The Ugly Truth About Hackers

GameFlavor writes, "The hacker community claimed taking functionality away was a call to arms. They wanted to retaliate against the corporate bad guys like in 'The Matrix.' But what about those other game systems they've hacked? What did PSP, Wii, or the DS ever do to them? Remove any features? No. Nothing. Yet they are among the most heavily pirated systems right now.

So are these hackers really looking out for the best interests of the consumers? Maybe. But mostly not."

[swingingape]

Hackers are great. They improve more than they harm imo

[captain-obvious]

yah by killing that gaming industry

[Government Cheese]

Uhm, nothing, thats the thing. The homebrew community simply has added features that weren't present originally. Obviously pirating is bad, but I don't see anything wrong with simple hacking/homebrew as long as it isn't costing anyone any money

[Rocket Sauce]

They made the PSP about a thousand times more interesting.

[Raz]

What man has coded or locked, man will decode and unlock.
What man builds, man will destroy.

In other words, like 'em or not, hackers are the inevitable result of the innate human drive to screw with everything - just because we can. As long as there are people who put things together, there will be others who take them apart. As long as we make laws, people will break them.

There's no inherent good or bad in that. Some laws are unjust, and some creations (like the atomic bomb) cause harm; so breaking laws or taking apart/destroying a creation isn't necessarily bad. Neither are all hackers altruists; some are just a*holes who screw with other people for their own pleasure.

[PinkUni]

STFU

if anything, hackers are pushing the industry twoards online gameplay and user created content and thats a good thing.

everyone pirates games? GOOD, make the game free and charge for things you can only get online.

everyone makes private servers? cant charge for online items? GOOD, make everything free make money off ads.

win win win so STFU

[mgsfan]

do something useful like ......I don't know ehhhh mod for farcry 2 lol man that game still hasn't been modded beyond new maps.

[Silver360]

hackers may break a system open, but who causes a loss of sales? Cheap lazy gamers. Those that feel they have a right to something they didn't pay for just because it costs $60. What a load of BS. If you can't afford it don't buy it, save your money for it. Stealing is wrong period. Then there are the ones that don't steal but want to hack their system and play online. They are wrong too. What gives them the right to ruin someone else's gaming experience? They go online with mods and get higher kill ratios or faster cars and what does it prove? That they are too lazy and mean spirited to extend some common courtesy to someone who just wants to be friendly and play a game. Hackers do what they do, but it is thieves and jerks that take what they do and make it a problem.

[sikbeta]

@PinkUni

lol, you really believe what you posted? Come on, you want FREE Games, Install Ubuntu and see The Library of Linux Games, Crap and more Crap, but hey, Those Games are FREE...

Seriously, people really Believe that Someone/Company will Invest Time & Money to make Great Games with Story + Graphics + Multiplayer for FREE, pffft, let alone Pushing the Bundaries...

Ads? Ads that can slow down your Whole Game or Ads that will be So Annoying and you'll want to quit the Game?

Devs Deserve The Money For the Games They Make, if someone can't pay for those
Games, his life is not affected by that because Gaming is a hobby not a necessity, but all of us know that Money is Not The Problem...

Edit:

Also, charge for On-line stuff is not an Option for a Company that want to Make Money, for example, what IF 100 guys DD a Free Game and the Company charge for On-line "stuff", the 100 guys probably will not pay for the "on-line stuff" or only half of them, doesn't matter the Percentage for a Company IF it is not 100%

[Pika-pie]

To say that hackers act in the best interest of the consumer is a ridiculous comment.

First off, they are not just stealing profits from the corporate platform holder, they are stealing from the developers, some of them are small studios. What right does anyone have to steal from these people, behind every game is 100s of people, working jobs with families and financial commitments of their own.

Even hugh corporatations whos aim is growth and stability provide jobs and job security for 1000s of people... Is that wrong?? Is the hackers aim to put these people out on the street begging.

Games cost millions to make, and purchasing a game is not exactly breaking the bank at £35-£40 to someone with a job. And they drop down in price after a few months.

No one who plays pirate games can call themself a real gamer. Less money going back to developers = less money invested in future development projects.

This really fumes me up!!!

[LoVeRSaMa]

'Hackers are great. They improve more than they harm imo'

Only true in some cases.

iPhone is only as good as it is now because of hackers creating apps, but things like the PSP have been damaged hard by hacks.

I doubt the Playstation 3 will be affected due to hackers though, homebrew would be nice and I dont see anyone downloading 50GB games anytime soon.

[swingingape]

Sony should do what Microsoft does and just ban pirates instead of punishing everybody.

[ClownBelt]

It will probably go that way as well if hackers still find a way to hack the PS3.

[tinman_licks]

Sony should have left Linux for the homebrew community

[zag]

Well it was but this Geohot d**khead screwed it for everyone who owns a PS3.

And the firmware he release f**ks your PS3, if you apply it.

[Kalowest]

I free games, thank you hackers.

[clinker]

The thing is, that without hackers constantly pushing the boundaries on technology and hardware, we wouldn't have great games to begin with.

[Biggest]

Hackers do not create. They destroy. That is why they are called hackers.

[ElementX]

Hackers don't contribute to game development and the certainly don't push hardware boundaries. Your comment makes absolutely no sense.

[Proxy]

http://www.catb.org/~esr/fa... <- This is a hacker.

What were talking about here are crackers.

[madpuppy]

the developers that make ALL the games you like are Hackers, they are the software creators that love what they do. without them there would be nothing software-wise that would be interesting or innovative.

Crackers are Black-hat programmers that "crack" program DRM in gaming machines and try to steal credit card information from secure networks as well as create viruses among other illegal activities.

[Christopher]

Here's the problem that Hackers just don't seem to realize when they 'build' things: Everything they do is used by others to ill will. Oh, look, a firmware for the PSP that can run homebrew? Not anymore, now it can run pirated PSP games!

Hackers claim to just do this for advancement and to not promote piracy, but the honest truth is that they know that what they provide will lead directly to someone utilizing their methods for pirating and they do it anyway.

If you know the guy you're selling a gun to is going to rob a bank, do you just sit there and sell it to him or not?

Okay, not a perfect metaphor, bur relevant nonetheless.

[IdleLeeSiuLung]

It is kind of ironic how gamers will jump and attack the media for making violent video games the scapegoat for violent action in our society. Yet, when the tables are turned and hackers are portrayed as the reason why piracy exist, many gamers will jump on it and attack hackers just like the media.

Are hackers responsible for piracy?

Well, the answer is at best the hackers, are enablers. However, for piracy to exist it must have a distribution channel and people willing to pirate. So do we blame the people that distribute it or the people actually downloading illegal content?

It's the same as asking, do we blame the weapons manufacturer or the people pulling the trigger?

In both cases, I would say it is the latter. The tools are there, but don't blame the tools, blame the people choosing to pirate!

By the way, there seems to be a lot of misconception to what a hacker really is and that doesn't really help when the media incorrectly uses the term and stereotype them incorrectly.

[Kushan]

So it's the fault of the hacker for releasing a tool that CAN be used for Piracy, but has another purpose entirely?
Surely it's the fault of the person who uses the hacks/tools for nefarious purposes?

That's a bit like saying Ford are responsible for thousands of Deaths each year because they put a deadly weapon in the hands of Drunk Drivers, who then go on to crash into some unwitting pedestrian. Last I checked, when this happens, it's the driver that gets charged with manslaughter, not the car Manufacturer.

[Christopher]

***So it's the fault of the hacker for releasing a tool that CAN be used for Piracy, but has another purpose entirely?

Surely it's the fault of the person who uses the hacks/tools for nefarious purposes?***

I'm not blaming hackers for creating piracy tools. I am saying that it's completely ignorant to think that they don't know what they're creating can and will most likely be used for piracy.

Yeah, it's the fault of the 'crackers' as you guys want to call them (a sub-classification of a hacker, in all honesty), but it's hackers in general who do it. Hackers say, hey, I'm just seeing potential here and I'm doing what I want with technology I have purchased. Why do it and make the method publicly available how to do it so that 'crackers' can abuse it? Why is there a need to lead every single electronic device out there towards the point where it's used illegally?

I think the whole concept that hackers have of hacking items to improve them is total BS, IMHO. It's that mentality that's forced companies to fight back in overkill type of methods and they will continue to do so as long as hackers feel the need to disassemble and rebuild everything for their own purposes rather than realizing perhaps they should build their own damn systems rather than modifying existing systems.

[IdleLeeSiuLung]

There are plenty of hacking project that turned into great projects. An example is the Xbox Media Center and the custom firmware on Linux based routers such as Linksys WRT54GL.

I use the latter for my Wifi needs on the 360. Cost me $50 and it supports a heck of a lot more than most commercial routers that normally cost hundreds of dollars.

Part of the hacking scene is to share what they have found. It is the manufacturers responsibility to protect their business, not the public. I definitely have issues with piracy, but believe that hacking is a right and it the greater scheme of things is to the benefit of the public.

[zoonie]

There are a few pros to hacking but the cons far outweigh them. I still think Sony should have handled the removal of the Other OS feature more professionally.

[Mr Logic]

I think they should have removed it without announcing it. That way more people would have updated without hesitation.

[Biggest]

Sony could have just banned all of the OtherOS systems and forced people to buy new PS3s.

[skip2mylou]

yeahhhh just like what ms is did and lose a bunch of customers

[BubbleSniper]

wooooow!!1

look those lips!!!

[HypermysticsonicHMSX]

;)

[Dsnyder]

We once had the ablity to install OSes on ps3's. But then a 14 year old, who is clearly homosexual and has nothing beter to do in his meaningless life, decided to bypass the ps3's security and thus ps3 now has lost that feature. Im not saying hackers should find more productive things to do and/or jump off a cliff, but im not saying they shouldnt either.

Bubbles for the truth.

[Redempteur]

i agree with that

there was no need to look into the depth of the ps3 since linux was supported in the first place.

Everyone was happy ..except that one guy who wanted FAME he did not do this because he couldn't play or launch his favorite programm no no ..he just wanted FAME ... and the result is clear now ...

The escuse was not here

[Proxy]

I mean, which would you rather be able to do; open something like the PS3 and say "hey, if I solder these two pins together I can access the hyper-visor and dump the OS with this program I created." Or would you rather post on the n4g comment section.

I think we all know which is cooler, and that's why were all here.

[Darkfocus]

Hotz was a finalist at the 2005 ISEF competition, with his project "The Googler".[19] Continuing with robots, Hotz competed in his school's highly successful Titanium Knights battlebots team. George also worked on his project, "Neuropilot," in which he was able to read EEG signals off his head with hardware from the OpenEEG project.

Hotz competed in the 2007 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, a science competition for high school students, where his project, entitled "I want a Holodeck", received awards and prizes in several categories.[20] Hotz has received considerable attention in mainstream media, including interviews on the Today Show, Fox, CNN, NBC, CBS, G4, ABC[21] CNBC,[22] and articles in several magazines, newspapers, and websites, including Forbes,[23] and BBC.[24]

The Forbes article said Hotz hopes to go into neuroscience: "hacking the brain," he called it. In March 2008, PC World magazine listed George as one of the top 10 Overachievers under 21.[25]

In December 2007, Hotz travelled to Sweden to attend the Stockholm International Youth Science Seminar and talk about his 3-D imaging invention (called Project Holodeck) that netted him a $20,000 Intel prize earlier that year.[26]

at the age of 20, he seems to have done more than any of us ever will ever do and certainly more than you'll ever do Dsnyder.the kid's a genius and could clearly be an asset to society. it's not like people who own a fat ps3 would be pirating what kind of pirate buys a system where there's no way to pirate games hell there wasn't even a proof of concept. anyone who bought a ps3 with the intention of pirating would have sold there ps3 by now so even if the game OS got hacked (which it didn't geohot only hacked linux to allow full hardware access) there would be little to no effect on game sales. oh and I love how you call someone you don't like a homo real classy there.

edit @below:well if you read my comment there was really no reason for Sony to remove the other os all that did was stir up a hornets nest by pissing off there most tech savvy customers (aka the people that actually know how to code and hack) all I'm saying is the kid could do some very positive things for society in his lifetime and dsnyder suggesting that he or anyone for that matter should kill themselves is a stupid thing to say.

[badz149]

so, he competes in a lot of things and got recognitions from various parties! are you saying THAT granted him the license to screw up everyone? is that what his talent is for? THAT IS 1 TALENTED PRICK!

[badz149]

"no reason for Sony to remove the other os" - that kid used that feature to do things Sony don't want people to do! that's like buying a car and use it for illegal street racing! if it's not for him, then there's no reason!

"all that did was stir up a hornets nest by pissing off there most tech savvy customers (aka the people that actually know how to code and hack)" - these people were hard at work since the very beginning! HELLO...they're hackers and that's what they do!

"the kid could do some very positive things for society in his lifetime" - yet of all the things in the world, he CHOSE to hack the PS3! FOR FAME! and now he has ruined other OS for everybody!

that's all I'm saying!

[Kushan]

"there was no need to look into the depth of the ps3 since linux was supported in the first place."

Supported poorly, you mean. If you actually read up on it, you'll see how the Linux support was actually quite heavily gimped. No direct GPU access, for example. It's like being given a car that's missing an Axel and half of the Engine. Then, when you try to add the missing parts, having it taken off of you.

[danielle007]

Screw up everyone? I bet the majority of people up in arms over losing Linux access never even used it for very much, if at all.

Plus, if someone is passionate about keeping it, there have been ways to bypass the update, and keep signing into PSN. So, really, if the OtherOS was that important to you, use one of those methods and back off this Hotz kid. He really is smart, and if you could do something that you could actually get famous for, I bet you would. You're just jealous of this young smartypants.

Plus, Hotz is only 14. He's just a kid. Of course he wants a little fame. Hell, all teenagers do. But, unlike other people, he can actually attain it - for legit reasons, and I really can't blame him for wanting to. Shame on you guys for wanting a child to kill himself.

[sikbeta]

@Dsnyder

I Agree, he is Homosexual... Oh, I mean he screwed a feature in the PS3 and now I'm totally sure, We'll never see the OtherOS Again on next PS Consoles ever...

I know this is not Good, but at the same time, IF this prevent Piracy, everyone has to be Glad to know that what Fvcked the PSP, that now has a lame Support, a shrinking Gaming Library and a Downhill Quality of Games, [will never Affect the PS3]

[Redempteur]

first let me say that i upgraded
second let me say that i have already tried several times linux on my fat ps3

i upgraded because i didnot wanted to lose all my games if the ban hammer should hit some people .i've purchased a lot of game and i'm proud of supporting games i like .i'm disapointed by the loss of linux ..this was anice feature ..it helped me several times when i needed a backup pc ..

so yeah i'm angry

[danielle007]

If having linux was that important to you, you shouldn't have updated. You should have bought a slim or another used PS3, activated your account and all your games onto that one, and then made a new account on your fat PS3, bypass the update, and shabam. You could have had your linux, since it's apparently very very important to you, and then if the ban hammer did come crashing, you would be fine.

All I'm saying is if it was THAT important to you, you could have worked it out. :) 'Course, at that point, could just get a netbook since you're only using it as a spare PC anyways.

[Kushan]

Why should he have to buy another device (which isn't exactly cheap) when he already has one device capable of doing everything he needs? The only reason he "HAS" to is because Sony were lazy and thoughtless.

[danielle007]

If he had bypassed the update, he would have been fine. But, he was afraid of the banhammer.

[badz149]

I'm not saying that OtherOS is the be all and end all of everything PS3-wise and I've never said that the kid should just killed himself or what so ever! I'm a man of peace but still I hate this kid for his arrogance!

he's smart - YES I admit that, but he's not doing any good for anybody as far his involvement in the PS3 hacking scene is concerned as much as he did for the iPhone! nobody can ditch the sole reason for the removal of otherOS is this kid's fault! he can do anything he likes like try making a mod chip or something like those for PS1 and PS2 and that would have not affect anybody except those who are trying to put in the chip but this smartass kid tinkered with existing hardware and then even those with nothing to do with his stupid hack is affected by the consequences!

I know if I'm as smart, I might do something similar but you know what, I'M NOT! he's the 1 who messed up and and then told people "don't listen to Sony, I'll come up with my own solution! just wait." - does he thinks that everybody with the old PS3 got his message? he's smart but STUPID in some ways at the same time!

[danielle007]

I'm a smidge late responding, so you won't see this, but I'm bored and I never like to leave a remark towards me hanging. and no, I don't think everyone with a fat PS3 got the memo, but if they were super hardcore about having Linux on their Ps3, I bet they would have seen that OtherOS was going to be taken out. Either through the news, or from the patch notes you had to read before you updated. & If something I loved that much was getting taken away, I would have done some research into it, before updating. So, my fictional non-N4G reading self would have seen that Hotz made that announcement. & if I loved Linux and homebrew and cared that much about it, I would have been patient to see what was happening. & look. there wasn't even a wait. People figured out how to bypass updating quick like bunnies.

If someone wanted OtherOS to stay that badly, I think they would have heard about it, and found a way. They might have to deal with consequences later, but that's yet to be seen.

[Walrus]

It's basically a form of social Darwinism. The industry evolves, and the hacking community contributes to that. I can eat that: that's the way things work. With that said, I cannot blame corporations for fighting back. If anything, it's be good for the hackers, because then they're forced to evolve, and then the corporations are forced to adapt and evolve even more, making a beautiful ever progressing circle.
What I can't understand is hackers getting mad at Sony and calling for legal action, when they're breaking the law (espeacially when Sony isn't, in reality). Fvck the police, I guess...

[DelbertGrady]

"But what about those other game systems they've hacked? What did Xbox 360, PSP, Wii, or the DS ever do to them? Remove any features? No. Nothing. Yet they are among the most heavily pirated systems right now...

...Does Sony have a right to take away features from PS3? Some may say yes -- a necessary evil to combat piracy. Low game sales kills your favorite game studios and independents."

Yet most of them have a higher software attach ratio than the PS3. Something the writer chose to ignore.

[Hotel_Moscow]

think about it 360 pirate 6 games and you basically paid for the 360 buy another 360 pirate 6 more games and you have 12 gamesfree 1 working 360 and one broken one

[anonymouse111335]

"But the reason behind hacking is a simple truth that is not much discussed. Considering that the legality of it all lies in favor with Sony, who are the intellectual and copyright holders, hackers are committing felony by taking away profits from them and account for untold losses in sales."

They didn't take any money away from them, they modified their systems, they may have made it possibly for it to happen, but unless they've pirated the games themselves they would have bought otherwise they didn't take away profits.

Sony had no right to remove other OS in the PS3, It's basically like buying a book and then being told you have to let them take a few pages out of it because it compromised your mental health, granted it probably wouldn't be good to see those pages if they would make you depressed but in the end you bought that book in that condition, not what it would be in a year or so. The fact they can disable features just shows THEY own it, not you.

Also people, quit using the term hacker for cracker, I am a hacker, but I am not a cracker, crackers are what the mainstream media makes hackers.

Hackers create things and challenge what you can do with them, for example, finding a new way to use existing silverware would be a hack.

Crackers break down systems to get inside them and change them, where hacking can also take place once inside.

Without hacking and things like piracy we would have never began to come torwards digital download, if it wasn't for music piracy, without piracy: iTunes? Well I doubt it'd be here now, or just arriving.

[fatlifeforlife]

no matter what hackers are going to hack. is anyone really suprised that a company decided to fight back? i applaud sony for their swift action. now with that being said, i wish that they would put that much effort into other things such as x game chat and such.

[s45gr32]

Yup there is going to be a lot of hackers hacking the PS3 this year?????????????? Thank you Sony for making the PS3 less secured.

[Hotel_Moscow]

it wasnt hacked yet what makes you think its going to be hacked now

[kewlkat007]

There is plenty we learn from mindless reverse engineering....them same companies would also agree, after the fact, the hard way.
If you can't beat them, join them. Suing will get you nowhere, they outnumber lawyers.

[danielle007]

At least hackers don't make a profit from hacking games..

If you think about it, though, in regards to the PS3, and 360, and well, any of the consoles - People buy used games, from Gamestop, or any speciality video game store, right? The developers and publishers see 0 money back from that. So, it's just as good as if you had pirated it, except you're giving up your money to a corporation that had no part in making the game. & this is a known problem in the industry.

So, honestly, hackers should not get that bad of a reputation, unless the used market gets a worse one. They're both enabling buyers or pirates to not give their money to the developers & publishers, but corporations - such as GameStop, make a huuuuuge profit from used products (games, accessories, systems), while hackers make nothing by uploading the cracked versions of games.

Like, for example, a brand new game you bought, say, God of War 3. If you trade it in to GameStop, you'll get $25 store credit. When GameStop resells that, it gets marked up to $54.99, legitimately $5 less than the new copy, and people would rather save that $5, give that huge profit to GameStop, than pick up the new copy for $5 more and give the money where it actually belongs. It's atrocious.

[Hotel_Moscow]

so you thik pirating is okay

for the sole reason of game stop selling used games and youre missing the part where game stop buys the games from the person

[danielle007]

Nope, I had it right in there. Sure, GameStop, will pay you a little bit for your games - at the most $25, usually less, and then mark it up to the price of a brand new game, subtracting $5. So, they are taking the 59.99 from developers, while making a disgusting profit on it. Hackers at least don't make $25 or more off of someone getting a hacked game.

I'm not condoning either. I'm just saying that if people are going to say that hackers result in lost sales to the developers and publishers, and are ruining the game market, then corporations like GameStop and people trying to save $5 off a new game, who would rather give 54.99 to GameStop, which half of that is pure profit, instead of 59.99 to the developers, are in equal parts ruining it.

I hate that you made me be repetitive since you couldn't read my whole comment in the first place, where I did include the GameStop paying you a smidgen.

[Titanz]

The Homebrew channel on Wii allow's "DVD" playback functions.I buy my games, and I use homebrew apps which make the Nintendo Wii an amazing system.

"Brawl+", is an app where you could DLC for the game! If hackers offer more products that can increase a games replayability, then I don't have a problem, but piracy is where I(And many others) draw the line.

[CountDracula]

They don't ruin the gaming industry, they just give 'us' the tools to do it ourselves.

[tinman_licks]

Great answer. lol

[PirateThom]

See if homebrew could exist without piracy, I would back it all the way.

Honestly, I have a PSP running custom firmware and I don't use it to pirate games. (I do have a few downloaded games on it, but that's games I own, just because it's easier to fire them onto the memory stick and carry a variety with me.)

I stand by the mantra, if a game isn't worth buying, it's not worth playing.

Sadly, once people get custom firmware or hacks into their hands, piracy is a logical step. Nothing wrong with the idea, but people will genuinely always take the route that doesn't cost them anything.

[fatstarr]

this article pisses me off

they are completely confusing hackers with pirates. in many aspects

with out hackers nothing we have today would exist.

"But what about those other game systems they've hacked? What did Xbox 360, PSP, Wii, or the DS ever do to them? Remove any features? No. Nothing. Yet they are among the most heavily pirated systems right now."

all those systems had potential to be better and had features witch they were capable of doing not enabled or not created yet. especially microsoft. it does not even matter if they loose money they make enough and if they break the record for how much they made in a year they do the same tactics to make more the next year and then it leads to more expensive videogames and consolses so that they can break last years quota.

either way sony should be hacked for the linux ps3 thing many people i know used their ps3s as media servers using linux.

[swingingape]

You should read it a little bit further because the author does separate hackers from pirates. Pirates are in it for the $$, but hackers are in it for the fame/challenge.

[Tzuno]

Bla bla bla blaaaaaaaaaaa

[tunaks1]

CFW on the psp is pretty awesome,
GBA, SNES, N64 emulators, and Youtube?
awesome,
but I don't download psp games, I actually want to collect the games that interest me.

[Coffin87]

some people can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. some men just want to watch the world burn.

in other words: they do it because they can, for the lulz.

[kraze07]

Seems like some people didn't read the article seeing as how the difference between a hacker and a pirate was mentioned. Hackers/Homebrew Programmers really only benefit the gaming industry. It's the people who actually pirate games that are hurting the industry. It's no different than the guns arguement. Some people blame guns for killing people when other, usually smarter, people put the blame on the people using the guns.