Once again opting for secretly running arbitrary code on your hardware (remember the CD Rootkit? http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1072229), Sony has included a back door in the latest PS3 firmware update.  http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/02/01/1339202/New-PS3-Firmware-Contains-Backdoor
Once you upgrade to 3.56, Sony can at any time scan your system or install and run whatever they please, whenever they please.  This is obviously in retaliation to the hackers... but in my opinion the only people that lose are the honest ones.  Hacked firmware will clearly have this stuff stripped out.
Sony is also planning to move your saved games to a "cloud" resource.  This means you'll no longer be able to play offline (possibly as soon as firmware 3.60).  Sure, they spin it as being able to access your saved games from anywhere, but since many games require one time activation codes to install and play, you can't play from a friend's house.  If the cloud ever goes down, so goes all your save games.  http://kotaku.com/5746393/save-your-ps3-games-in-thin-air

I hate these heavy handed tactics!  Seriously, they ram this stuff down your throat if you want to play online.  Just brutal!

Not just online, but every new game that comes out requires the latest available firmware at the time of release.  Say you don't want Sony's spyware on your PS3, and you don't care about online play, so you don't update.  Then along comes Shrek Super Party for PS3.  Now you have to choose... either you maintain control of your system and save games, or you can play Shrek Super Party by updating.
This is the same choice that faced people who wanted to keep the OtherOS function found in firmware 3.15.

So if they are keeping your saved games online, is there any need for a hard drive in the PS3?  I know some people might use their PS3 to store and watch movies, but the only thing on my hard drive are the games... are you only given a certain amount of space or will they begin charging you a fee depending on how much space you are using?!?

They're as bad as Microsoft for holding their customers over a barrel.  They should just start renting the machines out, because it's getting to the point where owners have no rights to the thing they bought.

Quoted from Shabadu_SMH

So if they are keeping your saved games online, is there any need for a hard drive in the PS3?

A lot of games tend to "install" to the hard drive these days.  Some games take as much as 3 Gigs of space.  They do this because it's faster to load data from the hard drive than from the bluray disk.

Also any downloadable content or patches has to be stored on the hard drive.

But good question about storage limit.  That would suck if you had to pay to store your save games!

Quoted from danmick

They're as bad as Microsoft for holding their customers over a barrel.  They should just start renting the machines out, because it's getting to the point where owners have no rights to the thing they bought.

That's essentially the attitude these companies are taking.  "You bought it, but we own it.  You're just paying for the privilege of using it."

So then when we're done with the machine we can just give it back to Sony so they can pay the environmental fees to trash it?