Sony sued Hotz for being smarter than them. Georg didn’t steal, he didn’t break anything physical. No one got hurt in the process. No equipment was mishandled. He just satisfied his curiosity. Bad boy. Down.
Somehow, the world has been turned into a legal nightmare by us. So Georg is smarter than the Sony PS3 engineering team. Or the guy who did the encryption part. Or probably his manager – “I don’t care if it’s ready, we ship on Monday!”
LG sues Sony over some obscure abuse of ideas. “Patents” are they called, I hear. An essential weapon in the global economic wars of the 21st century. Laws are passed which turn curios pupils into bad-ass criminals. For the common good.
It’s traditional. No, really. In the 16th century, people got burned on stakes for examining the human body – things like blood system, bacteria, health, were all a big mystery then (at least in Europe). Instead of supporting the few smart people trying to help, they got killed. For violating the Laws of God. I’m sure that quite a few of the victims were aware that most of those Laws were written down and enacted by non-gods.
Today, companies pour billions into new, great products and are offended when a smart guy finds a flaw that topples their dreams of World Domination™. Losing billions due to someones own stupidity hurts a lot. Better share the hurt. Even better hurt someone else. Is that what we really want?
Inaction is a decision, too, and carries the same responsibility.
Related Articles
- PS3 no longer hackable? (newscientist.com)
- Sony vs LG: PS3 import ban lifted (guardian.co.uk)
- The Sony PS3 Class File An Amended Complaint (groklaw.new)
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