Could Importers be locked out of online gaming and browsing?

**Chubbs** · 14th March 2007

Hi all

The more technical amoungst you should (hopefully) be able to answer this question.

If Sony wanted to ban imported PS3s running in the incorrect region could they?

Could they base the IP address against the individual MAC code and say bog off?

I'm not infering that they would go after individual gamers but just a blanket warning accross the grey market

**hxbro** · 14th March 2007

they could do, the radio report said the other day they would block downloads from the shop from people in the wrong region. They could base the access off certain ip blocks that are known to belong to a company/isp in a country, although in some cases (AOL) the ip's they dish out are from the wrong country to where the user is accessing from.

**tonys** · 14th March 2007

Not sure they'd want to do this at an IP level but you can Sony banning access to online services for foreign consoles. I guess that would just be another check during authentication.

**ultra238a** · 14th March 2007

Each PS3 has its own MAC address so they could actually track each one if they really wanted to as they will know which MAC address ranges went to which territory.

**ruggie_uk** · 14th March 2007

If they went down this route, they would be just confirming their contempt for euro gamers.
Gits.

**andymac746** · 15th March 2007

I'm sure it would'nt be too long before someone designed a little box to fool the live server it was a uk console.

**ultra238a** · 15th March 2007

You can mask the MAC address of anything on your home LAN usually in the router with MAC address spoofing but then they could get you on your IP address as well, maybe.

Originally Posted by andymac746

I'm sure it would'nt be too long before someone designed a little box to fool the live server it was a uk console.

**ant3b** · 15th March 2007

if this happens thats basically a load of poo. i went out showed my support for sony!! actually buying the console..!!!

**ruggie_uk** · 15th March 2007

As is the usual case with these sort of things. People who buy the originals end up being the ones inconvenienced - Just like with DRM.
The very people they are trying to lock out end up being the ones with the easy life.
When will they learn.