I can't help but think about just what life must be like at a big corporation while under attack by hackers...
I envision lots of suits passing around numerous drafts of the same statement, trying to find the perfect combination of words to help defuse the debacle. Everyone probably has their nose in a Webster's Thesaurus, looking for numerous various meanings for the word apology as possible...
Here's a word they don't need to search for:
HACKER
Corporations have many descriptions for them:
(depressed, pain in the ass, demon, deviant, grim-reaper, getaway slayer)
But what's the true meaning of a hacker? Are they sadist hell-bent on setting the world on fire for no other purpose than to watch it burn?
Or are hackers just battling the great fight for the benefit of the buyer, retaining an eye on the corporate big-wigs who, should they had their option, would lock us down with a lot more rules than we could count?
In case the situations over the past month have shown us anything at all, it's that the latter couldn't be much more correct. Companies have traditionally gotten away with an unbelievable double standard regarding selling their products, particularly items like cellphones as well as gaming consoles.
"In case you break it, you buy it...but if you purchase it, you cannot break it."
Companies are not merely worried that you are going to jailbreak their merchandise (I really mean...your product...soon after you purchase it...as well as own it...and everything...) their main worry is that you are going to demonstrate to everybody else exactly how to do it. It's clear they don't care much for the act, however, they're doing everything in their capability in order to ensure the show does not hit the road...
Monkey breaking nut
Companies are working extra time to correct the present concerns.
Yet keep in mind when buying anything meant it was in fact yours? When you can do whatever you wished with it as well as nobody can tell you otherwise?
The corporations don't, or at least they're acting not to remember. As far as they're concerned, they determine what you can and can't do with the hardware that you purchased from them. It is owned by you, right until you modify it, then they own it once more.
Just what this comes down to is the subject of liberty: the liberty to do whatever we please with something which we possess, assuming that it does not change the well-being of other individuals. Pirating, cheating, robbing personal information, those are usually no-no's. We get that each precaution must be used to prevent those. They belong to the umbrella of "badly impacting other individuals."
But think of just how absurd most of these corporate actions are - exactly what legal right do they have to manage the consumers' use of items like consoles or cell phones? Just what the heck are they so terrified of?
How many times has an automobile vendor rang in order to ensure you hadn't modified the exhaust pipe on the Stratus he sold you half a year before? How about your real estate agent? Did they verify in order to make sure you didn't paint the living room magenta a few months later after selling you the house?
No! Once you get their product they will let you own it and do whatever the heck you wish with it. They cash their check, go blow it on football matches as well as luxurious Sedans (correspondingly) and forget you ever lived.
In case you want to film yourself modifying your car engine in order that it could go 500 MPH on the desert, then go nuts...just don't use it on the open road.
If you want to blog about re-designing your own kitchen area by yourself, in order that readers don't need to pay 5x the price for a renovator, all the power to you (and your readers).
Corporations are going to do whatever they could to protect their money, plain and simple. That is the only real purpose they're seeking to control exactly what consumers do with the products they've made. It just so happens, that by doing this, they have pissed off the one group that's infamous for being anti- restriction:
Hackers.
In case there is a collection of people in the world much more intimidating than the people who have money, it is those which don't care for it.
Online hackers, in this situation, certainly fit that mold.
Outside of the "mystery hackers" who are self-engineered to complete terrible things (in which we hire other online hackers to beat them) hackers are not undesirable individuals. They are those fighting to maintain our freedom and to keep the companies truthful. The majority of hackers aren't seeking to ruin the experience for gamers, they're reminding the corporations that game enthusiasts are the ones in charge.
Hence the latest contempt you feel towards the online hackers for "turning off your online experience" ought to be aimed towards the individuals you paid to ensure things like this would never take place. Perhaps if the executives running these companies weren't so greedy, as well as dealt with those who "broke" their hardware with a bit more humility, these types of things will never take place. In case they will seek a far more open, customer friendly platform, rather than exclusive deals with other companies, they wouldn't need to even deal with "hackers" in the first place.
C'est la Vie...
The lessons learned are evident: have some respect for people who apparently have a much better comprehension of your own network than you do. Acknowledge that your consumers must have much more liberty to enjoy the items you sell them; don't presume that your consumers need you a lot more than you need your consumers. You're not an oil company or the post office. People have alternatives and would seek those options whenever you decide to restrict their freedom.
Several companies, nonetheless, just have to find that out the hard way.
That's exactly where the hackers come in...
About the Author:
The Jace Hall Show is an online reality show which covers video game news and celebrities as well as interviews with film/tv/sports stars. It also has articles that features video game hackers and jailbreaking consoles.
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