PlayStation 3 Hacking Lawsuit Hits a Snag

[Andy Chalk]

PlayStation 3 Hacking Lawsuit Hits a Snag

Sony's lawsuit against PlayStation 3 hacker George Hotz has been delayed over a question of whether the case should even be tried in a California court.

It didn't take long for Sony to early January [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/106865-Sony-Breaks-Out-the-Lawyers-Over-PS3-Hacks], nor has it taken much time for the case to hit its first legal speed bump. Sony sued Hotz in the state of California but U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston suggested that the case might need to be tried in New Jersey, Hotz's home state and where he actually committed the hack.

"I'm really worried about the jurisdictional question," the judge said.

Sony's attorney argued that the matter should be tried in California because Hotz posted information relating to the hack on PayPal [http://www.twitter.com], also a California company. While Hotz's attorney denied that he had ever received money for the hack, the judge observed that if using sites like Twitter and YouTube were enough to determine where a case should be tried, "the entire universe would be subject to my jurisdiction."

Sony then claimed that its terms of service agreement requires that all legal matters be settled in federal court in California, close to the Sony Computer Entertainment America headquarters, but the judge declined to issue an immediate ruling. "Serious questions have been raised here today," she said.

Source: Wired [http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/01/playstation-lawsuit-limbo/]


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[Casual Shinji]

Looks like Sony can't handle the truth.

 

[mjc0961]

Two problems, Sony:

1. GeoHot never actually took money. Other people did and claimed they would give it to him (yeah right).
2. He claims he never signed up for PSN and thus never agreed to your terms of service, which in turn renders that part of your argument invalid. Prove he had a PSN account and then maybe you have an argument for CA, but until then, I say move it to New Jersey.

 

[esperandote]

What if the servers where in a country where there isn't extradition?

 

[Actual]

wtf; we put it in our terms of service so the justice system needs to ignore the law and do what we want!

GTFO Sony. If I was the judge I'd have slapped them down hard for that.

 

[Mariner]

"The entire universe would be subject to my jurisdiction" if twitter and youtube were used indeed.

That quote made me laugh for some reason

 

[KeyMaster45]

Ugh, there's that terms of service stuff again. I kinda groan when I hear a company reference it in legal proceedings. Terms of Service agreements are like the Bible; lots of people agree with them but very few people have actually read them.

Wasn't there a legal precedent set some time back that said you can't hold users to the ToS if they haven't read it yet have blindly agreed to it because it prevents them from playing the game? (or something to that effect) Frankly I don't think ToS should be viable in any legal proceedings since such a thing implies companies are able to write their own laws. (I may be over exaggerating out of rant inertia here)

 

[UberNoodle]

There was a once a time when it was legal to buy something and do whatever you wanted with it. Now we have to get permission. Please Sony, can we please please please do what we like to the things we buy?

This isn't an illogical request, considering that the hack doesn't apply directly to piracy. Perhaps computers should be banned because without them, piracy would be impossible.

 

[squid5580]

Why are they pushing so hard to do it in Cali? Can't afford the plane tickets? Short on gas money? I am sure they could carpool.

 

[RockyMotion]

PSN and online gaming in the PS3 will be ruined very soon if the hacking continues this way. There are already people who play COD complaining about hackers with cheats and admin privileges. Sony should start banning consoles from PSN instead of proceeding with futile lawsuits.

 

[Reed Spacer]

Why are they pushing so hard to do it in Cali? Can't afford the plane tickets? Short on gas money? I am sure they could carpool.

I'm betting part of it is because if he can't make an appearance, he may lose the case by default.

 

[HappyHacker]

Wow at the responses here.

So they're corporate, that means that they are soulless sellout fucks now?

Fuck that, piracy is still wrong and this guy is still breaking the law.

think befor one speaks
wether piracy is wrong or not is not the issue there was no piracy in this lawsuit.
sony is suing him beceause he hacked a ps3 to be able to play custom content ie: something you yourself made or someone else made. as a side effect it also enabled people to play pirated games. all sony has to stand on that i can see is their terms of service. that he most likely never agreed to anyway. the lawsuit will likely just fall threw. on his page during the release he stated that he did not make this so people could pirate games he did this to make it ether a open console to run your own software or to expand on the ps3's capabilities.

as a side note this is my take on whats been going on i have been following this event closely.
what he did is no diffrent that someone takeing the windows 7 and improveing on it by makeing software or allowing you to run other things on it.. with this logic anyone who installed firefox or updated flash ect... so should microsoft file a lawsuit agenst the worlds population? i think not.

 

[HappyHacker]

bottom line is as far as the law goes he didnt do anything wrong. what everyone else does with the the hack thats up to them but you are right in a sense 90% of the people who use it are going to be people pirateing but thems the breaks. and you know what there is not a dam thing sony microsoft or nintendo can do about it in the long run because. as in everything in the electronic world "nothing is unhackable".

 

[Cristian Capatana]

*

 

[4RT1LL3RY]

bottom line is as far as the law goes he didnt do anything wrong. what everyone else does with the the hack thats up to them but you are right in a sense 90% of the people who use it are going to be people pirateing but thems the breaks. and you know what there is not a dam thing sony microsoft or nintendo can do about it in the long run because. as in everything in the electronic world "nothing is unhackable".

The DMCA could still apply here. The problem Sony is facing is that Jurisdiction is part of the ToS of PSN, and there are no PSN accounts for the those involved in the for-mentions claims.

Copyright circumvention device will be the DMCA claim, but the original team didn't do that, they released the key used for signing packages. Stock firmware lack the necessary calls to run pirated games, the various custom firmwares available usually just add a package manager so you can install unsigned packages, emulators etc.

The problem Sony will face if they ban modded consoles from PSN is that they have no method of buying stuff from PSN any more, aka excuse for piracy.

 

[MiKeSt3r]

Personally i don't see why people aren't allowed to fuck about with their consoles. I know i basically rape my pc with changes to make it more suitable to be. What can't console users do the same?

 

[Gormers1]

Sugar coat it all you want, it's fucking piracy.

Why do you think custom firmware exists for PSPs? Just to play custom content? Don't make me laugh. It's to download games for free, you know it is. Sony knows it is too. That's why they are suing.

Why do you think jailbreak exist for iphones? Just to play pirated content?

The dude didnt make the ps3 able to play pirated games.
http://g4tv.com/videos/50733/hacking--jailbreaking-with-george-hotz/