Sony updated their User Agreement today, revealing some new features that are coming to the PS3 and PSP. You can read the whole User Agreement here, but we’ll summarize all the new happenings. The User Agreement indicates these changes take effect on October 30th, 2007.

There are many instances in the new User Agreement that refer to uploading materials to the PlayStation Network. Here’s a couple excerpts:

You may not upload, post, stream, or otherwise transmit any content that contains any viruses, worms, spyware, time bombs, or other computer programs that may damage, interfere with, or disrupt PSN.

[...]

You may not take any action, or upload, post, stream, or otherwise transmit any content, language, images or sounds in any forum, communication, public profile, or other publicly viewable areas or in the creation of any Online ID that SCEA, in its sole discretion, finds offensive, hateful, or vulgar.

With the PlayStation Eye coming out soon, this doesn’t seem too surprising. This could also be covering user content being shared over the PlayStation Network, as we know Unreal Tournament 3 will allow mods and sharing a content.

Here’s another statement, that could indicate a gamercard type of feature coming from Sony:

You hereby authorize SCEA to use, distribute, copy, display, and publish information relating to your game play for gaming purposes including tournaments and ranking, without payment to you.

This could very well just be for ranking purposes on some websites, but it also could cover them for showing gamercard info on the internet.

Another part of the User Agreement seems to indicate being able to take screenshots in games:

In addition, you will have the option to post, stream or transmit pictures, photographs, game related materials, or other information through PSN to share with the PSN community (”User Material”), provided no rights of others are violated. You authorize and sublicense SCEA the right to authorize anyone to use, distribute, copy, modify, display, and publish your User Material in any manner on any medium without payment to you, and you hereby waive all claims, including any moral rights, against SCEA, its affiliates and subsidiaries for SCEA or any other third party’s use of User Material and game play information, as applicable. By posting, streaming, or transmitting any User Material, you represent and warrant that you have the appropriate rights to use, post, distribute, and transmit the User Material and to grant SCEA the rights stated in the foregoing sentence. You further agree to cooperate with SCEA in resolving any dispute that may arise from your User Material. SCEA reserves the right to remove any User Material at its sole discretion.

It looks like Sony is putting some big things into the PlayStation Network in the near future. I’m sure we’ll hear some more new information soon, with possibly a new firmware update coming soon.