What Does Sony Owe You?
by MJG74, HSM art director
At this point, it’s easy to say that this network outage has become quite an adversity for Sony. Now, if this were in fact the result of denial-of-service attacks, it’s hard to place the blame entirely on Sony. Few networks can defend against large-scale DoS attacks, which are, sadly, the point. That being said, the company apparently knew since April 20th that there was an intrusion, so I find it peculiar that Sony would wait for two days to inform its users — and remove a post from its EU blog early on the 21st saying that the outage is a result of “targeted behaviour by an outside party.”
When a company offers an online service like the PlayStation Network, it is questionable to what extent the company “owes” its users beyond the explicit terms listed in the user agreement. Even though the network at its core is a free service (accessible only after you purchased a PS3), users do invest their money to access additional content such as games, movies, music, virtual items and so forth.
It is also inconceivable that any company can guarantee that service to their network, or access to additional online content can be available at all times. Many factors can interrupt service; power outages or a disruption of internet service, for instance, are beyond the control of both the network service provider and its user. In this specific case, the service was taken offline to better protect its users from identify theft and better protect the service form future outside attacks.
Although the core service is available for no charge, it also has a retail element to it. With that, additional content can be, and in most cases has been purchased. And ownership of such content is limited. As it’s not a tangible item that one can use without the use of the network, one must conclude that we only rent these items for the period of time that the network exists and is functional.
Does Sony owe its users of the PlayStation network a refund for lost time and access to their service?
No.
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, service can not be guaranteed. Yet Sony is providing everyone thirty days of PSN+ for free (current subscribers will get 30 additional days for free), and Music Unlimited subscribers will get thirty additional days of service as well. They also mentioned providing additional “premium content” as well, with more details to what that is to be determined at a later date. This is a generous offering, since it’s not required by Sony to do so. What it is, however, is good business practice; Sony realizes that they have a popular service that provides entertainment to millions of users, and every day the service is down, they risk the fact that some users may not return. Providing a good will package for all users once the service restarts is a incentive reason to log on and give the PSN a second chance.
Although our use of additional content with the Playstation Network is and always will be limited to our availability to access the network, Sony does owe its customers a level of reasonable security and reasonable peace of mind that our private information will remain private. Especially when such information contains access to the users’ financial accounts and records.
Granted, no service or network is immune from outside or internal compromises. Nor can they guarantee that all information provided will remain totally safe from such intrusions. But, if I may suggest one thing:
Sony does owe us immediate communication, or at least as close to it as legally and feasibly possible. If or when there was any probability our private information was being compromised, it’s simply responsible business practice. Yes, I understand it takes time to identify a problem and confirm it. Yes, I understand it then takes time for the legal and PR departments to formulate a response. When it comes down to safeguarding our personal and financial information, time is of the essence — and the public perception of moving as fast as possible is sometimes even more important.
As Stephen M. R. Covey has written, businesses move at the speed of trust.
In today’s world, technology has changed the way companies do business. For example, a company can’t allow its official Twitter streams (@Playstation has nearly 800,000 followers) to go without an update for 24 hours. Nor should a company be quiet about its service, as Sony was for the time it had been, especially when seventy-million accounts are affected. I must admit, from my own personal point of view, Sony’s public relations strategy is at the very least confusing. Responses to something of this severity may simply require levels of approval much higher than normal, however; employees who would normally have a certain level of autonomy may not have the ability to speak on the matter, per advice from legal counsel at a very high level.
While it’s true that millions of gamers are being inconvenienced and are being forced offline, it’s certainly not the end all of online services. But, both for the sake of the company and its users, a higher frequency of communication and level of transparency really ought to be achieved if at all possible. Let’s just hope lessons have been learned, and the past does not repeat itself.
May 12th, 2011 by MJG74 | 6 comments
Michael Goss is the Art Director (emeritus) for HomeStation Magazine. In real life, is a normal member of the human species with some imperfections, but with a strength of ten as well, I kid ye not! He also has been know to exaggerate the details from time to time. His goal is to live fearlessly but finds that kinda difficult with current crop of republicans running for office.
Frist
What does Sony owe me? Nothing. I can’t type out the addresses I’ve used on my PSN account, but needless to say, they’re naughty and wouldn’t lead you to much irl. Now, my friends who actually followed the terms of service…
Seems like giving out PS Plus is a way to let people demo it in the hopes that some people will pay for a year of it in the future after trying it--a sort of way of recouping losses. Not exactly the repayment I’d like. I got my internet service in the first place literally for the sole reason of playing games online with a friend. Not having that ability… well, might as well call home and ask if they got my old Nintendo 64.
just let them do an update that makes my ps3 backwards compatable and i will be giddy! they can keep the plus.
I agree with you mouse, I would like something more usable than PS Plus will be to me. But as stated in my previous post and Mike in this one, they don’t owe me anything really so I will take whatever they give and smile about it. I think that Sony has learned a lesson from this and being as this is any company’s worst PR nightmare. I think they will probably hire some people in their customer services department to help handle this mess and its aftermath. They do need help in that part of their business, just ask someone who has lost a virtual item in Home, they will tell you how hard it is to get any answers. That said, I think they are doing the best they can in this unprecedented situation.
The PS Plus free for one month equals to $4.16. I’ve had this for a year now, thinking it would give exclusive Home items, extra services and exclusive demos of games. While, every now and then, it does give you a demo, the most it has been good for is offering discounts on PSN downloadable games and an occasional free game, usually a mini game which is 1.99 in price and not hardly worth playing.
Now, take into consideration that most people purchased their PS3 to go online with. Some purchased it just to go into Home. People have also purchased games to play online, some games can only be played online. Those people have lost money in this.
Also, there are subscriptions. Like the PS Plus, Qriocity, Free Realms and DC Universe Online. Qriocity is 10 bucks a month, Free Realms is 5 bucks a month and DCUO is 18 a month. If you subscribed to all these then this outage has cost you around 40 dollars, not including the cost of the DC game itself which is 60, plus the cost of the PS3 which is around 300 bucks now.
While the PSN is free this outage has cost consumers money and so far the only compensation we are hearing about is a month free of PS Plus. And as far as I’m aware they do not plan on compensating for the lost money people have paid for the subscriptions. I, for one, have called them and gotten the “No” thrown in my face.
I think that in their best interest and in order to save customers,because I’ve heard of a lot of people selling their PS3s and moving on, they should come up with something that would reimburse people in some way. It would be the proper thing to do to bring back lost customers and make the customers that have stayed feel better and it would take away the ruined reputation of their customer service.
But, as a business, they don’t have to do anything, the thing with thinking that way, though, is a business only succeeds and thrives with customers, unhappy customers can go elsewhere eventually leaving the business with no customers and no profit.
I have heard that they intend to extend any and all paid subscriptions for the length of time that they have been down. If this is true, then the people who paid for them will have lost nothing but the time they couldn’t access them.
“Does Sony owe its users of the PlayStation network a refund for lost time and access to their service?
No.”
Does Sony owe the users of the PlayStation Network something for their irresponsible handling of our sensitive data and their initial guarded and secretive reaction with that was going on in the beginning?
Yes. They… and they are delivering that with the free identity protection service for one year.