Sony has an on-and-off relationship with buyers who installed operating systems other than Sony’s own on their PS3s. The console originally launched with “OtherOS” support which allowed users to install any operating system, such as Linux, that they liked. It was clearly a good selling point, considering the 10 million users who made use of the “OtherOS” support.
Quite notably, Sony took away the users’ right to a separate OS in 2010 citing security reasons, triggering a class action lawsuit which has lasted till now. It has finally ended as of today, and it requires Sony to pay a notable sum of $55 to any user who made use of the “Fat PS3”, the name that such PlayStations are referred with, mainly due to the fact that slim PS3 versions did not feature this compatibility.
If you knew about the existence of this feature at least, you are eligible for getting up to $9. These terms could be agreed at the next hearing which is set to take place in Oakland on the 19th of July.
How to Claim Your Compensation
To get access to the money you owe, you’ll need to give proof of both your investments and your intentions. In the first case, that would mean providing the Linux copy’s serial number and prove that they used the feature. In the case of the latter, you’ll have to prove that you intended to use the feature and were negatively affected with the firmware release.
The amount that Sony would have to pay could easily reach millions of dollars, not ideal for Sony given its circumstances.
Good idea