http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/02/sony-lawsuit-factory/
Last month George Hotz (a 21 year old hacker from Jersey), posted a how-to video on youtube containing the jailbreak coding for the PS3, allowing the console to play homebrewed games and 'illegally copied' software. SONY is tightening the thumbscrews on the hacker by filing suit ordering surrender of all his hard drives and other devices directly to Sony. Sony has also made it clear that they will actively pursue and prosecute anyone hosting or distributing the video and code. The company is also pursuing 6 other people from the hacker group called 'fail0verflow', demanding that Google/TWITTER divulge the identities of the the hackers to SONY.
This reminds me alot of a huge tidal wave of controversy a few years ago regarding copyrights on music and mp3s, napster, pirated cd's, etc. Basically it boils down to a company foreseeing lost profits due to less game sales. Why pay for something you can get for free, right? Sony was part of the music industry crusade against pirated music too. I think game console companies are going to have to learn that jailbreaking and computer hackers are here to stay, and to collaborate with them to generate truly magnificent consoles and games.
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