I got contacted about this thread on reddit that talks about a recent change of the terms of service of Sony’s PSN. Reddit user jixosin says:

Just opened PlayStation Store and notified of PSN terms of service change as of the end of July, there is a bit of new stuff regarding modification of system software and piracy, anything to be worried about?

He goes on and quotes the changes that are visible to him in the Terms of Service update:

I’ve read through most of the relevant stuff, while this isn’t anything new it stands out and is more specific; this results in a PSN ban as well as more consequences like console ban too:

disrupt, misuse, modify, adapt, translate, hack, crack, reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble any Product or part of any Product (or any equipment, system or infrastructure used in connection with the PSN) for any reason unless expressly permitted by applicable law; or (iii) create any derivative works, attempt to create the source code from the object code, or download a Product or any part of any Product for any purpose not authorised by us; or (iv) scrape, copy, reproduce, communicate to the public or transmit, use for public performance or exploit any Product or part of any Product including any information accessed via or in connection with the PSN; or (v) use or make available unauthorised hardware or software to access or interact with the PSN or its Products (including any cheat code or devices that circumvent security features or limitations); or (vi) bypass or attempt to bypass any user authentication system or security features unless expressly permitted by law;

Such an update would certainly echo my fears that HENkaku could lead to some bans, but this time I’ll try to be the voice of reason and say there is no reason to be worried about this update, at least not more than when I said that bans might come. Here’s why:

First, as others have pointed out, this update is specific to the EU PSN. The US counterpart, apparently, hasn’t been updated since April. If that update had been in reaction to the HENkaku launch, I would expect it to have happened on all PSN terms of service, not only the EU one. It seems this one update has more to do with a recent legal change of the name “Sony Network Entertainment Europe Limited” to “Sony Interactive Entertainment Network Europe Limited”, and less with tinkerers.

By comparison, here is what the US Terms and conditions for the PSN say about hacks:

Except as stated in this Agreement, all content and software provided through PSN First Party Services are licensed non-exclusively and revocably to you, your children and children for whom you are a legal guardian (collectively for purposes of this section, “You” or “Your”), solely for Your personal, private, non-transferable, non-commercial, limited use on a limited number of Authorized Devices in the country in which your account is registered. All intellectual property rights subsisting in PSN First Party Services, including all software, data, and content subsisting in or used in connection with PSN First Party Services, the Online ID and access to content and hardware used in connection with PSN First Party Services (collectively defined as “Property”), belong to SIENA and its licensors. This license and all use or access to Property is expressly conditioned on your compliance with this Agreement’s terms, other applicable agreements, if any, and all applicable copyright and intellectual property rights laws.

Your compliance with all of the following are express conditions of Your license to use or access the Property. You may not sell, rent, lease, loan, sublicense, modify, adapt, arrange, translate, reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble any portion of the Property. Except as stated in this Agreement or as SIENA expressly permits by SIENA, you may not reproduce or transfer any portion of the Property. You may not create any derivative works, attempt to create the source code from the object code, or download or use any Property for any purpose other than as expressly permitted. You may not bypass, disable, or circumvent any encryption, security, digital rights management or authentication mechanism in connection with PSN First Party Services, Authorized Devices, or any of the content or services offered through PSN First Party Services.

Secondly, as jixosin and others also mention on reddit, this isn’t totally new. These statements were already in the PSN ToS in one shape or another: Sony reserves the right to ban people who hack their console, in particular those who start messing up with the Network (which includes in particular people who cheat online or think it might be a good idea to start tinkering with trophies).

Bottom line is, there doesn’t seem to be any (additional) reason to freak out here.

Nevertheless, I’d still recommend people to not use their own PSN account on a PS Vita that has HENkaku running. But maybe that’s just me being paranoid.