Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Sony lawyers now targeting anyone who posts PlayStation 3 hack
Sony is threatening to sue anybody posting or “distributing” the first full-fledged jailbreak code for the 4-year-old PlayStation 3 gaming console.
What’s more, the company is demanding that a federal judge order Google to surrender the IP addresses and other identifying information (PDF) of those who have viewed or commented about the jailbreak video on a private YouTube page. The game maker is also demanding that Twitter provide the identities of a host of hackers who first unveiled a limited version of the hack in December.
Sony’s aggressive pretrial discovery demands come in its lawsuit against George Hotz. The 21-year-old New Jersey hacker, who is well known in the jailbreaking community, published the finished PlayStation 3 code and a how-to YouTube video last month. The code allows the Playstation 3 to play pirated and homebrewed games.
Sony wants the information “to determine the identities of third parties hosting and distributing the circumvention devices” so Sony can send them a DMCA notice to remove the material “and, if necessary, seek appropriate relief from this court.” (PDF)
“The discovery they call for in my opinion is overbroad,” Hotz’ attorney, Stewart Kellar, said in a telephone interview.
Sony declined comment.
A hearing is tentatively set for Wednesday. Sony filed its documents about 7:30pm PST on Friday.
US District Judge Susan Illston ordered Hotz to remove the YouTube video and the code from his personal website—orders to which Hotz complied with last week. Ahead of an unscheduled trial in which Sony is seeking unspecified damages from Hotz, Illston had concluded that Hotz likely breached the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. He did so by publishing or "distributing" a hack designed to circumvent software meant to protect copyrighted material, the judge said.
Hotz, by order of Illston, is also scheduled to surrender his computer gear to Sony by Thursday. Kellar is trying to convince Judge Illston to back away from allowing Sony to examine his drives and other devices.
Sony is also trying to haul the so-called “failOverflow hacking team” into court. But first, Sony needs to learn the identities and whereabouts of the group’s members. They are accused of posting a rudimentary hack in December. It was refined by Hotz weeks later when he accessed the console’s so-called “metldr keys,” or root keys that trick the system into running unauthorized programs
Toward getting the FailOverflow defendants to appear into court, Sony is demanding that Twitter divulge the personal account information (PDF) behind the usernames of @KaKaRoToKS, @gnihsub, @pytey, @bl4sty, @marcan42 and @failOverflow.
Sony claims the hacks will eat into game sales for the 41 million PS3 units sold.
The DMCA makes it either a civil or criminal offense to traffic in wares meant to circumvent devices protecting copyrighted works. Ironically, performing a similar hack on a mobile phone is lawful.
Last summer, the US Copyright Office exempted cell phone jailbreaking from being covered by the DMCA. The decision means consumers may run the apps of their choice on mobile phones without fear of being civilly or criminally liable for a DMCA breach.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
How to Jailbreak Playstation 3 (PS3) With PS Jailbreak Modchip
The PS3 jailbreak mod-chip made the waves on the internet just yesterday and here we already have the how to step-by-step guide to help you jailbreak your console.
Disclaimer: The guide below is only for testing and educational purpose. You will be responsible for any possible damage caused.
Things you need
- PS3 with Firmware 3.41 installed
- A FAT32 formatted external USB storage with a copy of Backup Manager on it
- PS3 Jailbreak Mod Chip (can be purchased here)
How to Jailbreak
Step 1: Power off your console completely and connect Jailbreak mod chip to it. Make sure no other device is connected as you jailbreak. Make sure your Blu-ray drive is empty
For the SLIM Model: You will also have to remove power chord before plugging in USB
For the FAT model: Switching the power off shall do.Step 2: Press the ‘Power’ button on the console and then press the ‘Eject’ button. Notice how the two LED’s on PS Jailbreak USB turn on while the console is loading.
If the green LED lits up the jailbreak is working properly
If the red lits up it's not working.
If you end up with a red LED, turn power off, remove power chord and repeat the procedure.
Step 3: Once the Jailbreak mod-chip loads, connect the USB with Backup Manager on it.
Step 4: Naviage to "Game Menu" and select the option "Install Package Files". Select "manager.pkg" which will basically install Backup Manager for you
Step 5: Once the Back Up Manager is installed, select the Back Up Manager from game menu and press X button to run it.
Step 6: After you have opened the Back Up Manager, put in a DVD of the game and press "O". You will be asked then whether to make a back up on the internal HDD or the external USB storage device.
Step 7: To load a previously created back up, insert any original game DVD in console then select the desired back up from the Back Up Manager and press X to play the selected game. You can also delete your previously created back up by pressing /\.
Step 8: You will automatically be redirected to the main menu where you can see the game installed and ready to be played.
Do not remove the mod chip while you play the game. It has to be connected at all the times while you are playing a game through back up.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
PS Jailbreak does what it promises: jailbreaks your PS3
Using just a USB drive and a software exploit, the PS Jailbreak apparently does what so many have tried doing before it: allowing unauthorised software — including backups — to run on the PS3.The beauty of the exploit is that it makes the PS3 run games just like it’s a debug console. This means you can run your legitimate backups from either the internal HDD, or over USB from an external one. This is obviously a neta-o-rama trick, and one that PS3 users have been wanting since Firefox was still cool.
Best of all? It runs on any firmware version, and only when the magic USB drive is inserted in a port, meaning you won’t void your warranty using it.
Unfortunately, the PS Jailbreak website is down, so I can’t confirm if you need to purchase a USB drive from them, or if you can just extract some files onto your own drive. For the mean time, though, you can see the backup in action — with some commentary from a friendly fellow Aussie — in the videos at the bottom of this post.
Scepticism is usually advised in situations like this, as many a mod-chip has failed at bringing backups and homebrew to the PS3, but there seem to be some mounting testimonials that this device does, indeed, work.
The only caveats thus far seem to be that you can’t back up Blu-ray/DVD movies, or PSX/PS2 games. Sounds pretty good to me right now.
[via PS3 News]
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
The Playstation Move Japanese Promo video doesn’t need translating
Japan gets white PS3 slim and a black model with a 320GB HDD
Sony in Japan just announced [JP, PDF] a bunch of changes and news regarding domestic sales of the PS3. The company said they’ll be bringing a PS3 in “Classic White” to the local market, in addition to the existing “Charcoal Black” (the first version of the PS3 in “Ceramic White” went on sale in 2008). There will be no technical changes, but Sony generally plans to ship bigger HDDs with the PS3 Slim in the future.
The new white PS3 Slim (also dubbed CECH-2500A LW) will be available with a 160GB HDD only, while the black model will be sold with a 160GB HDD (CECH-2500A) or with a 320GB HDD (CECH-2500A LW). Sony also says in Japan, the 120GB PS3 Slim will be sold under an open price model starting July 7.
Japanese buyers will be able to lay their hands on the new CECH-2500 series from July 29. Prices: $341 for the 160GB models (black or white) and $398 for the 320GB version. No word yet from Sony regarding international releases.
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