Broadband Tech > Security > Security > It's a Sony (once and forever)

It's a Sony (once and forever)

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For years, EFF has been warning that the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act can be used to chill speech, particularly security research, because legitimate researchers will be afraid to publish their results lest they be accused of circumventing a technological protection measure. We've also been concerned that the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act could be abused to try to make alleged contract violations into crimes.

We've never been sorrier to be right. These two things are precisely what's happening in Sony v. Hotz. If you have missed this one, Sony has sued several security researchers for publishing information about security holes in Sony’s PlayStation 3. At first glance, it's hard to see why Sony is bothering — after all, the research was presented three weeks ago at the Chaos Communication Congress and promptly circulated around the world. The security flaws discovered by the researchers allow users to run Linux on their machines again — something Sony used to support but recently started trying to prevent. Paying lawyers to try to put the cat back in the bag is just throwing good money after bad. And even if they won — we'll save the legal analysis for another post — the defendants seem unlikely to be able to pay significant damages. So what's the point?

The real point, it appears, is to send a message to security researchers around the world: publish the details of our security flaws and we'll come after you with both barrels blazing. For example, Sony has asked the court to immediately impound all "circumvention devices" — which it defines to include not only the defendants' computers, but also all "instructions," i.e., their research and findings. Given that the research results Sony presumably cares about are available online, granting the order would mean that everyone except the researchers themselves would have access to their work.

Not content with the DMCA hammer, Sony is also bringing a slew of outrageous Computer Fraud and Abuse Act claims. The basic gist of Sony's argument is that the researchers accessed their own PlayStation 3 consoles in a way that violated the agreement that Sony imposes on users of its network (and supposedly enabled others to do the same). But the researchers don't seem to have used Sony's network in their research — they just used the consoles they bought with their own money. Simply put, Sony claims that it's illegal for users to access their own computers in a way that Sony doesn't like. Moreover, because the CFAA has criminal as well as civil penalties, Sony is actually saying that it's a crime for users to access their own computers in a way that Sony doesn't like.

That means Sony is sending another dangerous message: that it has rights in the computer it sells you even after you buy it, and therefore can decide whether your tinkering with that computer is legal or not. We disagree. Once you buy a computer, it's yours. It shouldn't be a crime for you to access your own computer, regardless of whether Sony or any other company likes what you're doing.

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I don't understand even why Sony has any legal right to prevent purchasers of hardware from running whatever software they want on the hardware they own.

If you buy the hardware, you should be able to do whatever you want with it. I don't see this as related to the usual discussion of sofware rights: hardware is very definitely an object that belongs, after payment, to the purchaser. If I want to buy a PS3 and use it as a doorstop, I can do that. Right?

said by dave:

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If you buy the hardware, you should be able to do whatever you want with it. I don't see this as related to the usual discussion of sofware rights: hardware is very definitely an object that belongs, after payment, to the purchaser. If I want to buy a PS3 and use it as a doorstop, I can do that. Right?

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And why I haven't bought anything produced by Sony since the rootkit scandal...
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da Cajun Darn I hate Malware

reply to Smokey Bear
A san Francisco judge has told Sony to prove they have jurisdiction over Hotz, who lives in NJ. And even what with Sony's attempts at abusing the DMCA and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the information on this is out there and widespread. Sony, meet Streisand Effect.
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"The trouble with computers, of course, is that they are very sophisticated idiots." - Doctor Who (from Robot)

reply to Smokey Bear
Sony just doesn't get it... You would think a lesson would have been learned back in the VHS vs. Beta Wars... Quit being so #!$@ing greedy...

reply to jaynick

reply to CajunTek

The only thing I have a hard time avoiding from Sony is the Sony/BMG catalog. Everything else is boycotted because of the rootkit.

reply to CCat

reply to Smokey Bear
It's a variation on the intellectual rights argument - the seller has the right forever to dictate the use of the object. The same argument is being used by some to say you can't break DRM on an ebook that you've purchased in order to be able to read the book on your own various ereaders, nevermind that you're not going to upload it anywhere.

Apparently we don't actually own anything we buy anymore; we just permanently lease the item - whatever it is.
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Patriotism is not waving a flag, it is living the ideals

I want to retire to the Isle of Sodor and ride the trains.

reply to Smokey Bear
I've had PS3's for years, and there used to be an option to install another OS on them. I don't know if Sony removed that option. To the best of my recollection the openness of the Sony PS3 was a feature that was at least mentioned at the time. There were some articles about people who used Linux with PS3's to work on some scientific problems. Sony seemed to encourage that at the time.

Did Sony remove the install Linux feature on all PS3's? Including PS3's that initially had that feature?
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"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use."

reply to salzan

reply to DannyZ
Even blu-ray?

Even blu-ray. For the most part I don't watch movies.

reply to dave
I think Sony feels it's operating under Feudal Land Title--the concept that you can only rent hardware--whether it be your home, your Playstation, or a key to a post office box. In reality, it's consumer fraud to say that you are 'selling' a Playstation, a house, or anything else that someone else is claiming feudal ownership of. So Sony's moral stand on this is tenuous at best.

reply to Smokey Bear
Did Sony put any rootkits on blank discs too?