Despite being granted a permanent ban on the sale of a PSJailbreak “dongle” Sony Computer Entertainment have been given a two finger salute by hackers who have now released the software for free on the Internet as PS Groove.
The ban which was granted on Friday in the Federal Court allowed Sony to block the distribution of a hack for its PlayStation 3 (PS3) console. It also prevents local distributors, OzModChips, ModSupplier and Quantronics from importing or distributing the device in Australia.
The device which was being made by Chinese firm China Sun Trading Limited housed software that allowed homemade games and those of unauthorised to be played on the console without any payment being made to Sony.
If the ban had not been granted Sony faced massive losses as developers bypassed the Company who is losing millions from the sale of PS3 consoles.
The PSGroove software which can be downloaded from Bit Torrent sites was specifically designed not to allow the playing of pirated games however hackers got hold of the software and modified it to allow 3rd Party games to be played.
According to the BBC Sony on Friday filed a US lawsuit against Zoomba, the firm that runs shop PSjailbreak.com, a site selling the device.
The lawsuits specifically name the PSJailbreak device – software loaded onto a USB data stick – but reports have surfaced that the device has been replicated and could soon be widely available through other vendors.
In the court order made in the Federal Court on Friday the Judge demanded that the distributors hand over any stocks of the dongles, China Sun Trading to send any ordered dongles to the court, and calls for as-yet undetermined damages to be paid to Sony.
OzModChips posted an apologetic message to its Twitter account on Friday, saying “Sorry 4 the lack of updates, it’s been a long day. Basically the injunction still stands but it’s not 100% over yet. Not allowed to say more.”
