First PS3 Jailbreaker Arrested In South Africa

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silentbee

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by fuzzyfuzzyfungus (1223518) on Thursday August 04, @11:44PM (#36993744)

Sounds like South Africa's crime problem is good and cleared up. Maybe if they can arrest someone from 4chan the place will finally be safer than the more tepid warzones of the world...

by MightyMartian (840721) on Thursday August 04, @11:46PM (#36993760)

No f----ng s--t. Reading this I thought "Wow, South Africa has cops sufficient to start helping some multi-national who buggers with their ****ing game console."
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lol
 
Where do you draw the line regarding criminal activity?

Leave drugs alone because there is rape and murder? Ignore house break ins because there is rape and murder? Perhaps we should set up a task team that decides what is fine to ignore and what isn't. Someone in your house sir? Sorry the task team thinks murder and rape is a little more of a priority, can i take your number and we will look into the case at a much much later date.
 
No, no... I'm all for the this. I'm a buy into the broken window theory. I say they should clamp down more on little crimes. It's just that I thought this country kind of turned a blind eye to copyright-related things. Makes me wonder about torrenting, etc. And I thought those comments where funny.
 
silentbee said:
No, no... I'm all for the this. I'm a buy into the broken window theory. I say they should clamp down more on little crimes. It's just that I thought this country kind of turned a blind eye to copyright-related things. Makes me wonder about torrenting, etc. And I thought those comments where funny.
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This country does not turn a blind-eye to copyright related things. The guy was copying and distributing on a large scale. It had nothing to do with chipping or jail breaking the device - that invalidates a warranty. Where people get confused is in assuming that US law (or any other country's) applies to South Africa.
 
full article: http://techsmart.co.za/features/news/1st_local_PS3_jailbreak_raid_and_arrest.html

Gaming pirates and PS3 jailbreakers beware

Update: The suspect who is of Pakistani origin, received bail this afternoon. Bail was set at R10 000, with the passport also having to be handed in. Next court appearance is set for 29 September.

The crackdown on video game piracy in South Africa kicks into high gear, with the first local PlayStation 3 jailbreak raid taking place yesterday at a residential property in Parktown, Johannesburg. Jailbreak devices are used to circumvent the security features on PS3 game consoles, in order to facilitate the playing of pirated PS3 gaming titles.

This raid was conducted by the South African Police Service’s Commercial Crime Unit, after receiving criminal complaints from the South African Federation Against Copyright Theft (SAFACT). Members of the police were assisted by the South African Revenue Service (SARS) Computer Forensics Lab.

Various state of the art computers, circumvention software packages, jailbreak USB devices, PS3 consoles as well as hard-drives were seized during the raid. In addition documentation, fake PS2 games and original PS3 games, believed to be employed as master copies, were also seized.

One suspect has been arrested and will remain in custody until the court appearance for bail in the Specialized Commercial Crimes Court either today or early tomorrow. According to Jacques Botha, director of Finance and Special Operations for SAFACT, it is the first PS3 circumvention arrest in the world, with similar raids to be conducted across South Africa soon.
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He must've been a huge player in the pirate games business.
 
This is a case of piracy rather than jailbreaking. IMO
 
killadoob said:
Errrm what about those usb jailbreaking device they seized?
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This is similar to the whole MS and computer argument of some years ago. And if you recall the outcome was that you could opt out of having to accept the MS OS if you didn't want it. Playstation is not exactly the same because the whole lot is proprietary. But, unless there is an agreement entered into between the buyer and Sony about not being able to do what you want with the device at the point of sale, a post purchase agreement is not going to happen.

Where jail breaking comes into the picture is that the Sony code is usually altered slightly to allow for the functionality of the PS to remain as well as accept discs for alternative sources. This is copyright infringement. However, if you write your own operating system it isn't. I guess that this is what the homebru systems offered.
 
Surely by law you cannot change the OS on a ps3? that is breaking their terms. You buy it as is and you are not allowed to use it for anything else?
 
I bet SONY paid alot of money for this arrest... The Article doesn't say if the chap was charged with anything. (I would love to know what the charges are)
 
killadoob said:
Surely by law you cannot change the OS on a ps3? that is breaking their terms. You buy it as is and you are not allowed to use it for anything else?
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The older models allowed you to run a version of linux.

As to doing what you want with your property - well, you can pretty much do what you want with your PS. What you can't do is reverse engineer their firmware or software. Well, you can but you can't tell anyone. You haven't bought that ever - they've allowed you to use it. The hardware is yours - paint it beige, put an Apple sticker on it - whatever. Chipping it is up to you too but as I said, you'll lose the warranty. If you look at the terms of the software licence - you are not supposed to use the software if the hardware is modified in order to bypass the 'security' features. The EPROM may have some proprietary Sony code in it but you'll never know - unless you're the chip builder. Besides, chipping is rather a cumbersome way to try and circumvent the Sony OS - hence, jailbreaking which is a more 'elegant' way.
 
Why is it a crime to tamper with a device that you purchased?? Did they find any of his "backups"?
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
Why is it a crime to tamper with a device that you purchased?? Did they find any of his "backups"?
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It isn't.

It is contravention of the System Software licence to use the system software on a modified device. The system software isn't sold.

Have a copy of the system software isn't a crime either. Giving it to someone contravenes the license agreement but receiving it isn't a contravention of any agreement - you don't have one. And if you don't have an agreement, well all's fair. Except Sony will claim a right to their property. And then we'll end up in another discussion about what is property. In the case of software it isn't about something material - it is about the intellect.

If I offer services as a jail breaker - well what have I ontravened? I have a bit of software that modifies another bit of software. Sony will need to go after the person with whom they have the agreement.

And this gets back to the points raised in the responses to the link - this isn't about jail breaking, it is about the commercial distribution of copied material.
 
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