Sony today put out its first official statement on PS3 jailbreaking after months of official silence. The company insisted that it was used primarily for "unauthorized or pirated software" and would crack down on bootleg users. Anyone caught using a physical tool like PS Jailbreak or a software hack like the Geohot or fail0verflow tricks will face a permanent ban from both PSN and Qriocity, Sony said.
PlayStation 3 firmware unlocks like PS Jailbreak may have a permanent way to circumvent Sony's patching attempts. Hacking team Fail 0verflow used the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin on Wednesday to show a technique that could not only crack the PS3's loaders but allow for self-signatures to give apps permission to run. They would not only allow hacks that run without needing a USB stick but to quickly update signatures on unofficial code when a Sony patch tries to render the signings invalid.
OpenVizsla on Wednesday let slip that it has pushed past the donation goal for its open, cheap USB sniffer. The group now has more than $70,000 and is now pushing for more primarily to drop the price and increase its production scale. The team doesn't yet have an idea as to when the finished results would ship.
The PSJailbreak team kicked off the week by announcing that its hack now supports PS3 firmware 3.42, 3.50 and reportedly any future firmware versions. The USB mod allows users to unlock their PS3 to allow unapproved software, and has landed the company in legal trouble from Sony itself. This also allowed users to load other operating systems, such as Linux, again, even after Sony prevented doing so citing security reasons with the PS3 3.21 update.
Sony has expanded its legal action against distributors of PS3 'jailbreak' modifications. Although the company's initial lawsuit targeted the owners of PS Jailbreak, recent court documents reveal that the battle has been expanded to include PSGroove, PSFreedom, and OpenPSJailbreak.
Sony today took quick action to shut down PS3 modders with legal action against PS Jailbreak. The console maker was granted a temporary ban on PS Jailbreak in Australia that will prevent the USB mod, which 'unlocks' the PS3 to allow unapproved software, from being sold in the country until a final decision from courts on whether it remains legal. The terms discovered by PS3Hax also give Sony control over current inventory and will likely see it reverse engineer the hack to patch against it as well as destroy the stock.
