producermatthew said:  Suggesting companies should learn to “get hackers on their side” is like saying banks should learn to play nice with robbers. There’s a difference between telling someone their door is unlocked and blatantly breaking in to their house.

» We say: While it’s not necessarily an even match, here’s the reason why I stand behind my prior post. By keeping low-level hackers happy by encouraging homebrew solutions that respect the intentions of the device creators (such as what the article suggests Microsoft has done with their Kinect device), it encourages an environment where much more sinister hackers might give you a pass. The thing is, the PlayStation Network’s hackers should get punished. What Geohot and Alexander Egorenkov did pushed the edges a little but was something Sony could have responded to without lawsuits or raids. Neither of them were intending to do the type of wrong the PSN hackers were. But Sony’s heavy-handed response to Geohot and Egorenkov got their attention.