14 DAY TRIAL // After a few balanced statements about the hacking progress on the PlayStation 3, Sony is now going on the offensive, taking legal action against the primary individuals that broke the console's decryption key.
Sony Computer Entertainment America has just filed a temporary restraining order against everyone involved in trying to circumvent the PlayStation 3's "technological protection measures."
The parties involved include George "GeoHot" Hotz and hacking group fail0verflow.
The actions are already reaping results as the websites of both GeoHot and the hacking team are now stripped bare of any and all content.
Sony is arguing that the efforts made by the hackers have violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, with the express purpose of opening the PlayStation 3 up to piracy.
What's more, Hotz is also accused of gaining "financial benefit through his unlawful conduct" because he had a PayPal account in which people could make donations to keep his hacking efforts going.
If Sony's legal actions will be carried out, authorities will confiscate computers, hard drivers and other media used in the hacking process.
At this moment, it seems that Sony may have the upper hand, but the legal war might be just beginning, especially since the efforts of both fail0verflow and GeoHot had the express purpose of allowing the PlayStation 3 to support homebrew applications and Linux operating systems.
With fail0verflow effectively finding the master decryption key earlier this month, GeoHot went to work and released a custom firmware based on version 3.55 which supports running homebrew apps, like emulators, but didn't allow users to play pirated copies of actual PS3 games.
This comes after last year's PlayStation 3 Jailbreak scandal, when another hacking group managed to circumvent the PS3's legal systems and officially kick started the piracy scene for the Sony console, despite the legal efforts of Sony.