Sony Lays Down The Law On PlayStation 3 Hacking

Today the company issued the following statement, warning of the penalties associated with hacking the PlayStation 3.

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.

Tough words, but I very much doubt PlayStation 3 hackers are all that concerned with PlayStation Network access or streaming movies to their consoles. They want to run homebrew, and they want to run pirated games, neither of which are particularly PlayStation Network-centric.

Note that Sony says this is its “initial response” to the situation, so harsher, more effective penalties could be in the pipeline.

Until that happens, hackers’ boots will likely remain un-quaked in.