I do not think they make that case well at all. If you look at what happened with the last generation of consoles, everything but the PS3 had piracy before anyone had unsigned code running. They ignored basically all of the security measures the consoles had implemented and attacked the optical drives firmware (with or without a modchip) and enabled 'backups'/piracy. That basically leaves the PS3 as the one that had linux so the 'real hackers' were not working on it.
The PS3 itself is still not a good example of holding up against piracy until the hackers that wanted to run linux worked on it. It was first broken for the reasons of piracy (PSJailbreak) and was not done by the homebrew scene. Actually, all of their work required and is based on already having code running on the PS3 using the pirate method.
So, what exactly is left to support the opinion that the homebrew people are smart, the piracy people are dumb, and if you do not support linux the homebrew people will make it work with the side effect of allowing piracy? In every instance it is piracy that was first. You can also look to the DVD/HDDVD/BluRay scene and see that the piracy people were ahead of the 'make it play on linux' crowd and quite capable.
This is simply not true. Unsigned code came before piracy. OtherOS kept people wanting to run code on their console happy, removing it was a severe mistake.
And don't put words into the mouth of the PSJailbreak authors. The PSJailbreak allows unsigned code to run, that is why they made it first and foremost (they need unsigned code for piracy), they saw that they can get piracy and went for it. Anything to drive the sales, right? And we still don't know who's behind PSJailbreak, and if they are or aren't in the 'homebrew scene'.
What 'pirate method'?
'DVD/HDDVD/BluRay scene' we're comparing consoles to media now? Get your act together.
PSJailbreak did not come from the homebrew scene and you cannot honestly think people were going to pay $150 just to run homebrew that didn't even exist. You said I should not ascribe PSJailbreak to be for piracy and yet in the same breath you devote them to the homebrew side. At best, you could say that they tie. OtherOS does not count as it is still restricted by the hypervisor.
The pirate method I was referring to is the USB descriptor buffer overrun.
The technological measures protecting HDDVDs and BluRay are as tough as any used by the gaming consoles. Even still, SlySoft in particular manages to deal with new hurdles faster than the rest of doom9.
PS3: OtherOS allowed unsigned code, way before piracy.
Wii: Team Twiizers, who are strongly anti-piracy, were the first to run unsigned code. This was later abused for piracy, but only after Nintendo refused to work with them to fix the issue.
Xbox 360: Don't know much about this. You might be right here.
Drivechips aren't "hacking" in any way comparable to what fail0verflow, Team Twiizers, or any other group accomplished.
I never said that running 1:1 backups is anything near the accomplishments in other instances. I am not the one trying to make a strong claim here. Anyone saying 'let people run linux on it or they will hack it, which leads to piracy' is basing that argument on the sole data point of the PS3. That is a terrible argument.
The PS3 itself is still not a good example of holding up against piracy until the hackers that wanted to run linux worked on it. It was first broken for the reasons of piracy (PSJailbreak) and was not done by the homebrew scene. Actually, all of their work required and is based on already having code running on the PS3 using the pirate method.
So, what exactly is left to support the opinion that the homebrew people are smart, the piracy people are dumb, and if you do not support linux the homebrew people will make it work with the side effect of allowing piracy? In every instance it is piracy that was first. You can also look to the DVD/HDDVD/BluRay scene and see that the piracy people were ahead of the 'make it play on linux' crowd and quite capable.