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

  • It’s about time. Now we can actually get features in the firmware and not all the security updates. Their the reason the os feature. Epic win for sony, I just wish they could do more like render their sustem useless. That would stop virtually all the hackers. Ban-hammer whack!

  • What are you going to do about homes with multiple systems?
    I would hope you are not just working with IP addresses as opposed to some sort of individual system ID.

  • @ kmeaw-rules

    I hate you. This is why regulars users don’t know the difference between a hacker, a pirate, and a cheater.

    @ Jin_Kusanagi

    Many people are proud to have legit games; with cfw. Cheaters are going to cheat, no matter the environment.

  • @ AwakenedWithin

    ^ comment above. “as long as I can play without people who hack the games”… this has been going on long before this situation. It’s the coding of the game your playing; it doesn’t use it own “punkbuster” like anti-cheat system. IW games i.e. only relied on the ps3’s security (fail). Any game coded like that is going to have cheaters who exploit the mechanics of the game; these people are mistakenly called hackers (which they are not). Also, gave save exploits are not “hacks”. Any techie knows the terminology.

    And the whole “Hacker” debate: without posting the link, look up “IBM Hacker’s Guide”. You’ll be shocked to find out what it is and who it came from. Without hackers, you wouldn’t have what you have now. Just play your games and take complaints about cheaters & exploits to the DEVELOPERS themselves. Ever since IW said that BS, people have been walking right into misinformation. They just plain failed at using an in-game anti-cheating system and blamed Sony when it isn’t their fault.

  • @blazeking FTW once again. Always glad to see an intellectual Ally

  • When will this happen Sony??? 4 days after your announcement and still almost every game lobby for MW2 is being hacked. Why dont you make it easier for us to report people we know are hacking. Xbox live network makes this easy with just a few clicks. I have both a PS3 and an Xbox 360; if I want to play my favorite games the way they were meant to be played I have no other choice but to play on the Xbox. I love the PS3, but for now I only use it to watch Netflix.

  • @Blazeking
    Erm..I meant cheaters, lol. Sorry about that. It just kinda irks me these people do that. :/ Sucks the fun out of it.

  • dude, wow Sony you are so mad that now ppl can unbanned them self’s by putting someone’s console id, my friend brought a ps3 on GAME-STOP and he told me he could not log in and then we thought his software was out of date, but it was running on 3.56 and we did some research online and we found out ppl can use anyone’s console id and ban the console without us knowing whats up with that!!!!!!!! should we legit psn users be worried because im a heavy psn user and im so worried i came at 3:07am to write this, i just don’t want to waked up turn my ps3 and tell me i can’t use psn with this account (8002A227). is there a way to get unbanned please let me know. thanks for the inconvenience, and wasting my time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • That’s a very interesting story, about your “friend”, and kinda weird that a “heavy psn user” would use the default avatar. Hmmm.. whats that… I smell sumthin’.. oh wait I know that smell, it’s BS. Gotta try alot harder next time ya wanna fabricate a story. ^^/

  • get those bastards cause i hate aimbotters

  • STIMULATIN_KILLS | February 21st, 2011 at 1:10 am
    dude, wow Sony you are so mad that now ppl can unbanned them self’s by putting someone’s console id, my friend brought a ps3 on GAME-STOP and he told me he could not log in and then we thought his software was out of date, but it was running on 3.56 and we did some research online and we found out ppl can use anyone’s console id and ban the console without us knowing whats up with that!!!!!!!! should we legit psn users be worried because im a heavy psn user and im so worried i came at 3:07am to write this, i just don’t want to waked up turn my ps3 and tell me i can’t use psn with this account (8002A227). is there a way to get unbanned please let me know. thanks for the inconvenience, and wasting my time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    id be verry worried there is a new program that has been made which you can use to unban and ban consoles thats if its true

  • Blazeking | February 20th, 2011 at 1:49 pm
    @ kmeaw-rules

    I hate you. This is why regulars users don’t know the difference between a hacker, a pirate, and a cheater.

    @ Jin_Kusanagi

    Many people are proud to have legit games; with cfw. Cheaters are going to cheat, no matter the environment.

    as it goes i dont like you verry much either id go as far as saying i would not pi*s on you if i saw you on fire, yeh im a pirate and im proud of it, ive never cheeted in a game though, never needed to run away home to mummy ang spend another £40 plus on something worth £10 tops sony are money grabing greedy fookers and you lot on here are up there arses it makes me sick you forum is been posted all over the net your currently the laugh of 2011

    GET A LIFE

  • @kmeaw-rules Next to none of the money spent on the purchase goes to Sony, It goes to the dev’s of that game For MW2 its infinty ward, Splatterhouse its namco, And Dragon age its Bioware. So [DELETED] if your like the game Support the dev’s

  • Well, my console.

  • But yup, i hate cheaters. But it’s my own console? Can’t I decide what to do with it?

  • Dear Sony,

    This is not the proper response for this. Before I get on with my argument, let us get something out of the way. I do NOT condone pirating games, or any kind of software, for that matter. I understand how it hurts the industry and the whole shebang.

    However, Sony’s overall stance on piracy is unsustainable and ridiculous. What Geohot did of course led the way for pirating games and such, but the idea behind the jailbreak is not that.

    I want the PS3 to be a platform. An open platform. I want to be able to install (and yes, buy) apps from 3rd parties that multiplies the functions of my PS3. I want to be able to install Google Chrome (if they Google would port to the PS3) to replace the sucky browser that comes with it. I want to be able to install a new music player that can stream from my iPod touch. I want to be able to SSH into my PS3.

    goo.gl/GEkwq (continued)

  • I do hope this goes well because I read about ‘swapping console id’ hack in many blogs, including this one – http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/22/playstation-hackers-reportedly-able-to-unban-selves-ban-others/

    I run a legit PS3, but like many, I have been screwed by hackers in modern warfare 2 lobbies (my stats were changed because someone else in the lobby ran a hacked system). I know those hacks are unrelated to the PSN bans coming up, but having experienced that, it does worry me a bit – what if some nut guesses my console id and gets me banned? Hope Sony’s detection system is smart enough … unlike their poorly written encryption code that started all this hacking.

  • All I see are a bunch of corporate sheep. Look I don’t support cheating with online games either. I can see how it would ruin the experience for people who don’t.

    BUUUUT you are all buying into the whole “My poor industry!” WAAAAAY too much. Xbox and PC game companies haven’t had some huge industry failing because of it. Hell there are some games makers that give resources for modding. Fallout 3/NV; Dragon Age Origins; TES 3 & 4 as well as some others not on Nexus have tools to help you mod. I owned Fallout 3; Dragon Age; TES 3 AND TES 4 on the consoles. Guess what the game makers just mad more money off of me since I built my PC.

  • I think Sony has great stuff, but they seem to be heading in the wrong direction with this. We are ALL consumers. The pirates can fuzz off. The pirates wouldn’t be doing so well if Sony wasn’t trying so hard to stop them. Most people would get their cheats from Sony if it was available. I grew up with Gameshark and GameGenie and was appalled that the cheating industry was being forced out. It made the PC much more appealing since there is more freedom. Check out the Nexus sites. A lot of people love it and the site refuses to allow pirated material.

  • I cheat for fun, not some stupid online “fame.” I could care less if you think I’m a low level Newb or if I’m the best around. I play to enjoy my game. Not some NERD AWARD. Sorry if I offended anyone, but it’s a game and people have different ways of enjoying it. Mine is for increasing my game experience as much as I can, and Sony (Nintendo/Microsoft) are trying to limit how much I can enjoy my games. Seems kind of self defeating to me. I used to buy tons of cheating manuals and hardware for my Nintendo and Playstation systems, but now I hardly want to use the new systems. They are collecting dust now. Occasionally used. I probably won’t buy the Next Gen. Either. My Next Gen is Upgrading my Monster PC to something better, for probably less money in the long run.

  • Well well… All I have to say.. Is that NONE of this would have happened if Sony never disabled OtherOS.. And the REALLY sad thing is.. The majority of people on CFW (Custom firmware)
    NEVER intended piracy.. Just homebrew….

    GIVE BACK OTHEROS, it’s practically stealing.. Some people bought a PS3 for OtherOS alone!

  • Just my $0.02, I don’t think users should be punished for unauthorized software. Pirated software? Yeah, they had it coming, unauthorized? No.

  • whats sony gona do about this PSIDPatch 1.5 apparantly its used to unban your console an change its id to some ramdom id so you could get banned for doing nothing wrong if your console id gets used

    not good i dont condone things like this if you do the crime you should do the time

    PSID is your playstation’s unique identifier to Sony, this program will patch the loaded PSID in memory to one of your choice. This won’t permanently patch your PSID, but *MIGHT* let you fool PSN. Best way to test this is for somebody with a banned PS3 to try changing it and going online.

  • No company should be allowed to do what they are doing i.e using their financial might to crush talented individuals. This is not what laws were invented for! Its through individuals such as these playing with existing product that innovation is born. Its happened for years with a myriad of products!

    If I or anyone else owns a product they have a right to do as they wish with said product. This assumption from Sony that in essence they still control the console, even though you bought it is absolutely insane.

  • If they wanted this to be the case you would have to sign a contract upon purchase, but the reason they don’t… they wouldn’t make any money.

    Its not like this a new occurrence or even a new product, its the 3rd iteration of a product where by both previous iterations were hacked, with no legal consequences. All consoles to some extent get hacked in the end. Yet now because Sony made a mistake and has been embarrassed they have decided to throw money and lawyers at it in an attempt to make themselves feel better.

  • This approach of trying to contain and control information on the internet through the use of bully tactics, is not only making them look pathetic and enraging the online community, it quite simply isn’t going to work!

    Its apparent now that no matter what, Sony are going to continue along this line, I just hope that somewhere along the line a Judge with some common sense looks at the big picture and makes the sensible decision to send Sony away with their tail between their legs. Any other decision would be a breach of civil liberties and a huge step backwards!

  • No judge is going to do that. You did sign a contract when you agreed to Sony’s “Terms of Service” contract prior to the system update that removed said “Other OS”. As for the PS’s that don’t have that built in when you buy them, obviously you knew that when you purchase them so no promise broken then either. Simply put Sony has nothing to worry about from you hackers in any courtroom, because they are legally covered. If you wanna mod/hack something stick to the PC, you will NEVER be allowed to legally have free run on a Sony console. And I don’t appreciate the pandora’s box you idiots have opened either, and neither do more of us then there are of you. Your ruining it for the majority of gamers.

  • For all of those who think Sony has no right to do this, or find it unfair, you should maybe educate yourself on this topic first. First off, Sony has a right to protect the Playstation 3 console, for the sake of its investors. Secondly, Sony has you accept the Terms when you sign up to PlayStation Network, and if you want to take a look at it, search it, and go to “2. COMMUNITY CODE OF CONDUCT” and read it for yourself. All of what they are doing is fine until they connect to PSN.

  • Actually modifying Propietary Sony software/hardware and spreading it around is a violation of copyright law. So even not going online and hacking a ps3 is illegal.

  • and if you need to see why hit up wikipedia “Digital Millennium Copyright Act”. Read it and weep ._.

  • This has been in & out since PSone began. As for piracy getting around, Sony need to be smarter than hackers. Release more technical update firmware every month, that would do it.

  • I think they should only ban those that hack cheat and pirate, while haveing CFW they shouldn’t ban them. I mean what if they wanted to play some super mario bros. on there ps3 but had to get CFW.
    But thats just my standing.

    P.S. Geohot doesn’t deserve to be sued….

  • hi if sony make it like this way i will seall my ps3 and i will buy XBOX its beter nad mor fun and games
    and hayy sony u r losing ur coustmers
    bey bey sony no ps3 any more

  • What this really means is that honest customers and user are getting F@CKED. Thanks PS for now locking me out of my hard earned PSN account, trophies, and progress. Most of us have never cheated and/or hacked anything. Thanks Sony for yet another D1CK in the A55. F@CK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Give me a break. You knew you were taking a big risk with unauthorized software and now you’re going to pretend to be shocked when something like this happens?

    If you were “honest” you wouldn’t be affected at all!

  • The PSN Network is Sony’s house, and you’re a guest in the house.

    If you would like to continue to be invited to Sony’s house, then you must follow their house rules.

    If you have mods, then we don’t want you online and potentially ruining our multiplayer experience

  • First off, You mad Sony?
    Secondly whatever somebody wants to do with their ps3 is their choice, not yours
    Thirdly, I have to say to all the people who say their is aim bot on MW2, why don’t you go buy COD:BO.
    Finally,
    The person who jailbroke the ps3, GeoHot, was not intrested in pirating games and anything done with the jailbreak after the installation is not his problem.

    I do not have a jailbroken ps3 but to be honest sony is getting way un happy about this and not only that, but microsoft found about hackers and they didn’t care.
    CAlM DOWN SONY

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