Homegrown PS3 hack PSGroove released

While Sony may have the makers of the X3Jailbreak under an injunction in Australia (at least until this Friday), a homebrew alternative has already found its way on the Internet. The open source alternative called PSGroove has been released and - unlike an earlier version of the software - it doesn't contain certain features that could be used for piracy.

Of course, with certain features removed, users might not be as keen on using this solution as a replacement for X3Jailbreak. For starters, PSGroove doesn't allow re-routing of Blu-ray traffic to either the internal hard drive or an external device, which means that playing a backup copy of a game or movie is not possible.

So if doesn't allow you to play backup copies or games and movies, many may wonder what its usefulness is.

The main thing the software does is proves a point: that a security exploit can be triggered on the PS3 without using copyrighted Sony materials. In fact the PSGroove does just that. Sony's contention was that devices like the X3Jailbreak used its service mode hardware to accomplish its goals, when it actually just used the same device identifier. That could prove to be problematic for Sony as it argues in court later this week.

It also allows for the execution of "unsigned third-party apps and games" on the PS3 - which is really the purpose of the software.

Source: Eurogamer, image credit