Pass the popcorn: Y Combinator startup caught stealing from 37signals

Here’s some developer drama for your Saturday morning: Curebit, a Y Combinator startup that just closed a round of funding from Dave McClure’s 500 Startups fund, has been caught red-handed stealing HTML code, images, and the like from 37signals.

37signals, for those of you not familiar with the inner workings of the machine we call the Internet, is a web shop founded by Ruby on Rails creator DHH (short for David Heinemeier Hansson) and Jason … Continue Reading

Updated PSN terms remove right to collectively sue Sony

PlayStation manufacturer Sony has added a clause to its terms of service for its online gaming network, the PlayStation Network (PSN), that waives users’ rights to collectively sue the company.

PSN users slapped Sony with a class-action lawsuit in July after hackers broke into the network and stole sensitive information about more than 100 million PSN and Station.com users — possibly including credit card numbers. The lawsuit cited some confidential witnesses who claim Sony’s network … Continue Reading

Cloud-based video games will put pirates out of business

Ever wonder what the gaming world would be like without pirates?

That future isn’t too far away, thanks to the advent of cloud-based gaming services like Otoy, OnLive and Gaikai.

Cloud-based gaming companies run video games on very powerful remote computer servers and then stream the game like a YouTube video to a computer. If a gamer has a half-decent Internet connection, they won’t notice a difference in quality between playing on a remote cloud … Continue Reading

PlayStation Network welcome-back package boosts PS3 sales

Sony’s “welcome back” package to users following the take-down of its PlayStation Network (PSN) might have increased PlayStation 3 console and game sales, according to a report by EEDAR. The package included free games and services to entice users to return to the PSN online gaming network that was brought down for several weeks due to a hacker attack in April.

The number of home console owners with Sony’s PlayStation 3 rose to 44 percent, … Continue Reading

Sony slapped with lawsuit over PlayStation Network outage

Sony’s troubles just keep mounting. Now it’s the target of a class-action lawsuit claiming that the company’s negligence led to the theft of personal data on more than 100 million of its customers.

The lawsuit follows a massive attack on Sony’s online gaming networks, the PlayStation Network (PSN) and Station.com. Hackers broke into the network and stole sensitive information about more than 100 million PSN and Station.com users — including potentially credit card numbers. The … Continue Reading

Thief steals $500K worth of Bitcoin

A compromised Windows computer is to blame for the theft of 25,000 Bitcoins, which is the equivalent of just under half a million American dollars at current market value, according to a posting on a popular Bitcoin forum Monday.

Advocates of Bitcoin, the open-source digital currency that’s easy to anatomize and difficult to duplicate, were quick to point out that Bitcoin — just like paper money — is only as secure as the place you … Continue Reading

Anonymous denies involvement in PSN outage

Hacktivism group Anonymous, which routinely attacks major corporations and takes up political causes, said today it is not responsible for the theft of sensitive information and credit card data from Sony’s Playstation Network (PSN) online gaming network.

Sony laid indirect blame for the intrusion and PSN outage on Anonymous yesterday, saying that its defenses were down while it fended off a denial of service attack by Anonymous, which left the doors open for other hackers … Continue Reading