PS3 Hacker Raised All the Legal Funds Needed to Beat Sony in a Weekend

[Spankey]

MaxwellGT2000 said:

irstupid said:

 

is he redistributing free software?

no he is not, you have to have a ps3 to use this code.  so you already bought the software.  thsi code just lets you mod the software, which you bought

Exactamundo couldn't have said it better myself.

again, i'm not so sure. They have not bought the software, only a copy of it.

here's an analogy (hooray! another!) someone goes to a bookshop and buys a copy of Stephen King's The Shining.

All well and good, but then he rewrites the first paragraph, accurately translates the rest of the book to Klingon then publishes it on the Internet as his own work and gives instructions on how he did it all without getting the go-ahead from Mr. King.

The owner here owns the pages, the ink used and the cover of the book, but does not own the content (the actual  words, story and ideas). sure, if he wants to take out a pen and scribble in what he thinks is a better line or blank out some profanity, go for it. But whether he can go and publish his modified book in a way that makes the bookstore think it's actually been modified by SK himself (and tells others how to fool the bookstore so they can do similar things)  is a matter for the courts to decide.

This analogy is a bit flawed for the following reasons though:

a) Stephen King would probably have a good laugh about it

b) a book does not play games or access the PSN