GeoHot and Sony Settle PS3 Jailbreak Case

[John Funk]

GeoHot and Sony Settle PS3 Jailbreak Case

It's a peaceful ending for George "GeoHot" Hotz after all - the infamous PS3 jailbreaker and Sony have settled their differences out of court.

The reached a settlement [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/106865-Sony-Breaks-Out-the-Lawyers-Over-PS3-Hacks] in the matter.

While the full terms of the settlement aren't clear (and likely never will be), what we do know is that Hotz consented to a "permanent injunction" in the matter, likely in exchange for Sony agreeing not to try and sue him back to the stone age. In all likelihood, this permanent injunction is a long-form version of the preliminary injunction that forced Hotz to take down the PS3 "jailbreak code" that allowed console owners to bypass the PS3's security.

"Sony is glad to put this litigation behind us," said Sony's General Counsel Riley Russell. "Our motivation for bringing this litigation was to protect our intellectual property and our consumers. We believe this settlement and the permanent injunction achieve this goal."

For his part, Hotz seemed glad to have it all over with. "It was never my intention to cause any users trouble or to make piracy easier," said the hacking mastermind, "I'm happy to have the litigation behind me." Presumably he's off to try his hand hacking Windows Phone 7 with Microsoft's blessing [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/107076-Jailbreaker-Decides-to-Move-to-Windows-Phone-7-Microsoft-Delighted].

"We want our consumers to be able to enjoy our devices and products in a safe and fun environment and we want to protect the hard work of the talented engineers, artists, musicians and game designers who make PlayStation games and support the PlayStation Network," added Russell. "We appreciate Mr. Hotz's willingness to address the legal issues involved in this case and work with us to quickly bring this matter to an early resolution."

We'll probably never know the circumstances that led to this, but it's interesting to speculate. Was Hotz beginning to feel the legal pressure in the face of silly statements like claiming to Anonymous' anti-Sony attacks [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/108838-Geohot-Claims-Hes-Never-Heard-of-Sony-Computer-Entertainment-of-America] that pushed the media giant to the bargaining table? Or perhaps Sony simply didn't want to lose a lawsuit and set a dangerous (for them) legal precedent.

Either way, while this battle may be over I can't help but feel as though nothing has truly been resolved in the grand scheme of things. Oh well.

I hope this means that GeoHot is going to give all of that money for legal defense [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/107899-PS3-Hacker-Raised-All-the-Legal-Funds-Needed-to-Beat-Sony-in-a-Weekend] back. If he doesn't, I have a feeling he'll be in court once again before it's all said and done.

(PlayStation Blog [http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/04/11/settlement-in-george-hotz-case/])

Permalink

 

[Arachon]

Yay! This means that Sony can continue to treat hardware purchased by their customers as company property! A great day for us all.

 

[Aeshi]

A tie.

Everybody loses this one.

 

[mireko]

This is good news. Hopefully both parties can go on and do something a little more worthwhile now.

 

[Cyclone of Mystery]

Yeah, I doubt Anon had anything to do with this. Glad it's over, though.

 

[Danpascooch]

Smart move, Georgie Boy. 'Cause you were most certainly on your way to getting about 12 inches of Sony penis up your rectum.

And if you don't immediately return the money that was donated your Legal Defense Fund, I just might class-action your ass for fraud, false pretenses, theft, and any other claims I might be able to cook up against you.

You do realize he has paid his lawyers up till now right? And he said he would donate whatever is left over when he accepted the donations.

As long as the money is used to pay his lawyers up till now, and the rest is donated like he claimed up front, there is no fraud. And he sure as hell shouldn't pay it ALL back, it's not like the lawyers worked for free up till now.

Honestly, this seems like somewhat of a victory for GeoHotz, think about it, the root key got out, and he didn't go to jail or owe Sony millions of dollars, sounds like a victory to me at least.

 

[Monshroud]

I think this settlement was Sony's doing. I think their legal team was going to have a hard time proving their case and the risk of failure would have opened some pretty big doors for others to walk all over them.

You don't settle a case if you think you are going to win and can set precident. You settle if you have a fear of losing.

 

[Snake Plissken]

Goddammit...that's so fucking boring. I was really hoping that SOMEONE would get screwed in this case...

 

[ZeZZZZevy]

So in other words...nothing really happened.
Bah.
Also, It seems like Sony still kinda won,considering they got all they wanted, while GeoHot didn't get his hacking freedom.

 

[Wolfram23]

He doesn't have to give the money back, he said he'd donate the remains to some group... so hopefully he follows through with that.

Anyway, kind of shitty that it's over. I would have liked to find out what the legal system thinks of Sony more or less claiming ownership of all their sold PS3s.

 

[Callate]

Well, that settles nothing.

I can't really hold it against an individual for not "standing up as the lone voice against the corporate yatta yatta blah blah blah" when the likely result would be spending the next year or more in and out of court rooms and possibly spending the next several years of your life in prison and/or bankruptcy.

Still, the only possible good thing that could have come of this was that we might get some legal precedent regarding consumer rights, and that remains up in the air. And you know this isn't going to be the last time it comes up.

Hopefully the pro-consumer-rights people won't decide on the basis of this that it isn't worth circling the wagons next time.

 

[mjc0961]

Boo! Now we have to wait for another lawsuit for Sony to get told in a court of law that they don't own consoles we buy. Still no justice for everyone who got screwed over by Sony forcing everyone to choose between Install Other OS or PSN services.

Yep, today is a bad day to be a Sony customer for sure. I think I'm going to go play some Xbox.

 

[viranimus]

Goddammit...that's so fucking boring. I was really hoping that SOMEONE would get screwed in this case...

Bah.. I think we all got screwed with this one.

 

[Veloxe]

WHAT! *throws his popcorn to the ground*

Worst ending ever! I want my money back.

 

[JDKJ]

Smart move, Georgie Boy. 'Cause you were most certainly on your way to getting about 12 inches of Sony penis up your rectum.

And if you don't immediately return the money that was donated your Legal Defense Fund, I just might class-action your ass for fraud, false pretenses, theft, and any other claims I might be able to cook up against you.

You do realize he has paid his lawyers up till now right? And he said he would donate whatever is left over when he accepted the donations.

As long as the money is used to pay his lawyers up till now, and the rest is donated like he claimed up front, there is no fraud. And he sure as hell shouldn't pay it ALL back, it's not like the lawyers worked for free up till now.

Honestly, this seems like somewhat of a victory for GeoHotz, think about it, the root key got out, and he didn't go to jail or owe Sony millions of dollars, sounds like a victory to me at least.

Wrong. If tell you I want your money because I'm going to use it to wage a legal battle that will benefit you also by setting a legal precedent when I prevail before the Court and then I bail out on my promised legal battle long before the point of ever prevailing, then, my friend, that is most certainly fraud and obtaining property under false pretenses.

 

[ace_of_something]

Am I the only one who doesn't give a shit about being able to mod my system at will? I bought a PlayStation3 to play PlayStation3 games.

Well, that settles nothing.
Still, the only possible good thing that could have come of this was that we might get some legal precedent regarding consumer rights, and that remains up in the air. And you know this isn't going to be the last time it comes up.

nope, cases settled out of court absolutely do NOT set any precedent in the American legal system. That's part of why big companies often choose to do it.

 

[Treaos Serrare]

its disappointing that nothing truly got resolved in this, at least Sony didn't have him killed

 

[Dastardly]

GeoHot and Sony Settle PS3 Jailbreak Case

So you'll be retiring that picture, right?

In my mind, this was the outcome Sony was always hoping to reach. Out-of-court settlements usually go much better in relatively untested legal ground like this, and this decreases the chances of Sony somehow losing the case on a technicality.

In the end, a lot of folks are going to hold this as another example of "big company scaring little person into settling," but I really have to wonder if there's any other way for things like this to end. Sometimes the "underdog" is actually wrong, and a company shouldn't have to use kid gloves to give someone a "fair chance" when they're in the right.

I'm glad it's done, though. Sony got what it wanted, and no one is a gajillion dollars in the hole. Sony hasn't outlawed hacking of the PS3, they've just made it illegal to publicly post the root key. The sky isn't falling.