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Reader Comments (196)

Posted: Jan 13th 2011 2:20PM Teh Rei said

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Google is always reliable.
Even if Geohotz goes down, there will always be a new one.

Sony should've learned that from the PSP industry.
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 8:47PM mcnichoj said

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@Teh Rei
Fun fact: Just because you know how to use Google doesn't mean you know how to hack a PS3.
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 9:20PM Hunter141072 said

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@mcnichoj


Fun Fact 2: The only thing that crackers, hackers, etc. can learn from this is don´t make a press conference to say that you break the protection of a console. That simple rule has worked since the ps1, and it´s going to work till the end of times or 2012.......
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 2:23PM Faenix said

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Geo is the one whom started it, its not surprising they are going after him.
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 4:04PM mywhitenoise said

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@Faenix the only reason he started it was because they removed OtherOS from the Slim PS3s, once they found out that there was an exploit in OtherOS, they removed it from EVERY PS3. Sony did this to themselves.
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 4:46PM CrashTunoku said

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@mywhitenoise They removed OtherOS because he said he had hacked the PS3 through OtherOS even though he lied and gave up after a few weeks.
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 7:32PM DigitalFortress said

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@CrashTunoku

GeoHotz is a glory hunting cock. FACT.
No other reason, he steals people's work, and posts it as his own, or posts it for others to use, and claims he was the one who brought it on the world.

The guy needs to get laid.
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 10:27PM chrisperrera said

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@abh1991 Well that shows how little you know.... Geohot found the exploit AND found the keys before anyone. He also was the first one to unlock the iPhone and stuff.
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 2:25PM MrAhh said

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I say it all the time I'll say it now. If he wasn't lookin for fame in the first place we would still have the OtherOS option and none of this would have happened.

If he wanted a job he could have contacted Sony and said hey guess what I can do, instead of making youtube videos.

All of those 'it's mine I paid for it" people, have fun downloading your games this personally sickens me.
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 2:39PM thelolotov said

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@MrAhh I pay for my games, that's precisely why I want to be able to back them up and play them from the hard drive, this shit ain't cheap you know.
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 2:40PM Crayola Q Pants ESQ said

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@MrAhh
Sorry, how would this guy not wanting fame mean we would still have the OtherOS option?
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 2:44PM eat it said

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@thelolotov

why do you need back ups? just treat your games with care
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 2:47PM MrAhh said

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@Crayola Q Pants ESQ very simple really, last year around this very same time when he released his first exploit all happy claiming he cracked the PS3. Sony kicked his teeth in and just removed the option because it would have led down this piracy road.

Then immediately after the idiots came out screaming 'I paid for this option" knowing very well they never even knew it was possible. He was all cocky ah they can't stop us now.

Now logic dictates the PS3 was just fine before it had linux everyone was happy, It was because of Mr. iPhone here and his parading that OtherOS was removed in the first place.
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 2:49PM MrAhh said

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@eat it he is just trying to be coy and act smart.

I personally don't care about what happens to Sony I'll be a gamer regardless, but these smug a$$holes annoy me. They really do.
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 3:15PM lunatic1015 said

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@eat it
Its not about how well games are taken care of. Its about being able to switch games without having to switch disks. Lazy? Perhaps. But thats what sitting down and playing games is about, sitting on your couch and being lazy and relax. At least thats how it is for me.
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 3:21PM Rageous said

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@MrAhh

If you saw the presentation of fail0verflow's exploits (before they peeled it down as a precaution during all this), one of their major points of interest was that Sony had taken steps to remove OtherOS, and GeoHot's work was directly motivated as a result of that. It was not the other way around, as Sony would have you believe.
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 3:25PM Vidikron said

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@MrAhh

" Sony kicked his teeth in and just removed the option because it would have led down this piracy road. "

Actually, his hack wouldn't have led to piracy and these current hacks have no relation to Geo's hack. Plus, removing OtherOS at that point was fairly pointless because all you had to do was not update and wait to see if his hacking would go anywhere. It never did. At one point GeoHot even announced that he was going to stop hacking on the PS3.

So if Sony hadn't jumped the gun there's a very good chance Geo would have simply stopped like he ended up doing anyway (because he hit a dead end, got bored with it, whatever) and nothing would have ever come from it. It was Sony's removal of OtherOS that caught the attention of other hackers like fail0verflow. Without that move they likely never get involved. They even said as much themselves.
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 3:34PM MrAhh said

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@Vidikron Are you saying gaining control of the PS3's hypervisor would have not ended up at piracy? Mr. Jailbreak himself. Managed to gain control of the machine monitor and you are saying it wouldn't because you know this or because he said so?

He also said he doesn't condone piracy. And Sony couldn't patch the hole he found. And pray tell why did he give up then?
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 3:45PM Vidikron said

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@MrAhh

He never gained full control. That's my point. Not only did he never gain control of the system, he quit trying. Nothing ever came from his hack. Nothing. Period. The guy has a huge ego, if he had ever gained full control he would have announced it to the world. That's why he jumped back in after fail0verflow's hack and calculated the signing keys.
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 3:53PM MrAhh said

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@Vidikron Agreed, agreed twice actually you are indeed correct. They did go about the teeth kicking a little too early.
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 3:58PM BananaBoat said

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@MrAhh - On the day OtherOS was removed (April 2010 ish), I had an argument with someone claiming the same position as you. He basically stated that OtherOS's removal made the PS3 safer, and that no one would be able to create an exploit for the PS3 without it. My argument was that the real pirates/hackers/etc would just hold off on upgrading, and wait for the inevitable custom firmware that would come.

I said this then, and I'll say it again now: Removing OtherOS did absolutely nothing for security on the PS3. In fact, it likely did the opposite, in that it gave coders/hackers/whatever you want to call them, a rallying cry, and lead to the Custom Firmware that has recently been released. I'm not saying that there isn't ego involved, but it is revisionist to say that the PS3 isn't in the state it is in today because of the removal of OtherOS.

Does that make piracy okay? Absolutely not. Having said that, Sony does need to take a long, hard look at whether or not removing OtherOS was worth it.
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 4:05PM mywhitenoise said

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@eat it
faster loading times? Convenience?
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 4:19PM Flapjackal said

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@eat it Exactly, I laugh at these "back up" claims.
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 4:24PM mywhitenoise said

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@Flapjackal
Really? Do you not back up your CDs onto your computer? Do you not scan/upload your photos onto your computer? Do you not occasionally make a copy of a DVD, or rip it onto your computer?

You're all hypocrites.
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 4:36PM That Darned said

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@eat it Why backups? Because my kids, man! Or my little brother! Always scratchin' my discs! Using 'em for Frisbees! Blah blah blah.
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 4:37PM Jack Kevorkian said

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@MrAhh I plan on pirating my Sony games. Not because I want to, or ever have, but because Sony obviously was bested by GeoHot, will attempt, probably with much success, to bankrupt him through the courts.

I am rooting for GeoHot regardless of what Sony's balance sheet looks like. Because I really dont care how much money they make. When did gamers become so old that they care about moralless companis with every fiber of their being? I blame these fake console wars created by the manufacturers themselves. They crave this bullshit loyalty we are so apt to join.
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 5:39PM PhilipJWitow said

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@Jack Kevorkian.

Seriously, read over what you wrote. You don't want to pirate games but have to because Geohot "bested" Sony and Sony wants to try and take him to court over it as they legally should?

Let me correct what you originally wrote to reflect what you actually mean:

You want to pirate games, but feel guilty doing so. Your justification is some nonsense about how Geohot is a hero to make yourself feel better about it.
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 6:07PM Spunky Monkey 190906 said

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@Jack Kevorkian

Obviously your the same guy crashing the entire media industry by downloading films and music, don't lie, you know it's true.

Its people like you that should never run a business, obviously you wouldn't understand the concept.
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 10:12PM ferret said

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@eat it

because it's been a long held right of media owners (aka me and you)? corporations have spent the last few decades trying to undermine this, though.
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Posted: Jan 14th 2011 9:15AM BlazeKing said

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@eat it

example: Smackdown vs raw 2008 has horrible loading times from BD. I hate guys like you that have to paint people who want to use something like this as pirates or something. Why do you think some PS3 games install to HDD in the first place?

People also have kids and discs DO get broken. They're scratch resistant not shatter proof. People without kids won't understand this until they lose a collector's edition.

It is entirely possible for someone to buy all of their games and back them up on something. Pirates won't buy a game to back it up, they'll download a backed up copy.
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Posted: Jan 14th 2011 9:44AM MrAhh said

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@BlazeKing I'm sorry guy but I have kids as well and nephews. And this may sound rude but if you can't control your kids you're a piss poor parent. My sons know very well to keep away from dads games, and even then I keep them far out of reach in the first place.

And if Smackdown was to have better load times they would have made a better game. Hotz was on G4 talking about he did it so the could not pirate yet I can find forums right now that are repackaging games and putting them up for download, some even allow online play. Like I said Hotz is a fame seeking a$$hole.
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Posted: Jan 15th 2011 2:36AM BlazeKing said

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@MrAhh

My child is very young, and kids will do shit. That's fact. Usually they won't do it again if they are told it's wrong. There's nothing piss poor about my parenting skills.

Backing up your game is not the end all everybody is ranting about; it's when you distribute your backed up game to others that is the problem and where "piracy" begins. Gamers in this day & age just don't understand that. You can't just hop on somebody's ass just because he talks about backing up his games. It's understandable if he also said "I'll never buy another disc again" in the same sentence or something.

To be honest, having your games on the HDD is like having a BD disc changer. TB drives are cheap enough now to be used like disc changers. It's just a lazy way of loading and playing games as well as not having to worry about damaging your physical BD. Xbox has this feature somewhat, but you still need the disc in tray for verification.
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Posted: Jan 15th 2011 2:15PM Leon Trotsky TDA said

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@MrAhh

I think it's hilarious that no one here understands that the firmware that GeoHot released does not/cannot allow piracy.
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Posted: Jan 16th 2011 1:37PM GOTOTOTOTOT said

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@eat it Back Ups on Hard drive = faster load times.
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Posted: Jan 17th 2011 5:51PM DVecc said

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@BlazeKing Im suprised no one hacked to make it so you don't need the disc yet... maybe if they looked into how it works when you download a game and dont receive a disc IE: Alan wake came free for download on the Xbox 360s maybe they can add a code to do that somehow

then again i will know nothing of programming until I go to college
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Posted: Jan 17th 2011 7:58PM tuckertime said

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@Leon Trotsky TDA
love it how this is over 200 comments long and yet hardly anyone has acknowledged that the exploit doesn't enable the ability to play "backed up" games...
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 2:27PM wolf4537 said

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I love it how Sony thinks they can tell people what to do with the systems THAT THE CUSTOMER purchases.

Ugh, why can't Sony just worry about other things right now?
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 2:34PM ObiAlKenobi said

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@wolf4537 Every company does that. Every single device or service you acquire is ruled by a contract or EULA. This document tells you what can and what you cant do with their hardware or service.

Simple as that. If you read the PSN/PS3 EULA, you will realize that many thing are being infringed by these hacker and Sony can bring them to the law.
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 2:55PM Teus said

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@wolf4537 even though you purchased the ps3 it is still sonys intellectual property and sony does have the right to do what is necessary to prevent these things from happening
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 4:10PM GennosukeSama said

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@wolf4537

your purchasing the HARDWARE not the SOFTWARE. they are basically renting the software to you (minus the monthly fee's that usually comes with renting items).
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 4:17PM Flapjackal said

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@ObiAlKenobi Yep, it's an agreement most people never bother reading. But they agreed to it nonetheless.
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 4:20PM NeoHumpty said

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@wolf4537 I'm kinda with you, but with some reservations. I don't understand how they can sue somebody with no proof of piracy. The machine is just that, and should be treated as a car or a stereo. If I buy a new car I can do after-market work to it to make it do whatever I want it to do. As long as I'm not doing anything illegal with it, then I'll be fine. It's not like Chevy will come after me for making it so that my car can fit a Hemi in it. Plus, if I do something illegal with the car, the police come after me, not the company that made the car.

If they want to reject my PSN services for modding my system, fine. But these laws are lost on me, I guess. Don't get me wrong. I do not condone piracy of games, but changing the machine if you want to should not be something that can get you sued.
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 5:03PM Edward351 said

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@ObiAlKenobi That's a broad statement. Not everything bears a EULA; and most things don't need EULAs. EULAs have also gotten worse over time, stretching to protect future interests of the manufacturer. The OtherOS feature doesn't mean something to everyone, but to take it away after the fact is a little disingenuous when the device has a specific upfront cost. Would you be upset if they removed the PS/2 compatibility with an update?
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 7:30PM Tephlon said

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@nesinvaders

Hardware- yeah, do what you want.

Software- Nope. Most software has restrictions attached... as you don't OWN the software. You own the right to use the software, as they give it to you, but don't own the code and therefore can't legally change it.

Hardware that relies on software- Now there's your issue. Who's right legally? Who's right morally? I can't say- but that's what the argument is really about. Can I change software that my hardware relies on.
Most companies (including Sony), would like that answer to be no.
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 7:30PM fohf said

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@ObiAlKenobi
Wrong. U.S. Federal Law supersedes anything any company puts in their EULA. Sony can put whatever they want in the EULA, but that doesn't mean I agree to it and it sure as hell doesn't mean it's enforceable in the United States.
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Posted: Jan 15th 2011 5:06PM KinseySS said

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@fohf

Sony CAN say what can and cant be done to their machine if you want to connect to THEIR network.

Of course you could technically do whatever you want to your machines behind closed doors, but if you want to connect your machine to their service, there are rules and protocols that have to be abide by and consequences can be carried out if need be.

Its no difference than the Xbox, You get caught cheating or modifying the machine in any way they can remotely ban the system from their service. You still have the machine and can still play offline or whatever the hell else you want to do with it, but they remove they ability to go online.
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 2:27PM HAVOKK said

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Why not spend the money on an update fixing the exploited holes. If they are lucky, they get some hackers put out for a while. Then what, new hackers pick up the last man's work and continue? Waste of time imo
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 2:29PM Wiizer said

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Doesn't Joystiq have a lawyer guy we can ask about this?

Personally, I would claim that when Sony took away the "Other OS" option, I had to hack it.

Recently, there was a ruling in favor of fair usage of a device by hacking it. If I remember correctly, the iPhone being jailbroken was what the case was about, and Apple lost that case.
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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 2:32PM Wiizer said

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Posted: Jan 13th 2011 2:42PM Danjcb said

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@Wiizer
Sorry, you didn't HAVE to hack it, it wasn't a feature that was needed to use the PS3...
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