Showing posts with label Sony. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sony. Show all posts
July 01, 2015
Sony shares fall 8% on fund raising plan
February 25, 2015
Sony Pictures names Pascal replacement
Sony Pictures has named a replacement for Amy Pascal, who stepped down as co-chair following a debilitating cyber attack that revealed her private emails.
November 02, 2014
Sony reports a quarterly loss of $1.2bn
Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony has reported a net loss for the three months to September of 136bn yen ($1.2bn; £762m).
September 18, 2014
Sony counts cost of smartphone failures with £1.3bn projected loss
Sony will not pay a dividend for the first time in its 56-year history as a public company after it warned that troubles at its smartphone division will push it into an annual loss of more than ¥230bn (£1.3bn).
May 10, 2014
Sony to close e-reading store in Europe, Australia
[TOKYO] Sony is to shutter its ebook Reader Store in Europe and Australia following a similar pullout in North America, the company has said, as the once-mighty electronics giant pulls in its horns.
February 07, 2014
Sony to sell PC unit and cut jobs
Sony has said it will sell its personal computer (PC) unit and split its TV division into a separate subsidiary as part of its restructuring programme.
It will also cut 5,000 jobs globally in an attempt to turn around its fortunes.
May 17, 2013
Sony investor Daniel Loeb urges company break-up
One of Sony's biggest shareholders has suggested that the Japanese firm should spin off up to 20% of its entertainment business and use the money to shore up its struggling electronics arm.
February 08, 2013
Sony cuts quarterly losses amid recovery hopes
Signs that Sony's recovery plan may be working came with news that the struggling electronics group has cut its quarterly losses.
October 29, 2012
Nintendo's Wii U games console will be sold at a loss
Nintendo has confirmed that it will lose money on every sale of its Wii U console at launch.
The Japanese firm's president revealed the news after the firm cut its profit forecast.
April 13, 2012
Sony sheds 10,000 staff in major reorganisation
Electronics firm Sony is to shed 10,000 jobs as part of a major reorganisation, chief executive Kazuo Hirai has said.
February 02, 2012
Sony replaces CEO Howard Stringer
Sony has announced that its chief executive Howard Stringer is to step down from the job on 1 April, to be replaced by vice president Kazuo Hirai.
December 27, 2011
Samsung buys Sony's entire stake in LCD joint venture
Samsung Electronics has agreed to buy out Sony's entire stake in their liquid crystal display (LCD) joint venture.
August 31, 2011
Toshiba, Hitachi and Sony to form LCD display company
Hitachi, Sony and Toshiba are planning a joint venture to make small and medium-sized LCD displays for tablet PCs and smartphones.
They will use money from the Japanese government to help them compete with rivals from Taiwan and South Korea.
They will use money from the Japanese government to help them compete with rivals from Taiwan and South Korea.
June 19, 2011
Sega says hackers stole data of 1.29 million users
Sega has confirmed that the personal data of 1.29 million of its customers was stolen in an attack on its systems.
It comes after the computer games firm said on Friday that e-mail addresses and dates of birth stored on the Sega Pass database were accessed by hackers.
However, Sega continues to say that payment information, such as credit card numbers, remained safe.
It comes after the computer games firm said on Friday that e-mail addresses and dates of birth stored on the Sega Pass database were accessed by hackers.
However, Sega continues to say that payment information, such as credit card numbers, remained safe.
April 12, 2011
Sony and Hotz settle hacking case
Sony has settled its lawsuit with an American hacker who unlocked the secure operating system on the PlayStation 3.
The company dropped its action against George Hotz, also known as Geohot, and secured an injunction that bans him from similar behaviour in future.
Mr Hotz, who is 21 years old, had been facing charges of copyright infringement and fraud.
The company dropped its action against George Hotz, also known as Geohot, and secured an injunction that bans him from similar behaviour in future.
Mr Hotz, who is 21 years old, had been facing charges of copyright infringement and fraud.
January 13, 2011
Sony launches legal action against PlayStation hackers
Sony has launched legal action against hackers who uncovered and published security codes for the PlayStation 3.
The hack potentially allows anyone to run any software on their machine, including pirated games.
Sony's lawsuit argues that this constitutes copyright infringement and computer fraud.
But George Hotz, one of the hackers at the centre of the controversy, told BBC News that he was "comfortable" the action would not succeed.
"I am a firm believer in digital rights," Mr Hotz said.
"I would expect a company that prides itself on intellectual property to be well versed in the provisions of the law, so I am disappointed in Sony's current action.
"I have spoken with legal counsel and I feel comfortable that Sony's action against me doesn't have any basis."
The twenty-one-year-old, who rose to prominence for breaking the iPhone's security, is named in the lawsuit alongside more than 100 people associated with a hacking group known as fail0verflow.
In the filing, submitted to the Northern District Court of California, Sony asks for a restraining order that bans Mr Hotz from further hacking and prevents distribution of the software produced as a result.
"Working individually and in concert with one another, the defendants recently bypassed effective technological protection measures employed by Sony," the document states.
"Through the internet, defendants are distributing software, tools and instructions that circumvent the [protection measures] and facilitate the counterfeiting of video games. Already, pirate video games are being packaged and distributed with these circumvention devices."
Secret codes
The controversy centres around a series of secret codes that Sony uses to protect its system from being used for unauthorised purposes.
Among them is a number used to "sign" all PS3 games and software as a way of proving that they are genuine.
Once the key is known, however, it can be used to sign any software - including unofficial software and, potentially, pirated games.
The PlayStation's protection had remained impenetrable for several years, but members of fail0verflow demonstrated the first breakthrough in December when they presented a security exploit at the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin.
Mr Hotz then revealed that he had uncovered the secret signing number using a similar method.
fail0verflow's website was taken down overnight, replaced with the message "Sony sued us" and a brief statement.
"We have never condoned, supported, approved of or encouraged videogame piracy," it says.
"We have not published any encryption or signing keys. We have not published any Sony code, or code derived from Sony's code."
The group has said in the past that it is vehemently against games piracy and that it had worked on the hack so that users could install other operating systems and amateur software on the console.
Sony had indicated previously that it would try to fix the hack by updating the PS3's software over the internet.
Console hacking and online copyright infringement is a contentious topic, frequently ending in high-profile court cases as technology companies seek to prevent their systems from being copied or modified.
While most cases in recent years have involved music and video file-sharing services like Napster, Grokster and Kazaa, a growing number of cases have involved the hacking of video games consoles.
Last year, a team released a piece of hardware called PSjailbreak that allowed gamers to play homemade and pirated games on the PlayStation 3.
Although the company has issued software to block the device and launched legal action, it has not prevented it entirely - with a Spanish court ruling that the gadget is not illegal.
In December, meanwhile, federal prosecutors dropped their case against a student accused of pirating games for Microsoft's Xbox 360.
The case against California resident Matthew Crippen was dropped after the judge said that he had "serious concerns" about the legality of the evidence collected against him.
Source: BBC
www.bbc.co.uk
The hack potentially allows anyone to run any software on their machine, including pirated games.
Sony's lawsuit argues that this constitutes copyright infringement and computer fraud.
But George Hotz, one of the hackers at the centre of the controversy, told BBC News that he was "comfortable" the action would not succeed.
"I am a firm believer in digital rights," Mr Hotz said.
"I would expect a company that prides itself on intellectual property to be well versed in the provisions of the law, so I am disappointed in Sony's current action.
"I have spoken with legal counsel and I feel comfortable that Sony's action against me doesn't have any basis."
The twenty-one-year-old, who rose to prominence for breaking the iPhone's security, is named in the lawsuit alongside more than 100 people associated with a hacking group known as fail0verflow.
In the filing, submitted to the Northern District Court of California, Sony asks for a restraining order that bans Mr Hotz from further hacking and prevents distribution of the software produced as a result.
"Working individually and in concert with one another, the defendants recently bypassed effective technological protection measures employed by Sony," the document states.
"Through the internet, defendants are distributing software, tools and instructions that circumvent the [protection measures] and facilitate the counterfeiting of video games. Already, pirate video games are being packaged and distributed with these circumvention devices."
Secret codes
The controversy centres around a series of secret codes that Sony uses to protect its system from being used for unauthorised purposes.
Among them is a number used to "sign" all PS3 games and software as a way of proving that they are genuine.
Once the key is known, however, it can be used to sign any software - including unofficial software and, potentially, pirated games.
The PlayStation's protection had remained impenetrable for several years, but members of fail0verflow demonstrated the first breakthrough in December when they presented a security exploit at the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin.
Mr Hotz then revealed that he had uncovered the secret signing number using a similar method.
fail0verflow's website was taken down overnight, replaced with the message "Sony sued us" and a brief statement.
"We have never condoned, supported, approved of or encouraged videogame piracy," it says.
"We have not published any encryption or signing keys. We have not published any Sony code, or code derived from Sony's code."
The group has said in the past that it is vehemently against games piracy and that it had worked on the hack so that users could install other operating systems and amateur software on the console.
Sony had indicated previously that it would try to fix the hack by updating the PS3's software over the internet.
Console hacking and online copyright infringement is a contentious topic, frequently ending in high-profile court cases as technology companies seek to prevent their systems from being copied or modified.
While most cases in recent years have involved music and video file-sharing services like Napster, Grokster and Kazaa, a growing number of cases have involved the hacking of video games consoles.
Last year, a team released a piece of hardware called PSjailbreak that allowed gamers to play homemade and pirated games on the PlayStation 3.
Although the company has issued software to block the device and launched legal action, it has not prevented it entirely - with a Spanish court ruling that the gadget is not illegal.
In December, meanwhile, federal prosecutors dropped their case against a student accused of pirating games for Microsoft's Xbox 360.
The case against California resident Matthew Crippen was dropped after the judge said that he had "serious concerns" about the legality of the evidence collected against him.
Source: BBC
www.bbc.co.uk
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