PS4 and TV

Sony Sues Hacker Over Jailbroken PlayStation 4s

While fans may have their gripes, protecting intellectual property is always important to companies. On that note, Sony Interactive Entertainment has filed a lawsuit against Eric Scales, over the sale of jailbroken PlayStation 4 systems.

The complaint, as obtained by TorrentFreak, addressed the following issues.

Defendant is an individual who has marketed, sold, and distributed ‘jailbroken’ PS4 consoles that: (a) contain ‘pirated’ (unauthorized) copies of PS4-compatible video games, and (b) were produced and designed for purposes of, and/or were marketed by Defendant for use in, circumventing technological protection measures. in the ordinary course, effectively ensure that PS4 systems will not play “pirated” (unauthorized) copies of PS4-compatible video games. Defendant also offers “PS3/4” jailbreaking services on his website.

In particular, Sony points to an incident from April 2018 in which the defendant listed a jailbroken PS4 under the eBay handle “blackcloack13.” The eBay listing in question provides additional details and, once again, links back to his website which boasts that he has been “jailbreaking and modding game console[s] since 2006.”

“FULLY JAILBROKEN/MODDED,” “COMES WITH MY CUSTOM PRINTED DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS,” will enable the purchaser “TO PLAY ANY GAME YOU WANT,” comes with “65 GAMES INSTALLED TO GET YOU STARTED,” and “IT’S TIME TO ENJOY ALL GAMES FREE.”

It was in June 2018 when Sony Interactive Entertainment, through an agent, purchased one of these PS4 consoles from the defendant on eBay, revealing his identity through the return address on the shipping label. The console included first-party games such as God of War and third-party titles like “Call of Duty: WWII; Guns, Gore & Cannoli; Need for Speed Payback; Sniper Elite 4; Sniper Ghost Warrior 3; and The Surge.”

As a result, Sony is arguing in favor of the following three claims “Infringement of Copyrights in First-Party Games,” “Infringement of Copyrights in PS Program Code,” and “Violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.”

[Source: GameIndustry.biz and Torrent Freak)

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