Australia Bans Sale of PS3 Modchips, Specifically PS Jailbreak

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Piracy is a problem to just about every industry that deals with virtual content. Back when Napster first made the rounds was when this was really made evident as it made it almost too simple for those looking to illegally download music (or movies, software, games, etc) to do so.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much that organizations like the RIAA can do because every time they shut down one piracy oriented website, 3 more spawn in its wake. Due to loopholes and the argument that websites like Torrent trackers feature no more functionality than Google, it’s going to be extremely difficult for piracy operations to ever be shut down.

While the copyright laws are very strict here in the United States with offenders facing jail time and hefty fines, over seas things get even stricter. Australia, for one, has been known to be extremely proactive in the fight against piracy.

Not too long ago it was announced that Australia had banned the sale and purchase of the R4 flash carts for the Nintendo DS. If you’re not familiar with these devices, they allow you to transfer downloaded Nintendo DS games from your computer to the cart which would then be played ont he portable gaming console. Some could argue that there are ethical purposes for such devices, but it’s no secret that the majority of its users are up to no good.

Today, Australia is at it again, this time banning the PS Jailbreak modchip for Sony’s Playstation 3 home video game console. For just about as long as the PS3 has been available it has proved itself to be resilient to hackage. However, just as we told you, a device known as PS Jailbreak allows consumers to ‘jailbreak’ their PS3 in order to play back up games straight from the console’s hard drive posing an obvious piracy threat.

Australia taking these steps towards banning PS Jailbreak may be small but they are an integral component to the fight against piracy. Unfortunately, this ban focuses specifically on the PS Jailbreak product so all of those Asian copycats we heard about none too long ago are seemingly free to hit the market until the Australian government bans them as well.

However, seeing how jailbreaking is legal here in the United States, it’s unlikely that our government will do the same as Australia for now, anyways.