Judge Dismisses PS3 Operating System Lawsuit Against Sony

Sony is off the hook in a class-action lawsuit that was filed against the company last year.  The lawsuit dealt with Sony's removal of the "Other OS" functionality in the PlayStation 3 through a firmware update last year.  The claim, which was filed months ago by a small group of upset gamers, said that Sony had violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act by removing the ability to run Linux.

Today, the judge dismissed the case, ruling that the legal case has not been made proving Why Sony is in violation of its agreements with customers.

"The dismay and frustration at least some PS3 owners likely experienced when Sony made the decision to limit access to the PSN service to those who were [un]willing to disable the Other OS feature on their machines was no doubt genuine and understandable," Judge Seeborg wrote. "As a matter of providing customer satisfaction and building loyalty, it may have been questionable."

Unfortunately, the judge cited that the users had the option of rejected the update and continuing their use of the Linux operating system.

"As a legal matter… plaintiffs have failed to allege facts or articulate a theory on which Sony may be held liable," Judge Seeborg wrote.

Class-action lawsuits like this one could be one of the reasons Sony has now included a no-lawsuit clause in the PlayStation 3 Terms of Service. The new terms removes consumers' rights to sue and take part in class-action lawsuits.  It is very similar to the one Microsoft included with the most recent Dashboard Update.  Of course, you could opt out of this agreements by writing a physical letter and mailing it to the actual company.