I actually know somebody who used the other OS feature and was quite angry at Sony for abandoning it. I don't think I've ever commented on this publicly and if he reads this, he probably won't be very pleased with me.
I sympathize with him and others and understand and appreciate that they weren't happy about this decision. But in the end, I can't really blame Sony, and here's why. It's not as if they reached with silent fingers and snuffed out this feature while we were sleeping. They made it known, publicly that they were disabling this feature. If you wanted to continue to use your PS3 as a Linux platform, you were free to do so, so long as you didn't upgrade to the latest System Software. Yes, I realize this crippled the PS3 as an online gaming platform. But I would feel much more sympathy, and perhaps even the same sense of outrage, if Sony had somehow disabled this feature remotely without our consent. They didn't.
We may own the hardware, but we don't own the software. We simply enter into an agreement to use it. That's something that many people don't realize. So any of the car analogies posted above don't really apply. Intellectual property rights are tricky concepts and there's certainly no consensus as to what's right or wrong or even the grey area in between. But the fact of the matter is, when you buy a music CD or a DVD movie, you own the physical media, but you've purchased the 'right' to listen to that music or watch that movie on your own. You do not 'own' the music or the movie as such. At least, in highly simplified terms, that's the way the law is written. Whether we like it or agree with it or not.
A lifetime ago, (back in the early 80s) I used to 'trade' and copy games for 8-bit Atari computers. It seemed like everybody I knew engaged in this practice and being a young teen, I didn't see the harm. Flash ahead ten years to the early 90s and I used to do a little programming. None of my programs were commercial. And I never sold any of them even as shareware. But I considered it. During those ten years, I had grown a little older and a little wiser, and I had a better sense of scope and perspective of the world around me. And I had a moral revelation and I now have no tolerance for people who steal. Whether it's music or software or movies--whatever. I'm a big believer of intellectual property rights and I've NEVER since had issue with any kind of DRM protecting downloaded music or even video games.
I respect people have a natural curiosity and I harbor no animosity toward hackers who are curious how things work or want to tinker and make things easier or better for themselves. But by putting instructional hacks on-line for anybody to see, where people could make unscrupulous use of such tactics, you're essentially helping with a crime. Or at least potentially. It's maybe not as bad but it would be like standing in front of an ATM machine in public and shouting out a code to 'unlock' the machine. That way you don't have to worry about using that pesky card. Perhaps you're not committing a crime but if anybody would heed your advise and take the money, you could be considered and charged as an accomplice. And well you should be.
As others have mentioned, while Sony goes about rebuilding the PSN with additional security, the PSN is down as a DIRECT result of a forced intrusion. And during that time, people who work for Sony, or 3rd parties, who use the PSN are at risk of, or already are losing revenue. Sony themselves are under scrutiny and being hit with lawsuits. As a result of this, their stock price is tumbling and that means hundreds of thousands, if not millions of stock investors in Sony are losing revenue. And all as a result of a bunch of misguided twits with a misguided sense of justice. In a way, they're like a bunch of gang-bangers. Respect this, disrespect that. They have their own ideas and sub-culture which simply aren't part of the real world and the society to which the rest of us belong. If they're caught, they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible. They're not freedom fighters or 'fighting the good fight'. They're a bunch of hooligans who have caused a whole lot of trouble, on a scale so vast, it's difficult to fully comprehend.
i agree 100%
