Registered Devs agreed to licenses when they became registered Devs. They actually ARE NOT allowed to share SDK information outside of registered developers. This is not an open platform. This is trade secrets being disclosed that they can protect (and legally MUST protect, or else they lose their rights to them). You might say "well the first person who shared it is breaking the law then, but the next person didn't take it from Sony...so freedom of speech." Incorrect. It is protected code that was obtained illegally (and any subsequent transfers are illegal due to the first illegal act). Freedom of Speech does not apply when you're divulging information covered by copyright. You aren't as liable as the initial leak of the data is, but you are still liable for sharing it.
Even when/if we make an open compiler, it would be based on Sony's APIs, and this information is also protected. The only way to be 100% legal is to use tools that require no illegal information to make. Making a call to the APIs isn't illegal, but where did you get the information? Unless that information is public domain, the only source is one that stems back from an illegal act. Your ownership of information about said APIs can only be obtained through limited methods. Though you are innocent until proven guilty, you are also guilty until proven innocent if the evidence directly implies guilt. The only way to prove innocence would be to prove you reverse engineered the system and all its code though no illegal means, a very implausible concept (and why you can't just say you did, but must show how in court or else it would not stand).
However, other than the Backup Managers which use Sony SDK's to compile their code, there is nothing illegal going on here that I am aware of. People confuse the JIG with Jailbreak. Jailbreak is not a copy of the PS3 JIG, which puts the PS3 into Service Mode. It uses a USB exploit that lets them put code into the system that boots it into developer mode (not service mode). From my understanding, this is a hack discovered through reverse engineering. We don't need to prove anything other than the fact that it is completely plausible that someone discovered this buffer overflow through trial and error hacking the system. This is perfectly legal to do.
Reverse Engineering is protected under our laws when done through legal means. A good example is Coca-Cola, whose secret formula is protected extremely heavily as a trade secret. Anyone who can, through trial and error and/or chemical breakdown of the soda, recreate Coca-Cola's product, is welcome to do so. That is WHY they protect their secret so heavily. In their case, someone leaking the secret could be arrested, but then after anyone in the industry could feasibly get away with saying they cracked it through trial and error after that point. The Sony SDK does not fall in this category though, as it is highly improbably that someone could have reverse engineered it in the same way as a soda maker can make 'near coke'. It would have to be exact.
So, in essence, some of the homebrew may be illegal, but the jailbreak devices (without code, or with code on them that was created through legal reverse engineering means) are protected from litigation on the grounds of copyrights. They are not protected from -trademark lawsuits -lawsuits that can show the purpose of said devices is wholly to allow illegal activities (and backups would be an illegal activity if they promote it as a current feature, at a time when all BM are compile from stolen Sony SDK code).
So, any device which promotes stealing games, backing up games currently (as BM uses the Sony SDK), includes the BM, or uses sony trademarks, is grounds for possibly succesful lawsuits.
Things that are not in the wrong:
Boards that do not reference these uses, or advice that these uses are illegal. Many pre-existing devices are not at fault for this having occured (Teensy for example). Others, such as Minimus AVR USB, are promoted as fully functioning boards, and even avoid mentioning hacking the ps3. Even the worst knockoffs, which may have single-use burnt in files that are SOLELY for getting the device into dev mode, and cannot be used for any other purpose, are safe if they aren't breaking sony trademarks, are not promoting illegal activity and do not provide illegal code such as the BM compiled with the Sony SDK, are protected. Even those devices are protected as long as the method we use to put the unit into dev mod was fully reverse engineered. They may allow homebrew which contains illegally compiled code etc, but this is not the ONLY thing they allow. They allow for further reverse engineering and homebrew which is created through legal means... and this is covered.
Basically, don't provide anything compiled illegally, don't promote illegality, and don't break their trademarks, and you are protected by the law. Doesn't mean Sony's lawyers won't find a way to screw over some, and even get these laws interpreted incorrectly by judges who have no proper idea of the concepts. However, in the end we have plenty of legal means to continue this scene. Sony's biggest claim would be to go after sharer's of game copies, or illegally compiled code, not these piece of hardware. However, it's been shown that's near impossible to prevent, so they're using scare tactics going after these hardware sellers, many of which are not subject to the claims Sony is making against them. It's mostly a ruse to scare away some, prevent others, try to create a few legal precedents in their favor, and grasp at straws in a game they cannot win.
¿Entonces publicar código que contenga llamadas a la API de Sony sería ilegal ya que es una información protegida por un contrato?. Supongo que EOL contará con asesoramiento legal de primera, solo espero que no se meta en líos ahora que Sony se esta poniendo dura.
