Remember Sony’s injunction against the PSJailbreak, the USB device that enabled users to apparently pirate PS3 games by forcing some kind of debug mode out of a normal system?
Well, it looks like they’ve won, with a certain Justice Dodds-Streeton ordering that the device “may not be imported, distributed to another person, offered to the public, provided for another person, or dealt in.”
In addition, the Chinese suppliers have been told not to send anymore of such devices to the defendants, and that any they do have must be handed over immediately.
Swift justice indeed, although the case doesn’t mention any other devices, such as the homebrew-only version that appeared earlier in the week, or cover any location outside of Australia.
Source: PS3News.com
3shirts
By all accounts they knew this was coming which is why it was so expensive, to make money fast.
Now PSGroove is around and plenty of sites have versions compiled with the backup manager back in, I don’t think this injunction is gonna do very much to stop the piracy.
NotALegend
from what i heard, PSGroove supposedly has features that would allow piracy disabled
cc_star
Unfortunately it would be as simple as Download PSGroove, then download the backup manager separately.
However the PSJailbreak is an important victory for Sony, because there will be no out the box solution in countries where Sony successfully win (which you can assume will end up being all the major territories)
This limits the impact of such a device to people with a basic level of technical know-how who could utilise PSGroove (which reportedly contains no Sony copyrighted code), meaning it will never become the mass-market device that PSJailbreak could have and that R4 cards were.
how many people know how to compile code on a compatible USB device with micro controller and then know the back streets and dark alleys of the internet to download a backup manager,? sure some people know, its pretty for from rocket science, but its also pretty far from the kind of mass-market plug n’ play device that PSJailbreak was.
In addition Sony will be working on a patch, so that maybe all similar devices are rendered useless, and for all we know maybe even shipping new USB jigs, with a new encryption mechanism to authorised service centres as we speak
DJ-Katy
If I was running Sony that’s what I’d be doing cc_star, sending out new jigs with new code to the service centres. The logistics of that are going to create quite a delay before they can push out a firmware patch though.
DrNate86
Can’t Sony just release system updates that block it, like the DSi did for the ROM cards?
amiga_dude
They might not be able to block per say. As it main aim is to put PS3 in to maintenance mode, without it would make lot more expensive to fix PS3 at Sony. But there nothing stoping Sony from programing PS3 when it in maintenance mode about about 50% of RAM is used, as such a game will not be able to run as there be very limited RAM.
cc_star
Even without FW updates there is a way for game devs/publishers to combat it though.
Make sure all future games have a ‘filler’ file of over 4gb in size and it won’t be possible to ‘back’ that game up due to FAT32 limitations on filesize.
There is a list of incompatible games with PSJailbreak which includes both MW games for some reason
Padre
Won’t work cc_star, with biggerhard drives becoming available all the time, people will just “back-up” the game to the PS3’s internal HDD which does not have the 4GB limit.
Plus also how long before some enterprising coder comes along and patches in the ability to read from NTSF/JFS/ext3.
ghost5
The 4gb file size limit is true if using an external hard drive but if a game is copied to the internal drive it will work. The internal HD file structure is based on linux (from what I can tell) and it does not have the file size limit.
Dazbobaby
@CC Star, word around is that external HDD’s with NTFS will be supported very soon. In theory if you copy everything to the external HDD and your PS3 fails, Sony would never know that you have a jailbroken PS3.
Padre
Bit of an empty victory for Sony.
With the homebrew version available and with apps coming for PSP/iPhone/Android, its a cat that has got out of the bag and won’t be going back in unless Sony can block it at their end.
Nauraph
I suppose they first have to make sure it is illegal what people are doing. Before they can start blocking people and such.
bajere
thats my concern!
Sony seem to have a panic attack and just go blocking,removing or patching things at the first word of piracy. If i email them and say the BBC iPlayer can be used to hack a game back up that would be patched out.lol. they just need to actually look at the problem and fix it properly. I can see lots of people making great PS3 homebrew apps, and then Sony running around screaming piracy and banning people for no reason!
Severn2j
Microsoft already have the precedent on that, its not illegal to flash the firmware in your 360’s DVD drive, but they will ban you for it.. I expect Sony will just update their EULA on the next update to say that any modified code found on a PS3 will be banned from PSN, assuming its not already in there.
Charmed_Fanatic
Its a good start for Sony, now to block it indefinite via code or sales
baska
there are all otherways around it… just because it becomes ilegal, it wont stop anything!!
hazelam
nintendo got that r4 cartridge banned, but people are still selling it, sadly this won’t have the kind of effect sony hope.
Apnomis
Why did they jump on this in Australia and not other regions? Is the law different there? Why not just issue a firmware update to block the file that is used?
Also is the new ‘homebrew-only version’ literally a homebrew only version, i.e. cannot be used to pirate games?
Padre
A homebrew only version without the ability to backup/pirate games was released. Within hours the backup/pirate feature was patched back in.
cc_star
The #1 home brew app will always be a ‘Backup Manager’
#2 will be emulators for old consoles
#3 is where the creativity begins
Australia and a key retailer was first to launch news of this. Also, Australia was a good test bed before launching legal action against retailers in the US (which they started today) and the EU, it gave Sony a chance to see the opposition’s methods of combating Sony’s action in a slightly more limited market, therefore before they bring legal action to their key US/EU territories they’re even more likely to have every avenue covered.
Also note the action is against distribution (basically selling) advertising, manufacture and import… so Sony are unable to take action in a territory until they have proof these actions are taking place, so the second an EU retailer imports, advertises & distributes you can be sure Sony will take action against PSJailbreak
3shirts
I really hope developers don’t start that PC game trick of deliberately releasing games with play-halting bugs and then releasing an online patch immediately at launch, forcing people to go online to get it.
It works but it’s sneaky and immoral to deliberately release a buggy game and what about all those people with no internet connection.
Severn2j
It hasn’t happened on the 360 so far and the piracy seems to be pretty rampant there, so I cant see it happening here. Besides, the PC method (if you’re referring to Ubi’s always-on DRM used in Assassins Creed 2) is incredibly unpopular with consumers and causes so many problems, Ubisoft are apparently going to drop it.
Apnomis
They can’t deliberately release a broken game surely? What about people without an internet connection? I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be allowed…
If it came to that they would just have an online product activation system, but it would have to be stated clearly on the box that an internet connection would be required for activation.
I can’t see it happening on consoles though, at least not this gen…
Foxhound_Solid
Piracy is never ever good…period.
Block the F**KERS
Flightx
piracy is never which is true but if you look at the psp and god knows its had a hell of alot of piracy over the years but the homebrew community was huge and quite alot of the features that were developed were then copied by sony and implemented on the ofw. so i really dont think that homebrew is bad just the pirates who jump on it