Sony accidentally retweets PS3 ‘jailbreak’ code, mistakes it for a ‘Battleship’ reference

February 9, 2011 By Andrew Couts

Mistaking it for a reference to "Battleship," Sony accidentally retweets the jailbreak code that it is trying to keep from being published.

Someone over at Sony is in big trouble. Less than a month after the company launched its legal armada against the hacker group that jailbroke the Playstation 3 game console and released the how-to details online, someone at the company accidentally retweeted the “jailbreak” code through an official Sony Twitter account, reports Engadget.

Here’s what happened: Twenty-four-year-old self-proclaimed geek Travis la Marr (aka @exiva) sent a message to the Sony-operated Twitter account @TheKevinButler containing the root code to the PS3, which unlocks the device, along with the challenge, “Come at me, @TheKevinButler.”

Not understanding the significance of the sequence of numbers and letters @TheKevinButler — an entirely fictional Sony employee whose tweets are presumably written by some poor intern at the company — thought la Marr was playing some sort of Twitter-centric game of “Battleship,” and retweeted the code to the account’s nearly 70,000 followers.

Done laughing yet? Ok, now, it gets better. Had Sony simply published the code that allows tech-savvy users to unlock the “unhackable” PS3, that would be bad enough. Unfortunately for the company’s PR and legal departments — and whoever published the damning tweet — Sony just sued infamous jailbreak hacker George ‘Geohot’ Hotz, along with 98 other members of the hacker group fail0verflow, for jailbreaking the PS3 and publishing their digital escapades online.

Sony just recently won a temporary injunction against Hotz which, ironically, prevents him from publishing information about the PS3 jailbreak. Who says there’s no justice in this world?

Needless to say, the offending retweet has since been removed from the @TheKevinButler feed. Luckily, la Marr published a screenshot of the exchange on his Tumblr blog, Tmblr.us.

So, will Sony go after la Marr next? (He did, of course, publish the codes before Sony retweeted them.) Who knows. Regardless, la Marr seems to have already put the whole situation into context. Writing on Twitter this morning, he says, “The irony of this all? …I don’t even own a PS3 #truefact.”

Showing 23 comments

Sean Koury at 2:22am 6th March 2011 If Sony had wanted this to not happen in the first place, they should have done this.... STOP TAKING FEATURES AWAY FROM THE PS3!!!!! The original PS3 was backwards compatible with Ps2, they took that away. Now I'm hearing they took away it's ability to run Linux???? So basically, the PS3 you can buy now is inferior to the original model in a number of ways. I'm not surprised the hackers are moving in. (This is why I don't have a PS3)
Trevor Whitlock at 10:48am 14th February 2011 my question is, that since "Sony" sent this out as common knowledge(everyone was able to get it) Does that void their patents on protecting their software, and if so who will capitalize on it first?
Chris Johnson at 9:16pm 9th February 2011 I wonder how this will change the lawsuit? "Your honor, we are filing to dismiss Sony's lawsuit under the grounds that they, themselves, posted the "Jailbreak code" and thus, have no grounds to sue a group that did the same thing. In allowing the suit to continue, Sony would have to include themselves as one of the defendants."Maybe it’s just me but if someone post something like that, I might check that against something. Anyone who plays Battleship knows all the coordinates are alpha-numeric. 46? 95? Yeah…
Stephen LeatherFace Popa at 7:26pm 9th February 2011 damn, didnt see this..
Bernd Currie at 6:44pm 9th February 2011 Stupido
Michael Lane at 6:13pm 9th February 2011 Smooth!
Tyler Roden at 6:08pm 9th February 2011 LOL! HA! Are they going to file suit against themselves now?
Alicia Guy at 5:59pm 9th February 2011 hahahaha fail.
Sean Gallagher at 9:54am 9th February 2011 Since the US courts have ruled it's legal to jailbreak an iPhone, wouldn't the same be true for the PS3?
1. Trevor Whitlock at 11:13am 9th February 2011 I think Sony has more $$ than Apple, so no, only in a just legal system. The results of the lawsuits prove it.
2. scarface3010 at 1:14pm 9th February 2011 I don't think the two are the same. The iphone is a portable device that originally was hacked to allow a user to join any network other than AT&T and by unlocking your phone it allows you to also run software that's not approved by Apple. The PS3 cannot be used on any network other than the Playstation Network. The iphone hack to my knowledge doesn't allow you to install Apple approved games without having to purchase them. The PS3 hack appears to allow you to copy a game and run the copy on the system. This circumvents the security put in place by Sony and allows for pirating. Maybe someone else can expand on this or clarify.
Trevor Whitlock at 9:49am 9th February 2011 The problem is segregating malicious hackers with beneficial hackers, some hack to have clean fun, others are similar to the wiki supporters who mean to hinder or otherwise damage intellectual data, those who hacked the Kinect are not damaging or defacing data, it is improving and cutting R&D costs and promoting people to think outside of the box rather than be a sheep.
1. scarface3010 at 2:02pm 9th February 2011 I agree with you 100%, there are legitimate and allowed hacks/modifications and then there are those individuals bent on ruining the experiences of others. A number of games allow you to create your own content. Word has been floating around on the web that Sony is planning on releasing an official set of tools to allow pc users to play with the MOVE technology to create new experiences, Kinect hacks are unsanctioned (even though Microsoft later embraced the efforts no official developmental tools have been released to the community as a whole).
Trevor Whitlock at 9:48am 9th February 2011 I'm sure Sony of all nickel and dime companies havd no problem recouping the cost of the servers and software somehow. It's hard to fathom Sony as doing anything other than being a "for profit business." Enterprise has yet to be taken over by unicef.
1. scarface3010 at 12:55pm 9th February 2011 It's not the cost of the servers, it's the fact that you may have individuals running unofficial code on them. What does this mean? This might mean that your PSN account is at risk, jeopardizing your Playstation store account... and the next time your in a multiplayer game online there will be individuals using hack in order to give them abilities that you do not have. On the software side of the coin, not all developers are first party developers (Sony owned) which means that those other developers may re-think about investing time and energy developing a game that will end up being pirated.
Tim Bledsoe at 5:37pm 9th February 2011 Kevin Butler, VP of foot in mouth. http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/9/2010/06/500x_yes_he_did.jpg #REDDEADREDEMPTION
Emily Fitzhugh at 5:35pm 9th February 2011 I hate it when that happens.
David Nakamura at 5:35pm 9th February 2011 That's effin hilarious.
PeepingTom at 7:58am 9th February 2011 I have a problem with Sony, Apple, and others who sell you hardware and try to limit what you can do on that hardware. Granted, you may open yourself up to problems by running third-party software on the hardware that you bought, but most who do this know the risks. @scarface3010, you sound like a corporate shill who works for Sony. Sony f**cked up by posting the code. It's out there for anyone who wants it. Big deal if DT reports the news. Justice. Right. Good luck with that.
1. scarface3010 at 9:50am 9th February 2011 That's assuming that the code is the official code. I'm not a corporate shill that works for Sony but I can see where Sony is coming from. Sony is offering it's servers to all of us free of charge. I don't think that it is unfair for them to restrict what can be done with the hardware if you are planning on using their network and software. If you plan on modding or hacking your system then you can do so but don't try to connect to the network and pretty much rule out playing games. Promoting hacks openly online is damaging to the industry as a whole. Sony and all systems try to provide to their "members" a fair and uniform environment for us all to game in. If you want to mod or hack your system do it but don't expect there to be a price for doing so.
scarface3010 at 7:23am 9th February 2011 I guess digital trends wishes to become involved in the Sony lawsuit. Why would your site re-post this knowing that Sony is trying to make every effort to keep this under wraps. As to vinguru896's comment, if you were a multi-billion dollar company like Sony is and you had a product that generated the revenue stream like the PS3 you would try to protect that too. To say that SCEA is a massive tool is misdirected the actual tool is Geohot... and others that tried to make us all believe that the purpose of the "hack" was to allow otheros (Linux) to run on the system again. They knew what they had in the beginning and by releasing it they've opened up the system to a number of threats... Sony is just trying to protect their investment and also safeguard the developers. Freedom of information comes with a price, we all saw how that panned out for the Wiki-leaks site. The justice is that Sony will have the Digital Millennium Act amended so that it clearly states how items like this should be handled in the future.
1. Trevor Whitlock at 9:00am 9th February 2011 ycome does Microsoft publically allow hacking the Kinect?? Does job security superceede the future of the PS3??
vinguru896 at 5:43am 9th February 2011 This is actually brilliant. I had a good laugh. I just had a long debate with my friend last night at 2am about what a dick move it was on Sony's part to, essentially, sue people for exercising freedom of information. But this proves that there is justice in the world. I don't even plan on jailbreaking my PS3, nor do I support piracy. But SCEA is being a massive tool.