Gamers exploiting PS3 Network sharing
Our very own Nick Haywood has discovered that PS3 gamers have been filling their boots with free PS3 Online Store's arcade titles, such as Calling All Cars and flOw, by using the PS3 file sharing system, which allows the person who has bought the title to pass it onto his friends.
This 'sharing' practice does have its downside as it allows those who you pass the games onto to see your credit card details, but providing you have some trustworthy mates then you can all share the content for a fraction of the price.
Sony have previously announced that players who download games from PlayStation's online shop can share them on up to five other PS3 machines, so it seems to all be totally legal.
This is what Sony say on the matter:
Content that you purchased may be used by other users on an activated PLAYSTATION 3 system unit after you downloaded the content onto your PLAYSTATION 3 system unit. Some content may require the user to have a PLAYSTATION Network account, and other content may require you to have additional game content that may be sold separately. For example, you may need to purchase a full game in order to use the character that you purchased on the PLAYSTATION Network for the game. Please review the use restrictions associated with the content you purchased. The content may be played up on to 5 activated PLAYSTATION 3 system units at any one time. PLAYSTATION 3 system units may be deactivated so that you can change which PLAYSTATION 3 system units are activated at any time.
Although this doesn't tell us exactly whether we are allowed to share games such as Calling All Cars, it does suggest that it may depend on the license for that particular game as to whether it's illegal or not. Currently it appears that it's a matter of whether you can cope with having a guilty conscience, for ignoring the any license restrictions, rather than being restricted in any way from passing them onto friends.
