A judge in federal court has dismissed the class action suit that sought damages for the removal of the “Other OS” feature in Sony’s PlayStation 3. After finding that hackers had been using the feature to circumvent system security, Sony removed the functionality in a firmware update for the system. Since then, hackers have flown the flag of consumer rights when their product was being physically changed right before their very eyes, with little recourse.
In Sony’s push for dismisal of the case, the company pointed to their User Agreement as grounds to remove the feature from the hardware, and obviously the judge has seen things their way.
While Sony has been off the hook for quite some time on the majority of the claims against them, their final hurdle was cleared when U.S. District judge Richard Seeborg found that the plaintiff had not shown any wrong doing under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
The judge saw that there was a choice that PS3 owners had: Keep the other OS and original functionalities of the system and forgo PSN access or playing newer games that required current firmwares, or accept the update and play by Sony’s new rules.
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