This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(May 2023)
A PS Jailbreak USB dongle
PlayStation 3 Jailbreak was the first
USB (Universal Serial Bus) chipset that allowed unauthorized execution of code, similar to
homebrew, on the
PlayStation 3. It works by bypassing a system security check using a memory exploit (
heap overflow) which occurs with USB devices that allows the execution of
unsigned code.
The underlying exploit and inner workings of the PS3 Jailbreak have been entirely reverse engineered[1] and reimplemented through the open source
PSGroove.[2]
Sony had taken a few steps to prevent the jailbreak of the PlayStation 3, and has associated the action as a form of
copyright infringement. In eastern European countries, no action has ever been taken to condemn such cases.
The cases listed below are lawsuits Sony filed in courts to prohibit the sales and imports of circumvention devices that would jailbreak the system.
PS3 Jailbreak was outlawed in Australia as it was considered to be in violation of copyright law. The ban states that PS Jailbreak cannot be imported, distributed to another person or offered to the public.[3]
Sony lost a lawsuit in December 2010 in
Barcelona against the seller of PS Jailbreak. The sales and imports of the product were therefore deemed legal to use within
Spain, and Sony were ordered to pay damages for trying to block the sales and imports.[4]
In January 2011, Sony had
filed a lawsuit against George Hotz for leaking the encryption keys for the PlayStation 3. The case was settled in April of that year, where Hotz agreed to a permanent injunction to never circumvent a Sony product again.[5] The Court had also approved that Sony's lawyers could obtain the IP addresses of anyone who visited Hotz's website.[6]