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The sort of person who hacks their PS3 purely for piracy won't be connecting it to the net, and those who cheat in online games have always found a way round it anyway!

I think that a lifetime ban could be illegal. That said I do not use my Xbox live account at all. I do not play online games and so any such penalty would be minimal to me. If it stopped me getting updates I would consider it a breach of my consumer rights.

I suspect there's something in the t&C for playstation network accounts that they can be withdrawn at any time etc. whether such a clause can stand in a court of law is a big qustion but I doubt people who can't afford to buy their PS3 games have enough money to pursue such an action.


IIRC it has been found in court that you have no rights to 'updates' per se, only 'fixes'. Given this point in the playstation's lifespan, it'd be a hard point to argue any further firmware updates are required fixes to allow the machine to operate properly as advertised, as oppose to extra functionality which is nice but you have no legal 'right' to...

Intuitively, you may think you 'own' the stuff you've paid money for over PSN or XBL but in a struct legal sense you don't and you never have. You own the box that sits under your telly, that's about it.

I appreciate the licensing of games but the shouldn't the rights of consumers be stronger? I have no intention of hacking my consoles but still feel that I should be entitled to updates or game fixes if applicable. I would accept that if the users actions risked the network as a whole that would suffice, but unless they were actually sending male ware back to the network aren't the customers only tweaking the machine to suit the user not the company. It is similar to the walled garden of Apple. I have no problems with people jail breaking their iPhones if it suits them. Clearly they will gain in some ways and miss out in others. Shouldn't that be the right of the consumer to decide rather than the company?

[quote="jonbwfc"Intuitively, you may think you 'own' the stuff you've paid money for over PSN or XBL but in a struct legal sense you don't and you never have. You own the box that sits under your telly, that's about it.[/quote]
You don't really own that either. You own a lump of plastic, metal and other substances, but the way in which they have been arranged are patented, copyrighted and you only own a license to use it.

I suspect that people would expect that they at least have a perpetual license for the use of the console and the games. For those that do not hack their console that should be their right.

Corrected to:

Though is it going to do them any good? Sony looks like it is in trouble and treating customers badly does not help when they will have a new console out in 18 months or so.