Earlier today I wrote a post detailing a possible refund on all PS3 Hardware bought before a certain time as a result of an ongoing lawsuit against Sony. This rumour seems to have been fake as proven by the site below. It would seem the site of the lawfirm had in fact been hacked to state this information.
Goes to show that if it sounds too good to be true then it usually is.
Original:
Here is something quite interesting on the business side of things.
A few months ago an update was released for the Playstation 3 which removed the ‘OtherOS’ feature of the console. This feature allowed the user to use a section of his hard drive to install another Operating System on (or at least install Linux). The debate about whether or not it should’ve been removed is for another time, but some people were so annoyed by Sony removing this advertised feature of the console that they actually sued Sony.
I will admit straight away that I didn’t actually have much hope for the lawsuit. I’m not a legal expert; my only law experience comes from the Ace Attorney series, but I honestly thought that Sony would just crush them. However, it actually seems according to this site, the judge ruled that Sony must refund anyone who bought a PS3 before March 27th 2010 for up to 50% of it’s retail value. If this is true (and it certainly looks like it) then that is an incredible victory and a very costly one for Sony.
Now before anyone gets excited, the page doesn’t make mention of any specifics such as how to claim or what regions it actually applies to. It does however, state that Sony will be doing this at E3.
From the wording of the article it seems that as of now this only applies to American PS3 owners, but there is a small mention of something happening in the EU. Needless to say, this is an interesting one to watch.
So does anyone reading have any thoughts regarding this? Were you annoyed with Sony’s removal of the ‘OtherOS feature’ or did it not bother you? Leave a comment below.
Source:
http://www.qj.net/qjnet/news/sony-giving-out-refunds-for-other-os-removal.html#comments
[...] Visit Author:http://jcmoorehead.wordpress.com/2010/06/06/sony-to-give-refunds-on-ps3/ [...]
it didn’t bother me. I’m still surprised with that ruling and I would expect Sony to appeal, since it was the Terms of Service that we’ve all been agreeing to for a long, long time which stated something along the lines of features can be removed in the case of piracy, and, really, the only feature which could cause that would be the OtherOS feature.
The lawsuit shouldn’t hold any water because of that. And they aren’t forcing you to update, either. You can keep the older firmware, but you just won’t be able to sign into PSN or play the newest games, but it’s a choice nonetheless. Once you agreed to the Terms of Service, you signed a contract between you and the company.
Most people say it was a selling feature. Well, the retailers should be held accountable since they have access to the Terms of Service, too, and could have explained to the consumer what it says (but very few people read those, and retailers don’t educate themselves on what are in the ToS, so it’s not Sony, or any other company’s, fault if the consumers and retailers are irresponsible).
looks like I may still be right. The law firm’s site had been hacked to say they won:
http://www.playstationuniversity.com/sony-will-not-be-refunding-all-ps3-owners-law-firms-site-hacked-3925/
I thought it was a bit suspect to be honest and I was hesitant to post it but thought it’d be an interesting talking point regardless.
I never really thought of the OtherOS feature as being a selling point for the PS3. It was always just there and never used and I imagine the majority of people on their PS3s never used it. In the rare cases that did well it was mostly to try to use emulators and circumvent the protection the PS3 had so I can see why they removed it.
It does beg the question though, the way our society is moving with this ‘Sue anyone for anything’ culture. Is it only a matter of time until someone like this does actually pan out in the favour of people like those suing Sony?
probably not for some time. A lot of these pointless lawsuits get nowhere anyway, and then you have to deal with the court fees anyway. People just need to stop being so ignorant, as most lawsuits wouldn’t be needed if people had a lick of common sense. Spilled hot coffee on your lap? You shouldn’t be able to sue the coffee shop because the cup didnt say your drink was hot. You knew it was hot. You shouldn’t be able to sue McDonalds because you have an eating problem and like their food, and their food doesn’t have nutritional info on it. If anything, people are greedy as hell, and it’s getting worse, and that’s probably the number one reason we have stupid lawsuits like this.
Glad I’m not the only one who thinks that way.