Sony takes PlayStation 3 hackers to court

Sony has turned to the courts in a bid to stop the practice of jail-breaking its PlayStation 3 gaming console.

The company has filed suit in a northern California district court seeking a restraining order against a group of researchers and developers who have been looking to remove restrictions on installing code on the system.

Sony argues in the court filing that developing and distributing the jail-break methods and tools is in violation of Sony's user agreements and infringes on the company's copyrights.

The group, known as failoverfl0w, has crafted tools and techniques which let users run third-party software on the PlayStation 3, which Sony argues is a major risk to its PlayStation business.

"Unless the court enjoins defendants' unlawful conduct, hackers will succeed in their attempts to ensure that pirated software can run on the PS3 system, resulting in the destruction of Sony Computer Entertainment America's business, " said the filing.

Researchers have long sought to tamper with the console and remove its restrictions, but interest in developing a jail-break method picked up last year when Sony removed a popular option on the console known as Other OS which allowed users to install a third-party operating system such as Linux.

The feature had long been popular with hobbyist users, as well as researchers who sought to harness the multi-threading abilities of the PS3 processor.

Jail-breaking has long been a topic of contention between manufacturers looking to protect their intellectual property and users who maintain that they have the right to customise products they have purchased.

Smartphones such as the Apple iPhone have been popular jail-breaking targets, and a US court ruled last summer that users did have certain rights to install "unapproved" software on their handsets.