Judge extends Oz PS3 mod dongle ban

The Australian Federal Court has maintained the injunction banning four local retailers from importing and selling the PSJailbreak USB dongle that allows PS3s to play pirated games. Two of the defendants, OzModChips and Ryan Emmanuel Caruana, both stated their intention at a hearing this past Friday to tell the supplier of the …

[JaitcH]

Lucky visitors returning from China

Australian Customs are already a large pain in the a*se to most travellers going into Australia - they even seize electronic bug killers - so with yet another hot item on their list all visitors coming or returning from China will likely get an extra special Australian welcome.

[yoinkster]

don't really get this one?

Is the sale of all other modchips for all other consoles also banned?

This just looks like Sony have purchased themselves a few judges as the judgement really doesn't make any sense to me.

[The Indomitable Gall]

The question is...

...is PSJailbreak just a flash drive, like the free alternative?

If so, I don't see why they would have to hand them over -- they should be ordered to wipe them and be left to recoup some of their losses by selling them as flash drives.

[King Jack]

Not just a flash drive

It's not just a simple flash drive, they are programmable usb microcontrollers.

[Mark C Casey]

Gone beyond that now

See: http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/05/ps3-jailbreak-adapted-to-nokia-n900-palm-pre-in-wake-of-austral/

It's been ported to the Palm Pre and Nokia N900 (with the backup to hard drive stuff re-enabled). It is currently in the process of being ported to the iPhone, Android and TI-84. (I kid you not)

So, all you'd need to do is hook up for example your iPhone to the PS3 via usb and bam.. no modchip required.

I wonder if Sony will take Apple, Google, Nokia etc to court? Somehow, I doubt it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Evolution

The Jailbreak code has been ported to various devices including Nokia N900 phones. It is compiled and contains the Backup manager which allows backups to be made and played. So it is available to anyone who wants it and buys a compatible usb key. Just follow the numbers, no knowledge needed.

[LuMan]

Quote: "as it stands, the code does not permit this."

True. But then again look at what happened to Rockstar and the Hot Coffee Hack. Despite the data being present, the released (legal) version of the game prevented the smut from being played. Enter an industrious hacker and, lo, we now can watch badly-animated cyber-nookie. To this end the dongles have to be stopped.

...which is a real shame as I enjoy the efforts of hard-working homebrewers. Shame the freeloading, tightarsed pirate scumbags stick yet another nail in the coffin of homebrew.

[Daniel B.]

Freetards vs. Homebrew+OtherOS

Most of the driving forces behind cracking the PS3 were enticed to do so after OtherOS was killed. Unfortunately, once these guys cracked it, the freeloaders immediately use the acquired skills enable piracy on the device, under the guise of 'backups'. This is a load of bull, as the PS3 already installs a good portion of the game on the HDD, so the BluRay disc isn't used as much, so there isn't that big a risk of BR scratching.

And *still* no way to get OtherOS back. That should've been the main goal, if this toy had enabled that, it would've given them legal standing to not only keep on the sales, but probably force Sony to re-enable OtherOS on future firmware updates. But noooooo... they wanted free games. While I think that the "piracy == theft" argument is pretty much flawed, I do not condone piracy.

[Ian Stephenson]

Interesting...

I see they have specified which manufacturer/dongle that is not allowed to be sold.

I give it a week before there is an alternative not covered by this injunction.

[Anonymous Coward]

Pre tweaked and precompiled is available

If you are capable of using google pre tweaked and precompiled binaries are available as are instructions for tweaking the code to add the bd mount, its a 4 byte change or something i forget.

Paris because even she could do it.

[Richy Freeway]

Least of their worries

It's being ported to pretty much anything you can plug into the PS3's USB port, including Android phones, PSP's, many USB development sticks and best of all : Sixaxis/Dualshock3 controllers.

http://www.maxconsole.net/content.php?42073

[Anonymous Coward]

the cycle has begun

A new firmware update is likely to be pushed within a week or so to prevent this hack, after which new vectors will have to be found. (it seems quite trivial to prevent the current hack)

However, the incentive of not upgrading is quite big, so lets hope this triggers a cycle of 'must-have' firmware upgrades as well.

[Daniel B.]

Doubt it.

3.21 only had "removing OtherOS" as its "must-have feature", which led to many PS3 owners calling it a downgrade. The only FW update you'll see will be the one blocking this vector, or another vector; it won't magically bring on new features. And you'll have to upgrade, as the PSN doesn't allow you to connect with older FW; their FW-checking stuff was beefed up after the whole 3.21 fiasco.

[DEAD4EVER]

ps3 usb ban

wow a usb stick or whatever its called to be banned ah well im thinking of getten a ps3 but legally cant wait to get some blu ray movies for it

[sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD]

Protest.

Don't give Sony another $.

Traitorous swine. I will never forgive them for that April fool's day patch.

[Anonymous Coward]

Sony brought this onto itself

Had it reincluded Software-based PS2 BC in future PS3 updates and left OtherOS alone and honor it's promise to keep the PS3 region free more truthfully, this wouldn't have happened. PS2, PS1, DVD and Blu-Ray region codes are still honored, and PS3 region coding could be enforced simply by stamping a blu-ray ABC-style region onto a PS3 game disc or through a simple software-based PS3 model check.

And I'm saddened that Australia would overturn it's decision that region-locking is illegal. Saddened and disappointed.

[Tony Smith, Editor, Reg Hardware]

Re: Sony brought this onto itself

I don't think Oz has overturned any ban on region coding, or on mod chips.

Mod chips were permitted to allow Australians to buy games overseas, which the Court decided they should be allowed to do no matter what Sony thinks.

The challenge against PSJailbreak was (apparently - no official confirmation of this yet) because it bypasses copyright protection mechanisms, which *is* against Australian law.