Sony blocks PS3 Jailbreak sales

The Australian arm of Sony Computer Entertainment has won a temporary injunction that has banned the importing or sale of a new PS3 hacking tool until August 31st.

The PSJailbreak first emerged earlier this month. It claims to allow PS3 owners to run pirated code directly from an external storage device, requiring only that the supplied USB stick is plugged into one of the console’s USB court.

Kotaku reports that the new ruling has also required that sellers of the device have had to hand over existing stock to Sony’s solicitors.

Between now and next Tuesday Sony will now concentrate on convincing courts that the temporary ban should be made permanent. If they fail the device will become available to buy on September 1st.

It’s hard to predict how that will pan out. ELSPA and Nintendo recently won a major legal battle that has outlawed the sale of DS piracy devices in the UK, but in the US it was recently ruled that the jailbreaking of Apple’s iPhone is perfectly legal.

And even if Sony does prevail, if the hack is real it’s likely that rival products will soon begin to flood the marketplace – a ban on just the PSJailbreak would do nothing to prevent this. Even if Sony secures a wider-reaching ruling, the policing of the sale of such products online is no easy task.