i don't know what the original terms of this were in terms of for how long or the support offered by Sony for OtherOS was, but the PS3 is primarily a games console and this is why the vast majority of people buy it.
Those people who did buy it to specifically run OtherOS would probably have a case in that the PS3 doesn't do what its supposed to, but warranties/damages would be likely be limited to a refund on the purchase price, and those buyers would have that option to return their PS3's and get their money back. BUT I BET THEY WON'T.
Just like the iPhone reception issues: In Aus, Apple said if you're not happy with it, we'll give you a refund http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/iphone/apple-offers-free-cases-refunds-to-iphone-4-owners-20100717-10ell.html. But most people didn't, because the thing is so damned good, Apple basically called the bluff of everyone who wanted "compensation"..I bet this is what would happen with those who want the PS3 to run OtherOS. And Sony know this too.
I think the issue is they removed a feature available at the time of sale. For PS3 Slim owners they have no such obligation because it was never sold with it.
All this hack does is give you pirating abilities though. At best only PS3 Fat users can get a refund.
And to be honest they did it because unlike Microsoft and Nintendo who weren't bleeding money with every console sale (due to either low build quality or low tech anyway respectively) they needed people to be buying it to fund profits from game sales. Plenty of scientific institutes bought PS3 and used Linux on it for massively parallel applications (like folding at home on steroids).
As others have said, it's a piracy issue (games and blu-ray) and well it's not really a great Linux box...and until someone writes drivers for all aspects of PS3 hardware properly for a Linux distro it's not that interesting to me.
I'd rather not damage my ability to woop people on WRC or F1 2010 online to run some crap version of an OS on a games console
