Sonys battle to block the distribution of a hack for its PlayStation 3 PS3 has been won in an Australian court but lost on the internet.
The court ruled on Friday that a ban on distribution of the PS3Jailbreak "dongle", first issued on 27 August, would be made permanent.
However, on Thursday the software code behind the hack was released on the internet as "open-source".
The hack permits homemade games to be played on the console.
It has also already been modified by other hackers to permit the playing of pirated games.
The ban prevents OzModChips, ModSupplier and Quantronics from importing, distributing or selling the device in Australia, although it names the "supplier" as Chinese firm China Sun Trading Limited.
The court order demands that the distributors hand over any stocks of the dongles.
Distributors in other countries have received substantially similar court documents banning the sale of the dongles.
However, the courts action was pre-empted when another group of hackers decided to develop and release PSGroove, the code behind the hack, on the internet.
Mathieu Hervais told BBC News he is one of about 20 hackers involved in the development of PSGroove.
"We want people to run the software they like on the system they paid for without it having to be licensed by Sony," he said.
"We released it on the internet because we believe in openness, choice and innovation from everyone.
"We understand games console makers point of view as well when it comes to protecting their income or business models, we just believe compromises could be made to keep everyone happy."
Sony declined to comment on the court case or the release of the open-source code.
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