Hobbies And Interests
Bricking
̶0;Bricking̶1; is a term commonly used in mod-hobbyist communities to refer to the unfortunate scenario in which hardware is rendered useless during a modification gone awry. The term comes from the fact that a bricked item is relegated to an expensive, electronic paperweight.
Legality
The legality of using custom firmware, or CFW, on PlayStation 3 remains subject to legal debate at the time of this article. Court decisions exempting jailbreaking techniques on devices such as the iPhone from Digital Millennium Copyright Act prosecution have established a basic precedent that as long as the firmware isn't used to facilitate copyright infringement or piracy, it is legal. These court rulings make no direct reference to game consoles, so it is still something of a gray area.
Sony's Policies
Sony has adopted a policy that using custom firmware or otherwise hacking the PS3 is a violation of their software license agreement, terms of service and user agreement. As a result, PS3 owners with custom firmware installed on their systems may be permanently banned from the PlayStation Network. Sony follows a strict, zero-tolerance policy on custom firmware and regards it as a security and piracy issue. No precedent has been established regarding legal applications of custom firmware as of this writing.
Warranty
Sony cautions that installing custom firmware on the PS3 will void the owner̵7;s warranty. This is spelled out in Sony̵7;s limited warranty, which excludes coverage for any product "modified or tampered with" or "used in a manner that would violate the terms and conditions of a separate end user license agreement for system software." Users who install custom firmware on the PS3 do so at their own peril.