Sony is doing something screwy here...

[Sepherose]

I agree that it's Sony just trying to cover their collective backsides, it just rubs me the wrong way since the initial breach was their fault due to how they had their security set up.

[GrinCreeper]

This is becoming more and more common with EULA's. It really unfortunate that if you don't agree with an EULA that a complete piece of equipment losses a good portion of it functionality and it is illegal to modify the system to restore some of it (whole reason a known exploit was hit so hard in first place). Even more pathetic is that the lawmakers in my country didn't understand the technology in the beginning, didn't get caught to the current level, and those that would understand the implications will looking back on it in retrospective manner the damage is already being done. I wish NetFlix never went away from the disc based system, at least then you didn't need a PSN account... The most ironic thing of it all is that the US government has anti-trust laws on the books to prevent this but can't see the parallel between railroads and AT&T(original) and MicroSoft, Sony Entertainment, and others.