Sony has been quiet on the subject of the recently announced PS Jailbreak devices. These USB sticks crack the PlayStation 3 wide open, allowing games to be fully installed to, and played from, the system's included hard drive. They also allow homebrew software to be run. The company has won a small victory against those selling the device, as the Australian Federal Court has granted Sony a temporary injunction against the sales of the device, and the existing units must be given to Sony for safekeeping, not to mention analysis.

The court decision, obtained by PS3News, hobbles the ability to do just about anything with the PS Jailbreak hardware. As of now, you can't:

Distribute the devices to another person

Offer them to the public

Provide them to another person

Otherwise deal in them

Not exactly great news for anyone hoping to profit from the now white-hot demand for the PS Jailbreak. In addition to barring distribution, the court ordered that a limited number of the devices "be released to [Sony] for such analysis, including destructive analysis, as the Applicants think fit, upon the payment to the applicable respondent of its retail price for each such PSJailbreak Device."

At least in Australia, Sony is in complete control of the PS Jailbreak's inventory, and will soon be happily tearing the units apart to learn everything there is know about them, and then the firmware patching of the PlayStation 3 will likely begin.

Modchips, in Australia, are perfectly legal

Mod chips are actually legal in Australia, on something of a technicality: by the time a mod chip allows a pirated game to be played, the copyright violation has already occurred. It's the act of distributing or copying games that courts are worried about; without the content, the chips themselves are useless. In the US and much of Europe, the act of circumventing protection measures is itself illegal, making it easier to keep circumvention technology away from the public.

This is a temporary injunction, but since this device allows the games themselves to be copied—much like mod chips from the Xbox-era— judges may not be so forgiving. The USB sticks don't just allow pirated games to be played, they give you the ability to copy the games yourself.

Sony has until August 31 to make its case for the continued ban against the sale of the devices. If they're not able to make a compelling legal argument, the PS Jailbreak should be offered for sale yet again... although one could forgive Sony for dragging its feet in releasing the inventory.