Official Statement Regarding PS3 Circumvention Devices and Pirated Software

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Today, Sony Computer Entertainment released the following statement:

Notice: Unauthorized circumvention devices for the PlayStation 3 system have been recently released by hackers. These devices permit the use of unauthorized or pirated software. Use of such devices or software violates the terms of the “System Software License Agreement for the PlayStation 3 System” and the “Terms of Services and User Agreement” for the PlayStation Network/Qriocity and its Community Code of Conduct provisions. Violation of the System Software Licence Agreement for the PlayStation 3 System invalidates the consumer guarantee for that system. In addition, copying or playing pirated software is a violation of International Copyright Laws. Consumers using circumvention devices or running unauthorized or pirated software will have access to the PlayStation Network and access to Qriocity services through PlayStation 3 system terminated permanently.

To avoid this, consumers must immediately cease use and remove all circumvention devices and delete all unauthorized or pirated software from their PlayStation 3 systems.

What this means to you

Circumvention devices and game piracy damage our industry and can potentially injure the online experience for you, our loyal PlayStation customers, via hacks and cheats.

Many PlayStation.Blog readers have asked how we intend to deal with these incidents that they have been reading about in the gaming press, and this is our initial response.

By identifying PlayStation 3 systems that breach our guidelines and terminating their ability to connect to PlayStation Network, we are protecting our business and preserving the honest gameplay experiences that you expect and deserve.

Rest assured, this message does not apply to the overwhelming majority of our users who enjoy the world of entertainment PlayStation 3 has to offer without breaching the guidelines detailed above, and we urge you to continue doing so without fear.

Comments are closed.

737 Comments

  • if they ban me now after i spent 3000 eur on games and assecories…. im buying an xbox,because a customer is a customer,hacker or gamer i dont use pirated games onli legit games.

  • Is using someones saves to acquire trophies permissible?

    How about people selling trophies for cash which also involves account trading?

    Sony please clarify if this is permitted or a breach of their TOS?

  • Nobody puts Sony in the corner.

  • I am glad that they are finally doing something about it.

  • I don’t hack and never knowingly use counterfeited products,doing so kills western jobs.Instead of threatening customers,use Sony’s resources against those who produce and sell bogus material and equipment.

  • I agree with Sony… NO MERCY for the pirates!

  • I can’t believe the sheer amount of ignorance and corporate toadying on this board. How brainwashed are you sheep?

  • good for sony , i hope you lock there systems.

  • a true gamer dose not cheat!!!it takes the fun out of the game!lets play football !!but your team cant move!!!

  • I agree that people using pirated software should be banned but I can’t support banning people who use custom firmware. “Jailbreaking” your device is not illegal and you previously warned that doing so would ONLY terminate our warranty. As you are already aware the Library of Congress recently updated the scenarios where the Fair Use defense would apply and they included jailbreaking.

    I see nothing wrong with someone installing a custom firmware and using it to only install additional perfectly legal homebrew software while still buying official software from Sony and other publishers; It’s what I do on my Android and iOS device. By jailbreaking I enable extra features but I still buy apps since I want to support the developers. There is nothing illegal in this practice and I consider a ban from PSN from doing what I just describe way too onerous.

    You have to devise a way to tell when someone is running pirated software over their custom firmware in order to ban those people. Running a custom firmware does not always equate to running pirated software. I may be talking about a minority inside a minority but your currently announced policy will hurt innocent people.

  • I am encouraged by this, but I’d go further and I’d ban and brick the consoles of anyone on this thread speaking positively about piracy. Take them down and teach them a lesson. These people are thieves, not heroes.

  • I’m all for banning the cheaters and the pirates, but leave the rest of us alone!
    Ban the cheaters! Ban the people getting free psn dlc! Ban anyone who uses backups online, anyone who owns the game can just use a disc for online gaming, right?
    Simple as that, not everyone has to suffer!

  • Agreed, piracy should be dealt with.
    Hacking a system for better functionality, or even to allow use of previous features removed, I feel is necessary. Sony should look at these ‘hacks’, and implement them into the system as their own.
    All in all, this is a moot point. Making a statement half a year after these issues became mainstream means nothing. It feels more like pandering to the consumer than actually working towards a resolution.
    I’d love to be proven wrong. But let’s be honest, track records in the corporate world don’t fair well.

  • Oh yeah and to the ridiculous amounts of comments about mw2 hacking, the game has pretty much always been hacked.
    The game has so many bugs/glitches you don’t need a modded console to hack it.
    So guess what, after all the cfw users are banned, you’ll still be losing to cheaters. But of course you’ll still blame them, won’t you?

  • @170 JDilinger
    Yeah, now look the system is rock solid secure … oh wait.
    GeoHot is a [DELETED] but his hack was at a hardware level not OtherOS.
    At any rate they are trying to secure the Game OS why not leave OtherOS in and secure it as well.
    All I am saying is the removal of OtherOS started this “hacking” crusade and everyone is going to end up losing.

  • Hurry up and ban those idiots. I don’t want to spend my hard-earned money for a game and then find out that the online portion is full of hackers and is basically unplayable.

  • Awesome. Now that this situation will be taken care of by removing the people from the network, how about giving us BACK PS2 playability and Linux?

    After all these years I can actually understand some of the reason they are going after the PS3 so hard. You can’t continue to sell a product and then remove features of that product. I do not agree with stealing software and such but if it is a “hack” that allows people to put back Linux or to run PS2 games then I hope they find a way around your detection.

    Give back what you took away with no reason and then hit the ones remaining with illegal hacks by removing them from the network and then you may even try to recoup losses through the courts.

    If you keep trying to play the big evil empire by saying you can take anything away you want and “screw the people who spent their money to buy our product”, nobody will ever stop coming after you and you will waste so much money trying to prevent the hacks that the PS3 will suffer for it :(

    While we are at it, how about a Home that is for adults over 35? :)

  • LMAo @ people saying it was because otherOs was removed, UMM, it was HACKERS hacking with the other OS that made sony get rid of it, what idiots. Ps3 is the most open console platform, hackers are just using the “They never offered enough features” excuse as a cop out.

    You will never have every feature people want, no one is ever satisfied, if the Ps3 didnt have enough features then you dont buy it, or get an xbox and pay 50 a year to only get the same treatment, LMAO. Morons.

  • alright… it seems like nobody here knows what is the real problem here… even sony

    all of us born free, i we want to keep being free… so if we want to modify our own cosoles, we are in all our rigth to do it

    i dont like that a big corporation tells me what i can or not do with my own things

    so there’s good & bad thigs with homebrew / linux /backups

    the good ones:

    with all this things u have a more funcionality console,ps1 &ps2 sopport, u can keep your games safes while u play your own backup and with linux u can do lots of stuff, like code (if u r a coder), use a good browser (no body likes that one that comes with the ps3), use linux addons, etc

    the bad ones:
    piracy, cheating online…..nothing else

    cheatin online its imposible to patch, even with a non modify console… u can use your pc like a proxy between your ps3 & ps3 server

    piracy… well this is a little hard but not imposible, sony can make a new backup manager, but with an encrytion, so u can play that backup in the same console who made the backup and not in all ps3 arround the world

  • another thing… “System Software License Agreement for the PlayStation 3 System” & “Terms of Services and User Agreement” isn’t a legal thing, it’s just a civil thing…. in fact it’s imposed to us… so it’s illegal

    c’mon sony, i know u can solve this without cutting off things

    i’m fan of you… since playstation 1, but for now i’m disappointed

  • just when i was thinking installing linux on it. but sony removed that feature

    well mine is broke at the time, i dont know when i will have money to buy another.

  • @450, might want to look in the mirror, looks like you are brainwashed into think jail breaking your console is doing the community a service, meanwhile it allows hacks and ruins online as well has financial implications in the millions for developers.

    Are hackers going to invest make a PS4? Didn’t think so.

  • How can anyone think its a bad thing SONY protecting the integrity of the online service they maintain? You can still jailbreak and be an idiot if you wish.

  • For all of you “Loyal” PS3 fans, you really need to do your research before trying to blast the hacking world because of your blindness of the too bright light that is called Sony in your eyes. I’m not condoning Piracy at all but i can care less about the PSN.

    My message for sony is this:

    Hurry up and make people pay for PSN. We all know it’s coming. If people want to cheat, they have to pay for it and risk getting banned. How many people are willing to pay $50 just to get banned the next day for cheating? and the more they want to cheat, the more money you make because they would have to pay a subscription fee just to do it. I’m sure all of your true “loyal” fans on this blog wouldn’t mind paying for PSN service.

  • @466, hackers are hypocrites, it was HACKERS using linux to hack the PS3 causing security issues that made sony get rid of linux, if they used it properly it would still be an option, hypocrites much?

    Hackers reap what they sow. They are dillusional.

  • Before pirating games,gamers need to look @ the efforts put in the process of making a game,how tough it is and then will they stop pirating!

  • @476, BS, banning a console is much more costly then losing 50 dollar subscriptions.

  • If any of you HACKERS are going to spend the billion it takes to research and develop a PS4 then i’ll side with you. What are hackers goijng to do if there never was a PS3, just hack something else under the guise of consumer rights.

  • mastorofpuppetz | February 17th, 2011 at 5:33 am
    How can anyone think its a bad thing SONY protecting the integrity of the online service they maintain? You can still jailbreak and be an idiot if you wish.

    If i choose to be offline and never go online with my ps3 and if i choose to jailbreak my ps3, how does that affect online play? It is because of the few people that actually want to cheat online that the many who actually use their hacked ps3’s to play legal copies as to protect their $60 investments, are targeted and have to suffer. Most people can’t afford to go out and buy another copy of the game that gets scratched for constant wear and tear.

  • @472, hacking/jailbreaking allows hacking,a nd its not just a few, your kidding yourself if you think otherwise. Sony cannot make a distinction who is hacking and cheating and those just hacking. They have no choice to ban them from PSN.

  • The hacking is being done even without CFW and will continue even after Sony bans their PAYING customers. People who have never had anything to do with CFW and/or PSN are getting emails and its bull that Sony thinks its going to be okay to ban first and ask questions later. The cats already out of the bag and the homebrew scene has skyrocketed and won’t be stopped.

  • LMAO, scrathed from wear and tear? The bluray drive and discs are highly scratch resistance and will not break due to regular wear, if you don’t take care of stuff thats not sony’s fault.

  • @474, can you read? This wont stop homebrew, it ill stop cheaters, hackers online, which is a good thing, cant blame sony for protecting the online space they maintain for legit people.

  • @471

    you asked what would hackers do if there was no ps3. what would you do if there was no online play? what did you do before it? It sounds to me like you sleep, eat and breathe online play. Now, i’m all down for protecting the intellectual properties of game developers and helping keep the costs of games low. but the way you speak is as if people have no right to do what they want with something they paid for. now granted, i can see if they were using it offline. but if your argument is the effects of online play and the rising costs of developing, protecting and publishing video games, there are other ways to express it without calling people hypocrites. That’s all i’m saying. Go ahead and fight the good fight.

  • Geohotz and his crew are not pirates by any means. They are community developers who add value to the Playstation 3 by enabling users to run software of their choice, not just the limited selection provided by Sony. I don’t want to live in Sony’s walled garden, any more than I wanted to live in Apple’s, and I reserve the right to jailbreak both to my heart’s content and do whatever I want with my own hardware.

  • yo $onybiatchpuppet, dont ya have anything better to do than defend your pimp in a working day???? dont you have “client” to please??? L O L

  • I think this has all been a huge mistake on both sides, I can see why people wanna modify their systems and I’m not saying that pirating is ok by any means but since the system got jailbroke Sony’s sales have done really well considering incase no one has looked. This could have gone in a better direction if it was allowed to write script for the system, there is a lot of talented people out there that just wanna learn that have no interest in pirating games but want to run and develop home brew for the sake of learning.

    Till this point the home brew community ( which is massive ) has not been publicly recognized but instead of looking at the good that can come from it, it’s been viewed as criminal. Think of the amount of potential you have and securing games with DRM instead of taking away key features of the system would have made everyone happy all around. Just a thought.

  • yo $onybiatchpuppet, dont ya have anything better to do than defend your pimp in a working day???? dont ya have “clients” to please??? L O L

  • i dont eat, sleep breathe online play at all, nice assumption, I mainly play offline, has ZERo to do with the fact Sony has EVERY right to ban hackers from PSN, its service they maintain free of charge for people who do.

  • @480, translation, I cannot formulate a come back or an intelligence response so i’ll resort to insulting, got ya. When you have something valid to say or to refute what i said come back.

  • @475

    Clearly you must don’t have kids that play games constantly. i have had to replace games (blu-ray at that) due to the wear and tear of a 12, 11 and 8 year old. they are not that scratch resistant.

  • @mastorofpuppetz

    While I understand what you’re saying, I shouldn’t have to buy a second ps3 to go online with so that I can run a few emulators on the other one.

  • Kids breaking games is not sony’s fault.

    If you have wear and tear issues from egular use, you have a broken drive, The bluray drive and discs do not wear for years from daily use.

  • @484, yes, you should.

  • mastorofpuppetz

    Clearly you’re missing the point. your POV is not a moot point and I for one, am not trying to argue against it. all i am saying is what i do with my ps3 in my home is my business and what you do with yours is yours. However, we both can agree that pirating is wrong. but i don’t agree with you calling people hypocrites especially with addressing the comment made by 480. If you feel that strongly about this issue, do something about it. We all sit here and complain about the problem and that’s just about it. How many people have the resources to do something about problem of piracy in this forum?

  • Let the Banning Begin :)

  • May the banhammer swing wild & free! Knock those hackers off their self-righteous podiums and back down to their parents basements, where they belong.

  • its about [DELETED] time sony, nice to see these hacking morons finally take a hit like this.

  • @495
    You can do whatever you want with YOUR PS3. But if you want to use PSN, you have to abide to their rules. Nothing wrong with that. If I visit your home, don’t you think I have to follow certain rules too? I can’t just take a beer from the fridge, use your toilet and take the money that’s on the table.

    Sony is only sueing geohotz because he hacked the PS3 AND released all the keys to the world. That was a dumb move. If he was a ethical hacker, he would’ve contacted Sony first and give Sony information about the hack and how to patch up the firmware to lock out piracy and telling Sony that he would not release the keys.

    But unfortunately, he didn’t do this, but just released all the keys just like that and seeking attention on television and youtube.

    @487
    OtherOS was only removed because of geohotz. And now geohotz & friends says they only hacked the PS3 to bring back Linux. What a joke. If you kept your hands off of it, it would’ve never been removed in the first place.

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