That's not the case, you cannot downgrade firmware at any time.
Some people here are showing such hostility towards those affected by this.
I don't think we're heard the last of this yet, at least here in the UK. A member of neoGAF forum has already successful challenged the seller (in this case amazon uk) by quoting the relevant EU directive on the sale of goods stating the product no longer conforms to the functionality under which it was advertised and sold. As a result they've offered him a reduction in the price of the product by around £80 (effectively a refund of this amount as compensation for the loss of functionality, or around 20% of the value of the original PS3). I'm fairly certain amazon would not have acted so quickly on this unless they were absolutely certain they would then be able to pass on the cost of this back to the manufacturer , Sony, under this directive. (after all this has been caused by Sony).
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