Sony releases PSP security patch
Yeah, er, we might skip that one.
Sony's released a 2.01 firmware upgrade for Japanese PSPs. Its only function, as far as we can work out, is to close the security hole that allows people to downgrade their systems to version 1.5 system software, which can be easily manipulated to run homemade emulators, games and other software applications loaded onto the Memory Stick.
We'd question the logic behind this 2.01 strategy of Sony's, but then we'd end up using the word "logic" in conjunction with it, which wouldn't do at all. The patch has to be manually applied to a Japanese PSP running 2.00, but surely the people who are prepared to apply will have decided they don't care about downgrading anyway? It doesn't actually make any difference to anything else – there certainly aren't any games out there that won't work without it, and you can fool the ones that think they need 1.51/2 or 2.00 into running on earlier firmware anyway.
It's not so much locking the stable door after the horses have bolted, then, as it is asking the bloke who opened the stable door in the first place if he wouldn't mind going off, fetching the horses, putting them back again and then locking the door afterward. The only other explanation is that this so-called security update has been designed to prey on the gullible and uninformed. Surely not!
By the way – the website warns people outside Japan not to apply it and to wait for regional versions to emerge. So far there's no sign of it on the American PSP system update page.
Still, if you own a Japanese PSP and want to apply 2.01, you can do so on the Sony Japan website. Doing so renders you slightly less naughty than you were before, but you're still going to hell for buying a Japanese PSP in the first place. That said, you're not the only ones.
