information I find." Braben goes on to say that people who broadcast PlayStation 3 hacking methods should be condemned.
I’m guessing that sound logic doesn’t apply to Kevin Butler.