After their horror story earlier this year, Sony has made changes to its PSN terms in an effort to avoid more nightmares. The Japanese tech giant as you know, was the victim of a serious hack attack which saw their online PlayStation Network Service outed for almost a month. Millions of personal details were also stolen by the cyber criminals and as a result of this, Sony faced a barrage of lawsuits from livid users.
The new policies being introduced by Sony ensure that you waive your right to suing them collectively. Cnet UK reports that a large group of Americans got together after the PSN outage and attempted to sue the company for the data loss crisis, potentially costing Sony billions of dollars. The tragic Japan earthquakes and UK riots also caused chaos for the company financially. Accepting their new terms will prevent you from ever filing class action lawsuits against them, rejecting them will see you banned from Sony’s online service. You will also be required to post a letter to Sony’s Los Angeles address, for the attention of the legal team within 30 days.
Many gamers will ignore the new user agreement and slam the accept button so that they can get back to playing online. The small group who do not like Sony’s game changer will be asked to write a personal statement explaining that they “do not wish to resolve disputes with any Sony entity through arbitration.” Also required is your personal details which some will find quite ironic given the past events. These new rules really only effect you if you planned on suing Sony, if you no longer have beef with them then accepting should not be a problem.
According to PC World, Sony could be rebranding from Sony Network Entertainment America to Sony Network Entertainment International. Given that they are Japanese based it appears a puzzling move, but one that seems to be legally motivated. You can’t really blame Sony for taking these actions, with all the legal disputes being shot at them, bankruptcy could have been a possibility further down the line. Are Sony right to change their user agreement?
