April the first 2011, was the first Anniversary of the OtherOS’s demise, it was a full year, since Sony Computer Entertainment, removed the OtherOS function, something they promised they would never do, SCEA celebrated this one year event, by imposing a stricter ToS on us, in secret, they were requisitioning the courts to dismiss the OtherOS case, Groklaw, the popular site for bringing the public court cases, has made a post, explaining how SCEA has asked the courts yet again, to dismiss the OtherOS case, here is a quote from Groklaw:

There’s news from the class action litigation, In re Sony PS3 ‘Other OS’ Litigation, where the plaintiffs are suing Sony Computer Entertainment America for removing OtherOS from Playstation 3s. SCEA has filed another motion to dismiss [PDF] the class action case, once again saying that the plaintiffs’ newly filed First Amended Complaint is insufficient to state a claim. The original complaint’s claims, except for one, were dismissed, with the judge giving the plaintiffs a chance to refile. Now that they have, SCEA says this refiled complaint should be tossed out also. There will be a hearing on all this on May 12th.

And the class action plaintiffs are asking the judge [PDF] to help them get discovery that SCEA is, they claim, reluctant to provide. Role reversal. In the SCEA v. Hotz litigation, SCEA is all about discovery, all they can get. Here, it’s the opposite.

There is a transcript from a February 9th hearing in the Sony class action attached as an exhibit to the plaintiffs’ letter to the judge in the case, and I think you’ll be amazed. Would you like to know what SCEA’s lawyers think of customers who use Linux? We get to find out, because the hearing begins with SCEA asking the judge for access to the plaintiffs’ hard drives. Why would you want that, the judge asks? These are not defendants accused of anything, remember. Sony is the one in the hot seat, but here is the incredible answer: because, says their attorney, these plaintiffs say they used Linux, so SCEA suspects they were part of a hacking conspiracy, and they’d like to check. There’s more, and I’ll tell you all about it.
And SCEA claims in the transcript that it wasn’t the entity that decided to drop OtherOS. It says in this courtroom that Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. is responsible for that decision. In Hotz, SCEA says it is responsible for pretty much everything to do with PS3s in the US, or at least I got that impression. SCEA also tells the judge at the hearing that there’s been a change in the corporate setup. SCEI isn’t the parent of SCEA any more. So I did a little research on that. Who are they then? And how how were they related? I have found some press releases that clarify very nicely.
Here are the filings first, so you can follow along:

This is a great read and for those interested, you really should visit the Groklaw site here.



A lot of people on this forum were affected, one of them being madshaun1984, he used the OtherOS function and was furious when Sony removed the function, as we all were, in his zero PSN incarceration, he managed to get XBMC, running quite well on the PS3 via Linux, after reading the above from Groklaw, he sent me this:

Wow, are Sony really stupid enough to go there??…
Well yes, they are… heres why…

from the recent Groklaw coverage of the OtherOS related lawsuit against Sony…

Well, part of the nexus is how can you come in and ask for damages for a property that you have basically violated? You don’t have an ownership right in the software that Sony Computer allows you to use. That’s it the whole point of the license agreement, it’s not an ownership interest, it is a privilege that Sony conveys on them. And if these people violate the terms of that licensing agreement, they have no entitlement to continued use of a software.
So to summarize, if you own a ps3, you don’t actually own it, because you cant break Sony’s license agreement and install any software you like (or even use the built in software in a way that “might” be an attempt to violate said license agreement).

What ever happened to possession is nine tenths the law??
Sony are now openly stating that we are violating their rights, but fail/more like choose not to see that they are breaking basic ownership laws and violating our rights as a consumer with every unit they sell.

We own the purchased hardware, if we want to use the hardware with software not endorsed or licensed by Sony, sure we forfeit the use of Sony’s software, but its our god given right to choose!!!
If Sony had implemented OtherOS correctly the hackers would of left their precious software alone and happily used the hardware in a non offensive to Sony way (remember the ps3 was unhacked for 4 years, but consumers/hackers alike felt bullied by Sony’s constant lock down/removal of features and decided to push back leading to the whole sorry mess we’re caught up in now).

I think its time Sony went back to basics and started concentrating more on other lines of hardware, as they obviously cant handle the heat of the gaming market!! (Either that or they should pay Microsoft to teach them how to keep the consumer happy!!).
Either way, if things continue this way, I’ll be reconsidering my next gen console choice, and will likely leave out Sony’s next big console, I’m sick of feeling threatened for being curious, or for wanting to do what I’m entitled to do!

I chose to add madshaun1984′s snippet, not just because it is good, but because we rarely here the voice of those that were truly afflicted by the removal of the OtherOS, we read the words of the courts and lawyers, but never of the victims, so enjoy both Groklaws post and madshaun1984′s