Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Sony Mistakes PlayStation 3 Unlock Code as 'Battleship' Reference; Hilarity Ensues

Oh, Sony. Hot off the heels of Sony's lawsuit against a band of PlayStation 3 jailbreakers, a Sony-operated Twitter account retweeted the PS3 unlock code. Um, oops.


Apparently, the person behind the Twitter feed for @TheKevinButler--who, as Engadget notes, is entirely fictional--retweeted the hex code used to jailbreak the PS3, mistaking it for a reference to the classic board game Battleship. "You sunk my battleship," indeed!

The timing couldn't have been more coincidental. Last month, Sony sued gadget hacker George Hotz, members of the hacker group fail0verflow, and 98 others, for circumventing the PS3's DRM scheme, then distributing the unlock code. Over the summer, the US Government ruled that smartphone jailbreaking is within the bounds of Fair Use, so it'll be interesting to see whether console jailbreaking falls within that same exemption.

It looks like the offending retweet has since been removed, but visit Tmblr.us for photographic proof of the gaffe.

 

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