Sony Halts Sales of PS3 Jailbreak Dongle

An anonymous reader tips news that "Online Australian retailer Quantronics has been ordered by the Federal Court of Australia, Victoria District Registry on the 26 August 2010 to halt PS JailBreak PS3 modchip sales and distribution." The court order (.DOC) indicates this injunction will hold until a hearing on August 31. Another reader points out related news that a German website claims to have reverse engineered the hack, finding it to be a newly-developed exploit rather than a clone of Sony's JIG module (original in German). Sony has already been banning users of the modchip when detected.

WTF?

[Ironhandx]

Right, so Sony had almost exactly what they wanted in regards to control over their system. Then they decided that "almost" wasn't good enough and now they're knee deep in the shit storm they started and trying to litigate their way out of it. Its costing them in company rep and in their pocket books with legal fees.

I hope the industry learns something from this, but sadly it probably won't.

Re:WTF?

[Surt]

I'm 100% sure they'll learn the lesson: you can successfully stop widespread distribution of hacks that jailbreak your system, and laugh all the way to the bank when no one cares and buys your system at christmas anyway.

Re:Fuck you, Sony

[WankersRevenge]

It's a sad state of affairs when buying a used game is considered a subversive activity. Every time one of these idiot developers starts talking about how consumers are basically stealing from them for buying a used game I want to hit them in the mouth with a two by four. Here's a thought ... price your games cheaper. When an entertainment product is well over the bar of an impulse buy, then the used market isn't your real problem.

The funny thing ... I left PC gaming because I hated being on the upgrade treadmill. These days, I find myself playing PC games more often because I get more from money. Who would have thought that consumers reward companies that produce a good value?

Re:Fuck you, Sony

[jank1887]

'fuck you sony' seems quite appropriate here. turn off sigs and be quiet. I haven't had them on in... well... forever.

Re:France

[Giometrix]

Universal health care, cure French girls, good restaurants, great culture (ok ok immigration problems but hey, habla espagnol?)

France is not as bad as depicted, especially when you compare CURRENT standards of living in the US, not the ones that were true 5-10 years ago

Except that based on other comments he's made, I don't think he's American, so it's irrelevant what American standards are...

Re:Fuck you, Sony

[FauxPasIII]

When all the costs of bringing your product to market are front-loaded, and all the revenue then comes from enforcing artificial scarcity of reproducing the finished product, you're in a very different world from selling manufactured goods. Same thing comes up with pharmaceuticals. I'm not sure what the solution is, but it's certainly an interesting problem.

Re:Fuck you, Sony

[Fallingcow]

They got their portion of the used sale already; the ability to sell it a game secondhand is valuable, and priced in to the original sale price.

If developers (or distributors) think the ability re-sale is worth more than they're getting for it now, they should raise their prices and see whether consumers agree.

over reacting (DRM in general)?

[AnAdventurer]

Why is it that I can own a M4 carbine upper with an 11 inch barrel and do not need a NFA short barrel tax stamp as long as it is not installed on a M4 lower, but it's 10 kinds of law violation to sell a dongle that can jailbreak some specific computer platform? This planet make no sense what's so ever. I am going back to my veal fattening pen and watch some sitcoms.

Re:over reacting (DRM in general)?

[couchslug]

You know the answer to that, it's called the "National Rifle Association".

Many geeks rant about freedom, but NRA members VOTE and won't hesitate to hammer the shit out of politicians who oppose them. THAT has worked for the NRA for more than one hundred years, and why I'm a life member.

Re:Fuck you, Sony

[canajin56]

Yeah, that's basically why I have a permenant boycott of Bioware going on. See, the extra weapons and levels for Mass Effect 2 if you buy it new, that's obnoxious. But, they put a used game salesman character onto the Citadel, who chuckles about what a killing he makes, while the starving developers go out of business. They're not content with always on DRM locking out features if you try to install your game on a second 360, they have to kick us in the balls and spit in our faces, too.

It's not just devs, either. Apparently the folks at Penny Arcade believe that buying a used game is actually worse than pirating, because with piracy you are at least not giving money to anybody, but with a used game you are both stealing AND giving money to a leech.

I asked them why selling a used game should be a crime, but lending a friend a game or a book, which they often portray in their comics, is acceptable. No answer. In publishing "both sides" they only publish comments in agreement, or comments "backing up" used games as evil, but a necessary evil for those on a budget. I also pointed them in the direction of a huge piracy mill that's stealing millions of copies of their precious anthologies. [torontopubliclibrary.ca] No idea their take on that, but I bet they are contacting their lawyers! Their other blazing hypocracy is that their child's play charity donates games and systems to children's wards across the country. Each child doesn't need to pay for their own copy, the developer only gets paid ONCE (a condition they decry as black market theft) and yet, more than one child gets to play. Outrageous.