Sony Gains Access to PS3 Hacker's PayPal Account

[Tom Goldman]

Sony Gains Access to PS3 Hacker's PayPal Account

A judge has awarded Sony access to the ins and outs of George Hotz's PayPal records.

Things might not be going as PS3 hacker George Hotz might have hoped in Sony's his website's visitors [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/106865-Sony-Breaks-Out-the-Lawyers-Over-PS3-Hacks], a judge has now given Sony permission to sort through Hotz's PayPal records.

The justification is so that Sony can determine who and where any donations may have come from that allegedly supported Hotz's work. The judge awarded Sony the ability to subpoena PayPal records between the dates of January 1, 2009, and February 1, 2011.

One of the issues [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/106990-PlayStation-3-Hacking-Lawsuit-Hits-a-Snag] in the case is whether or not it should be held in California as opposed to Hotz's home state of New Jersey. Sony plans to prove that California residents aided Hotz through PayPal donations so that the case can proceed on the west coast.

Hotz denies that he accepted any donations or made any profit from his PS3 hacking activities. Whether he did or not isn't the main issue, as Sony accuses Hotz of breaching the Digital Millenium Copyright Act which says that copyright protection "circumvention devices" cannot be distributed. Hotz has received plenty of donations [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/107899-PS3-Hacker-Raised-All-the-Legal-Funds-Needed-to-Beat-Sony-in-a-Weekend] towards his legal fees, so Sony could have a fight on its hands no matter the location.

Source: Wired [http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/03/playstation-hacker-paypal/]

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[Femaref]

The DMCA seems to be a "get someone into jail for free" card for corporations...

 

[KeyMaster45]

Sony continues to worry me with their less than palatable legal practices in this case. I see no reason to be accessing his paypal account. What were they unable to scrounge up enough cali residents when they wanted the list of everyone who's ever been to his site to make their case?

The longer this goes on the more Sony appears to be grasping at straws and making a bigger ass out of themselves the longer they do it.

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

Interesting that he says he hasn't received any donations from his hacking activities, but he got a TON of donations to oppose SONY... For his hacking activities.

Love the picture too, he looks like a bit of a poser.

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

Sony continues to worry me with their less than palatable legal practices in this case. I see no reason to be accessing his paypal account. What were they unable to scrounge up enough cali residents when they wanted the list of everyone who's ever been to his site to make their case?

The longer this goes on the more Sony appears to be grasping at straws and making a bigger ass out of themselves the longer they do it.

Sony isn't allowed to say "SEE! A lot of people in California looked at a website! We hold this to California Jurisdiction!!!" They CAN say "A large number of California residents have contributed/aided in the activities in which we are opposing, and so we ask jurisdiction to be held here"

I think the site was mostly to make sure he had a large enough following

 

[Baneat]

Interesting that he says he hasn't received any donations from his hacking activities, but he got a TON of donations to oppose SONY... For his hacking activities.

Love the picture too, he looks like a bit of a poser.

He's like "Sony, why you gotta be like that?"

I'm not buying any more of sony's stuff though, you can't advertise linux as a feature then remove it because someone used it as a backdoor. Let's be honest, in the grand scheme of things very few people pirate games they would have bought for the ps3.

 

[Frostbyte666]

Isn't that more an issue for the police or even his bank to sort through and show only relevant findings than lawyers from sony snooping around a guys online transactions which may have nothing to do with the case but can be horribly abused.

 

[2theAJ]

I know I could get some hate for saying this... but I kinda support Sony...

Playstation 3 was always more open than any other console, but it was hackers that forced "OtherOS" feature to be removed, It was hackers that fucked up MW, MW2 mp experience for a lot of PS3 owners.

I know I know... It's a few guys VS Corporation, but these guys are ruining peoples experience for the device they paid. 99% of the people who bought PS3 don't care if it's not as open platform as PC.

edit: yes this is my first post and no I'm not from Sony ;D

 

[Fayathon]

The amount of shit that Sony is getting away with in this case is genuinely terrifying, both because they're trying for this insanity and that they've got a judge that is happy to assist.

 

[Jumplion]

I don't even care who "wins" in this case because nobody can (as I've stated a billion+1 times). I'm just waiting for all this to come to a close so we can move on.

 

[BENZOOKA]

Sony is ever so curious!

 

[Megawat22]

It would appear Mr.Hotz has been hacked. By lawyers.
Anyway this looks like enough to scare off any more hackers hoping to bring down the man, dude!

 

[mew4ever23]

Honestly, Sony's just gone completely out of control in this case. There was no reason to subpoena records from paypal. Has Sony said why exactly they're hoping for jurisdiction in California?

I'm not buying any more of sony's stuff though.

I second that notion, I'm not buying anything made by Sony ever again. Not if this is how they're going to use the profits.

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

The amount of shit that Sony is getting away with in this case is genuinely terrifying, both because they're trying for this insanity and that they've got a judge that is happy to assist.

because they have a 3rd party, neutral faction that is allowing them to get the information they wish to build their case? You're making it sound like they have the judge in their pocket.

 

[Awexsome]

Well I guess they gotta have concrete evidence if he made any money from his hacking. I believe the guy when he says he didn't though, usually stuff like that doesn't happen and if it is, it wouldn't have been easy to prove because the people selling that stuff would want people to know they were selling the stuff in the first place.

It's a hard call for me though. I think Sony's in the right on this one where releasing that code was a bad move and is going to help pirates jailbreak their console more than anything. But the dude's not gonna have millions of dollars for Sony to sue. I hope they don't take the low ground and ruin the dude's life forever over it.

 

[Batfred]

The way that I see it is that he can do what the hell he likes as long as he sticks to hacking his hardware (which seems to be the crux of the argument). As soon as he starts teaching people how to pirate, boosting or cheating in games though, he goes on to the shit list and I hope that the lawyers drag him through the coals - that is of course if he starts doing that crap.

 

[Batfred]

I think Sony's in the right on this one where releasing that code was a bad move and is going to help pirates jailbreak their console more than anything.

I think that you are right. They'll try to focus on the distribution of the code and what he hoped to gain from it etc.