Geohot Battles Back Against Sony 255
csaw.csaw writes "According to Ars Technica, 'Hotz is slamming Sony's arguments at every turn. Sony claims there is a PSN account that Hotz created? Well, the serial number is wrong and anyone could have made that account. The manuals contained information on how SCEA is located in California? The manuals were never opened.' Groklaw posted the latest court filing (PDF) as well as their own analysis, saying, 'All the over-the-top allegations, in short, that some journalists published last week after reading SCEA's filing are now answered ably, about blickmaniac, the Playstation Network, the California downloads, the serial number, SCEA's jurisdictional arguments, everything. I confess, this is getting exciting.'"
Won't matter (Score:4, Interesting)
Sony is rich and powerful, and has the best lawyers [wikipedia.org] at their disposal. They can even call on Congress and the President to help them out, and rewrite the laws if they have to.
He's just a little guy. At most he might have the backing of the EFF and some donations.
I hate to be so cynical, but so far Sony has won every round in this case. The courts are falling all over themselves giving Sony whatever they've asked for, no matter how outrageous. I'd like to think the little guy can win, but really, how often does that actually happen anymore?
Re:Boycott Sony! (Score:4, Interesting)
There's only one case I know of (console to console compare) where Microsoft is still more evil than Sony.
Specifically, it came in with Netflix (at least in Canada)
On the PS3, Netflix is "free" from Sony's standpoint. I have the console, downloaded Netflix, got my Netflix membership, and away I go.
On the X360...I have the console, went to download Netflix, found I couldn't because I'm not a Gold member. SERIOUSLY? I spend money on your console and want to download a free to you app and I can't because you have that gold-only restricted. FUCK YOU! I'm not spending $60 a year to download a free app.
Re:Hey Sony! Pack up your bags and leave (Score:5, Interesting)
Devil's advocate stand here:
This isn't a fight that Apple lost; this is a fight Apple has not decided to push. If Apple really wanted to fight this, they could:
1: Reword all cellular carrier agreements where they will drop service and blacklist any devices suspected of being jailbroken (downloading stuff from Cydia repos for example.)
2: Encrypt bootloaders, and have the baseband hand the keys to the OS. This is how Motorola does it, and so far, the trouble of cracking Moto's encrypted bootloaders have gotten modders to move elsewhere.
3: Push software down to the iPhones periodically to search for jailbreaks. If devices are JB-ed, all Apple IDs connected with them would be banned. MS does with the XBoxes, Valve does this with VAC, etc.
4: Have the baseband software and processor (IIRC, the radio uses a separate processor than the main OS), act as a TPM. If the running OS isn't signed, put the device in DFU mode until a valid copy of the IPSW is put on.
5: Ask cellular carriers to cough up IP records of anyone who bought programs through Cydia, cross reference the IMEIs, and when it comes for an iOS update, blacklist all IMEIs gathered which are suspected during the SHSH negotation process.
6: Have a firmware eFuse counter that only allows for flashing higher versions (assuming they are not betas).
7: Separate the iPhones into different models, each having different hardware protection, and when rev B is put out, anyone caught using rev A exploits is banned from cellular networked via IMEI, and their Apple IDs are banned.
8: Get with cellular carriers and lease iPhones the way Ma Bell used to lease telephones. This + a EULA would mean that jailbreaking would be against the law because it wouldn't be the owner's device.
FB group to ban Sony (Score:2, Interesting)