A hacker hobbyist reverse-engineered the software that ran his Sony AIBO, a robotic dog that costs more than a laptop. Then he generated a bunch of cool AIBO warez, like “Disco AIBO,” and posted them to the his site, so that other AIBO enthusiasts can have great AIBO experiences. Instead of featuring the AIBO warez on the official site and sending the coder a letter of thanks, Sony sent him a nastygram, threatening legal action under the DMCA — because he had to reverse-engineer the AIBO software before he could write his own, and because he made the original software (which can only run on an AIBO in the first place) available on his site, in case you wrecked your pet with his software and wanted to restore it. He shut his site down. Link Discuss (via Slashdot)