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Unsurprisingly, George 'GeoHot' Hotz has Some Thoughts About this Whole PSN Hacking Thing

The kid who cracked the PlayStation 3's security is not shocked to learn someone else hacked the PlayStation Network.

As the news blogs and social media feeds continue to swell to the point of bursting with vitriolic, sarcastic, and generally unkind words regarding the compromising of the PlayStation Network and the bona fide communications catastrophe that has since followed, we of The Internet have waited with bated breath for words from George "GeoHot" Hotz, that lovable, firmware-hacking rapscallion whose fairly public and unpleasant legal battle with Sony over said PS3 hackery more or less set off all this nonsense.

 Hackers, meet your bed-headed messiah.
 Hackers, meet your bed-headed messiah.
Now, Hotz's deepest, most personal thoughts have come down from on high (via his blog), and perhaps unsurprisingly, he sees this issue as primarily the fault of Sony executives and their particular brand of hubris in dealing with the hacker community at large.

"The fault lies with the executives," wrote Hotz, "who declared a war on hackers, laughed at the idea of people penetrating the fortress that once was Sony, whined incessantly about piracy, and kept hiring more lawyers when they really needed to hire good security experts. Alienating the hacker community is not a good idea."

On the subject of the current issue and its ramifications for the personal identities of a whole bunch of PlayStation 3 owners, Hotz expressed a sort of defiant sympathy. "Running homebrew and exploring security on your devices is cool, hacking into someone elses server and stealing databases of user info is not cool. You make the hacking community look bad, even if it is aimed at douches like Sony."

== TEASER ==Hotz, who recently settled his civil suit with Sony over his hacked firmware chicanery, also distanced himself directly from the whole episode. "I'm not crazy, and would prefer to not have the FBI knocking on my door," he stated. Anonymous, the Super Mega Awesome Hacking Club who previously responded to Sony's legal chest-beating by threatening to use Sony executives' personal email addresses to sign up for Craigslist erotic service ads, have also claimed to not be directly involved in this personal info thievery.

Hotz closed with a message to the hackers involved in the PSN breach, imploring them not to be "dicks" and referring to Sony as "noobs" without a hint of identifiable irony.

"To the perpetrator, two things. You are clearly talented and will have plenty of money(or a jail sentence and bankruptcy) coming to you in the future. Don't be a dick and sell people's information. And I'd love to see a write up on how it all went down...lord knows we'll never get that from Sony, noobs probably had the password set to '4' or something. I mean, at least it was randomly generated."
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266 Comments

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Agent47

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Edited By Agent47
@ViciousReiven: Both?
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HarrySound

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Edited By HarrySound

Well he's a smart kid for sure but Sony are only trying to make a busniess work.

They struggle as it is and they don't need people like this.
It's interesting but why did he release the code on the internet for everyone.
Jobs are at risk.
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MikkaQ

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Edited By MikkaQ
@ryanwho said:
" @Mesoian said:
" @ryanwho: ...wha? He's not wanted anymore. The whole thing regarding his involvement is over. "
Then why does his hair look like that? "
Because hackers don't have time for a comb. Too busy dealing with "noobs".
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fox01313

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Edited By fox01313

Wonder if once they follow the breadcrumbs back to who did this to PSN, that person(s) got tons of the info on how to break into the PS3/PSN from the info that GeoHot put up on the net in the first place.

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KaosAngel

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Edited By KaosAngel
@OtakuGamer said:
" Who gives a shit about his opinion? His just some fucking deadbeat who thinks it’s cool to fuck everyone else over. "
....you say that but the FBI and NSA do the same thing to American citizens.  Are they "fucking deadbeats" too?  
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WickedCestus

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Edited By WickedCestus

To me, he seems like a pretty cool guy. Don't see why everyone is blaming him for what has happened; it's quite clear that even if his actions indirectly inspired these attacks, it's more Sony's fault than it is his.

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deactivated-61f31c6da0e7f

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@Tesla: is that a hackers reference I see?! :)
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Karkarov

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Edited By Karkarov

How nice, an elitist snob posted an opinion relating to an issue he helped cause.  I am glad he is happy some dumb ass stole millions of peoples personal info.  Sony I implore you, use the legal staff you hired instead of this bottom feeding retard to put him away for an extremely long time.  Then find the people who breached your security and put them away until they die.

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Fallen189

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Edited By Fallen189
@KaosAngel said:
" @OtakuGamer said:
" Who gives a shit about his opinion? His just some fucking deadbeat who thinks it’s cool to fuck everyone else over. "
....you say that but the FBI and NSA do the same thing to American citizens.  Are they "fucking deadbeats" too?   "
The only thing that differentiates those two groups are 3 letter acronyms
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KaosAngel

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Edited By KaosAngel
@OtakuGamer: Wouldn't it be wiser to blame Sony for not using 256-bit encryption as their standard?  Both Valve and Microsoft have stated they use 256-bit encryption due to people's information being very valuable and they can't risk it being lost.  Sony used some shitty encryption for everyone's private data...so isn't the onus on Sony?
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EVO

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Edited By EVO
@Mechabolic said:
" Hotz's original plan was just to bring back OtherOS to the ps3 "
If I'm not mistaken, it was punks like Hotz jailbreaking the PS3 that led to OtherOS being patched out in the first place.
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CL60

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Edited By CL60
@supermike6 said:

" To me, he seems like a pretty cool guy. Don't see why everyone is blaming him for what has happened; it's quite clear that even if his actions indirectly inspired these attacks, it's more Sony's fault than it is his. "

Because despite what they think, this board is full of fanboys and immature people. The glory days of this community are long gone. It's just like any other board now.    
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ds8k

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Edited By ds8k

Here I thought the Giant Bomb community was an intelligent group of people. Guess I was wrong. I had a credit card number attached to my PSN and I'm not mad at the hackers; I'm mad at Sony. They flexed their lawyers and acted all big and bad. Now they're paying the price.


How quickly consumers forgive and forget. Remember the rootkit debacle? Of course you don't. To be quite honest I'm glad this happened. Maybe Sony will learn something when their stocks have plummeted in to the abyss and nobody is interested in the PlayStation 4. Seriously? Plaintext?
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AlexW00d

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Edited By AlexW00d
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Vrikk

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Edited By Vrikk

"Noob". Really? The stupid 4chan-educated idiot. Don't be a stupid Internet stereotype.

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onarum

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Edited By onarum
@AlexW00d said:
" @KaosAngel: Well considering they did it by using dev firmware, it probably was his fault. "
You seriously think that some guy used a PS3 with a CFW to hack Sony's Linux Apache boxes? one thing has absolutely nothing to do with the other.
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ds8k

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Edited By ds8k
@EVO:  You are mistaken. Had Sony never removed Other OS, this likely wouldn't have happened.
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ds8k

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Edited By ds8k
@EpicSteve: Most likely because he hasn't done anything illegal. That'd be my guess.
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chickdigger802

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Edited By chickdigger802

I have a feeling that the intrusion has little to nothing to do with geohot's case. It probably was good timing though.

And knowing GB I'm pretty sure that QL for Cargo will stay around on the front page and the side of news for longer than necessary ;)

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bretthancock

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Edited By bretthancock
@Blueman said:
" Smug little prick. "
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Turambar

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Edited By Turambar
@EpicSteve said:
" How do we know his real name and him not be in jail right now!?  "
Because he didn't actually do anything in this instance.  Exactly who hacked PSN is still a question mark.
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LoktarOgar

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Edited By LoktarOgar
@KaosAngel said:
" @OtakuGamer: Wouldn't it be wiser to blame Sony for not using 256-bit encryption as their standard?  Both Valve and Microsoft have stated they use 256-bit encryption due to people's information being very valuable and they can't risk it being lost.  Sony used some shitty encryption for everyone's private data...so isn't the onus on Sony? "

If I grab a gun and take a shot at you, and you die, would people blame you for not wearing a bulletproof vest, or would they blame me for shooting at you? Sure you would've been safer wearing a vest, but at the end of the day, we'd all be a lot happier if I just didn't shoot you.
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CL60

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Edited By CL60
@EpicSteve said:
" How do we know his real name and him not be in jail right now!?  "
My guess is because he's not done anything illegal.
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KaosAngel

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Edited By KaosAngel
@EpicSteve: George is good at what he does.  Lawyers will leave him alone, the government will ask for stuff in return, he'll go to DEFCON to talk to the masses about hardware cracking, etc.  He's more valuable to companies and the government outside of jail.  People like George are very rare in the States and everyone will do everything to get him to work for them.

@onarum said:
" @AlexW00d said:
" @KaosAngel: Well considering they did it by using dev firmware, it probably was his fault. "
You seriously think that some guy used a PS3 with a CFW to hack Sony's Linux Apache boxes? one thing has absolutely nothing to do with the other. "
I still don't get how people are comparing hardware cracking to network hacking.  The two aren't related, and both require very different skills.  I don't get why people aren't understanding this.
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wrecks

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Edited By wrecks

Hackers are fucking annoying. Fuck hackers.

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CastroCasper

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Edited By CastroCasper

I still think this whole situation was bananas. What's more embarrassing, having your system taken down by that dude, or a clock? 

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Chop

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Edited By Chop

Ugg


The more I see of this little bitch, the less I like him. You're deal is done George, just go away and never come back. 
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ds8k

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Edited By ds8k
@KaosAngel: Since when has the majority of the internet ever done anything "wise?" People develop their own, far-off ways about how this occurred and run with it. The unintelligent always have the loudest voice.
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Quarters

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Edited By Quarters

This guy just seems like a douche. Also, I'm getting REALLY sick of hackers going with the whole, "Hey, it's stupid to mess with us, because we can do bad stuff," thing. I like to call that "terrorism".

With that said, I don't necessarily think the guy's guilty. Doesn't really seem to fit the situation or anything. Still a douche though.

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m0rdr3d

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Edited By m0rdr3d
@ryanwho:
Because Mr. Hotz with tell YOU what's sexy.  Not the other way around.
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ajamafalous

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Edited By ajamafalous
@CL60 said:
" @supermike6 said:

" To me, he seems like a pretty cool guy. Don't see why everyone is blaming him for what has happened; it's quite clear that even if his actions indirectly inspired these attacks, it's more Sony's fault than it is his. "

Because despite what they think, this board is full of fanboys and immature people. The glory days of this community are long gone. It's just like any other board now.     "
I tend to agree, though not really to that extent and only on certain subjects.

Maybe it's just more ignorance and stubbornness than anything else, but Jesus Christ, whenever something about modding/hacking comes up people lose their shit about it and 90% of the time they're wrong.
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CL60

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Edited By CL60
@ajamafalous said:
" @CL60 said:
" @supermike6 said:

" To me, he seems like a pretty cool guy. Don't see why everyone is blaming him for what has happened; it's quite clear that even if his actions indirectly inspired these attacks, it's more Sony's fault than it is his. "

Because despite what they think, this board is full of fanboys and immature people. The glory days of this community are long gone. It's just like any other board now.     "
I tend to agree, though not really to that extent and only on certain subjects.

Maybe it's just more ignorance and stubbornness than anything else, but Jesus Christ, whenever something about modding/hacking comes up people lose their shit about it and 90% of the time they're wrong.
"
Yup. In this case the vast majority of people commenting in this topic literally have no idea what they are talking about at all.
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LaszloKovacs

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Edited By LaszloKovacs
@EpicSteve said:
" How do we know his real name and him not be in jail right now!?  "
Because none of what he did is technically illegal, just a civil matter. The Supreme Court upheld the right of hardware owners to crack their own equipment. And Sony dropped the civil suit.

Hotz is sort of an unbearably annoying personality, though.
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EpicSteve

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Edited By EpicSteve

I don't understand the "hacker community". There's no reason to be in that scene. 

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FateOfNever

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Edited By FateOfNever

He makes some sense.  I'm not sure how I feel about using the word noob like that, but,  he's probably smarter than I am, and could make a lot more money than I could, so, hey, whatevs. 

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PrivateIronTFU

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Edited By PrivateIronTFU

Remember when people used to take the high road? 

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Sooty

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Edited By Sooty
@Sanj said:
" Call me crazy, but I think this guy doesn't like Sony. "
Who does at the moment?
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cornbredx

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Edited By cornbredx

I respect his comments on this a bit more than his annoying videos during his lawsuit with Sony.

He's right when he says:

 "Running homebrew and exploring security on your devices is cool, hacking into someone elses server and stealing databases of user info is not cool. You make the hacking community look bad, even if it is aimed at douches like Sony."

I respect that comment and glad he has at least  shown some form of respect in no other way but that. That was surprisingly adept of him and I applaud that comment.

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KaosAngel

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Edited By KaosAngel

The people who hacked PSN will NEVER be caught or given to the public.  The FBI is already on this, and you can sure as fuck bet the FBI will break a deal with the people who did this, assuming they're from the states like it was said in the ParyVan IRC.

The worst that's going to happen is that the FBI will tell Sony that they took care of it, and the hacker(s) will be working for the government instead of being sent to jail.  

It's how the community works.  If you want proof, go to DEFCON and listen to the speeches from top-ranked hackers.  They'll even admit it, the best way to work for the NSA or FBI is to hack something big, and tell them you'll work for the government to skip punishment.  

No one is going to go to jail for this.

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AlexW00d

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Edited By AlexW00d
@KaosAngel said:
" @EpicSteve: George is good at what he does.  Lawyers will leave him alone, the government will ask for stuff in return, he'll go to DEFCON to talk to the masses about hardware cracking, etc.  He's more valuable to companies and the government outside of jail.  People like George are very rare in the States and everyone will do everything to get him to work for them.

@onarum said:
" @AlexW00d said:
" @KaosAngel: Well considering they did it by using dev firmware, it probably was his fault. "
You seriously think that some guy used a PS3 with a CFW to hack Sony's Linux Apache boxes? one thing has absolutely nothing to do with the other. "
I still don't get how people are comparing hardware cracking to network hacking.  The two aren't related, and both require very different skills.  I don't get why people aren't understanding this.
"
I'll post this link here again then  http://www.giantbomb.com/forums/general-discussion/30/the-real-reason-psn-is-down/492718/
Granted when you actually click the reddit link it shows that the dude isn't an PSN mod. But still.
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bassman2112

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Edited By bassman2112

His statement is fairly moronic =/

Sony did not "declare war against hackers." Hackers, like him, misused PSN - a service that Sony provides - directly against the TOS agreed to in the EULA when you start using the system. They were/are doing nothing but saying "hey, you agreed to it. That means you play by our rules," which is absolutely legitimate and warranted.

Groups like "anonymous" bastardized this and said "sony is an evil empire trying to take away our rights!!!"

Moronic.

- An ex-linux user and homebrewer on PS3, who fully supports Sony and how they've handled this.

(Though it's indeed lame that they stored user data in plain text)


Tl;dr: hackers are idiots, Sony is protecting their business.

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Tesla

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Edited By Tesla
@BatOtaku13: Hahaha, yeah you know it!
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Cymatics

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Edited By Cymatics

I don't get why people complain about this guy :p

Easier to blame him then Sony I guess. Sony screwed up, not him. What he do with his hardware, is his business. This is Sony fault alone. There is so many products that has been hacked. Iphones, Ipods, pads, Android phones, Xbox's (both generations), computers, and none of them has screwed up as much as Sony did, with prioritizing so very very wrongly. Next time they should learn you can't beat pirates and start using money on security instead. 
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audiosnag

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Edited By audiosnag
@Karkarov said:
" How nice, an elitist snob posted an opinion relating to an issue he helped cause.  I am glad he is happy some dumb ass stole millions of peoples personal info.  Sony I implore you, use the legal staff you hired instead of this bottom feeding retard to put him away for an extremely long time.  Then find the people who breached your security and put them away until they die. "
How does that help anything? They already used their legal staff on him. They didn't put him away. Their legal staff isn't gonna find the people who did this either that's not their job. Maybe instead of employing an army of lawyers they should get somebody competent to work on their security issues so this crap doesn't happen.
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deactivated-5a1d45de5ef23

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@CL60 said:
" @ajamafalous said:
" @CL60 said:
" @supermike6 said:

" To me, he seems like a pretty cool guy. Don't see why everyone is blaming him for what has happened; it's quite clear that even if his actions indirectly inspired these attacks, it's more Sony's fault than it is his. "

Because despite what they think, this board is full of fanboys and immature people. The glory days of this community are long gone. It's just like any other board now.     "
I tend to agree, though not really to that extent and only on certain subjects.

Maybe it's just more ignorance and stubbornness than anything else, but Jesus Christ, whenever something about modding/hacking comes up people lose their shit about it and 90% of the time they're wrong.
"
Yup. In this case the vast majority of people commenting in this topic literally have no idea what they are talking about at all. "
Do we ever have the slightest idea about what we are talking about? 
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xpgamer7

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Edited By xpgamer7

I don't care about the guy, and don't agree with him but I like the fact that this will probably help calm a lot of people over all the misconceptions they have.

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batmeng

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Edited By batmeng

Whoever wins, we lose. Sony got hit hard, which, in the end, the honest customer's gonna pay for. Every hacker that fucked with their security contributed to whatever Sony's gonna come up with to tighten the rules and constrain the user experience. Gaming on the Playstation 4 will be a DRM nightmare. And, of course, the hackers won't be at fault. They're fighting for our rights, after all.

Another thing that sucks, too, is the money all those small developers are losing right now, cause they can't sell their Psn exclusive games. I can imagine sales dropping low, even after Psn's back up, with this debacle being reported on mainstream media. I've already ordered a new credit card, and I know that I won't be buying things as "casually" with it as I used to.