Sony Sues PS3 Hackers – “All Orders Have Been Cancelled”

Sony has sued the hackers behind a device which is said to allow piracy on the PS3 – sales of the device have been banned whilst the court action proceeds.

Pending legal action by Sony against the Australian developers and sellers of the device has resulted in a temporary injunction on the sale and distribution of the “Jailbreak” device:

[The court] orders that up to and including 31 August 2010, the First to Fourth Respondents and each of them, whether by themselves, their servants or agents, be restrained from doing any of the following acts with respect to all and any Universal Serial Bus devices described as “PSJailbreak” […]:

(a) importing them into Australia with the intention of providing them to another person;
(b) distributing them to another person;
(c) offering them to the public;
(d) providing them to another person; and/or
(e) otherwise dealing in them.

The injunction expires at the end of August – depending on the decision of the court, sales may recommence or may be further halted.

The Australian company which developed the supposed hack, as well as a reseller, have both ceased taking orders in compliance with the order – the manufacturer has apparently even cancelled and refunded all pre-orders of the device.

Perhaps more importantly, the court has also ordered the makers to deliver technical samples of the device to Sony for analysis as part of the case – doubtless Sony engineers will be keen to develop countermeasures based on these samples.

Just what will become of the hack is not clear – the developers have already conceded that it is likely Sony will likely be able to defeat it easily with firmware updates, and without the benefit of a piracy-friendly legal environment it seems likely Sony will be able to drag them through the courts for some time.

Although it has not been conclusively demonstrated by independent parties that the hack actually works as advertised, Sony evidently takes the threat very seriously.