Sony Gains Access to PS3 Hacker's PayPal Account

[geldonyetich]

Interesting move on Sony's part, to actually level threat of legal retribution upon everyone who supported the legal fees to fight them. Way to stand up as a visible oppressor of free speech there.

 

[Dana22]

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

Indeed. Shit like this wouldn't fly in Europe, trust me on this.

You forgot ACTA.

 

[Brad Shepard]

Sony? Yea, Brad Shepard here, You got enough money to NOT CARE ABOUT THIS! Get off your cross of "Oh we have had a case of ze hacks!" And get the hell over it.

 

[hayaineko]

Welcome to last decade, when corporations gutted "fair use" laws, to pave the way to saying you did not actually own dvds, cds, and games you bought, but that you just are borrowing a license, and therefore you have no right to make a personal copy or do anything with them. or reincode movies you own if you move to a different region so they work on that regions dvd players etc, nope you are required to burn your dvds, cds and games and rebuy your whole library.

Where was all this outrage when this was going on? There is a more valid argument that i should be able to buy a barney dvd for my kids, make a backup copy for them to view since you know kids like to color throw break dvds given half a chance but the gitted laws say that is illegal and i should just give them the retail dvd and pay to have it replaced when something goes wrong. Same thing with games, you used to be able to make a personal backup copy that was all good under fair use, i think it even still held for vhs and cassettes.

This is bigger than some random geek that hacked a ps3 vs the evil corp sony, this is a case that will determine if you in fact own or do not own your console and have the right to do with it what you want, that includes smash it with a hammer, throw it in the bathtub, or reverse engineer it. Those are the stakes here.

Sony does seem to be going overboard in its scope, but if the judge allowed it i think it is safe to assume that they showed the judge something that seemed to indicate that something was going on despite his claims, it sure seems like they would have had to to to just allow them to go digging thru all his paypal records.

This case is far more interesting and important tho to be flaming each other over. This case could determine your rights on your wii or xbox or ps3 for decades to come.

Eh...? So wait... Making .iso backups of all my retail games is illegal in the US?

 

[jp201]

Does anyone else want to smack this guy based on that picture? He looks like a total idiot wanna-be gangster, yo!

Can we get a better picture of this guy? All I can think of when I see that picture is "I'M A DOUCHE! DDDDOOOOOUUUUCCCCCCHHHHHHHEEEEEEE!!"

Why, I see I am not alone.

That's actually what i thought of when i looked at that pic "what a douche". just for some reason his doucheness look resulted in me siding in favor of sony.

Also sony should be asking for the case to be in california because the law favors them there. It happens very often in the courts that the two sides fight over the location of the proceeding simply because it favors one side.

If New Jersey favored sony then they would try to get the case there and the hacker would try to get the case in california.

Its the way our court system works in the United Stats and if you don't like it well tough shit.

 

[gundamrx101]

You know, a lot of people saying they're worried or think Sony has gone too far ought to read the actual user agreement when installing the new firmware update. It specifically states that the console may be yours, the firmware isn't. He broke the firmware and then DISTRIBUTED the rootkey, which according to the user agreement, isn't his to distribute. Don't give that 'we bought the console' garabge either, Sony agrees you bought the console, but they're supplying the firmware which means as long as you accept the update you have to abide by their rules. They aren't over stepping, they're backing up the user agreement we all agreed to when we intalled their firmware.

 

[Defense]

Sony? Yea, Brad Shepard here, You got enough money to NOT CARE ABOUT THIS! Get off your cross of "Oh we have had a case of ze hacks!" And get the hell over it.

You're thinking of the Wii. Sony lost $300 on every 20GB PS3 at launch and the PS3 stopped bleeding money in July.

 

[Darkauthor81]

So why is it so important to them to hold this case in California rather than New Jersey? Does Sony have some sort of legal edge if it's held in California?

 

[cthur]

I support Sony with this case. Is it scary that they are able to access all this information? Yes, however they are just trying to protect their console. The code that this guy released could be manipulated by others to pirate PS3 games. Ultimately Sony is also protecting all of their customers as well. Like someone said earlier, hackers are the reason that "OtherOS" feature had been taken away.

I think it would be funny at the end of all this Sony ended up hiring GeoHotz to work for them.

 

[sunburst]

Wouldn't you seek injunction, impoundment, and/or destruction of any soft- and hardware that was used by someone to break into your computer? Or perhaps financial compensation if they put, or something on your computer that was not supposed to be there? Or, conversely, took something from your computer that you found valuable?

Took something that I found valuable? Perhaps they removed the option to install another OS that was a primary reason behind my purchase? Yeah, I guess that would upset me. I'd probably do whatever I could to gain back what they took. And apparently I'd be a criminal. Go figure.

 

[thetruefallen]

If i bought a PS3 as a paperweight would Sony then sue me because I violated the terms of use? Forgive my backwater opinion but this is just another lawsuit from a big corporation that is only upset because they didn't get what they wanted with the very first thereat. Too used to getting there own way in markets where they hold supreme authority (mostly music) they don't understand that modding and hacking have been a mainstay for the video game industry since its conception and probably will be till the end of days. They will never win this fight as a whole. While they may succeed in sending Mr. Hotz to jail someone else will take up the fight and hack the next console that Sony and any other industry Juggernaut bring out onto the market, because that what these people do. The "it works one way be default but what if it did this instead, that would be much better" or "because I can" mentalities will always be there because some people in the general community will always be smart enough to work around what ever roadblocks are in place.

 

[mjc0961]

What? This is stupid. I don't know who I have less respect for here: Sony for pulling this stunt, or the judge for letting them do it. I just hope Paypal fights it, because this is nonsense and they seem to be the only one left who can say "Hey, no way to this shit!" seeing as GeoHot and his lawyer(s) already failed to stop Sony.

 

[Bretty]

Wow california... wow.

So much for privacy. Land of the brave... but not the free 8(

 

[Magikarp]

Why the hell didn't he put it online anonymously? If you do something like that, you are just asking for a lawsuit.

 

[Dogstile]

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

Read the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976. It's a criminal offense to hack or otherwise circumvent copyright protection measures, including DRM. The DMCA not a 'get someone into jail for free' card; it's meant to protect companies Intellectual Properties.

Wouldn't you seek injunction, impoundment, and/or destruction of any soft- and hardware that was used by someone to break into your computer? Or perhaps financial compensation if they put, or something on your computer that was not supposed to be there? Or, conversely, took something from your computer that you found valuable?

See, I find this funny, because you use the example of somebody taking away something from your computer that you found valuable.

That's exactly what Sony did by removing the other OS option.

 

[Hiroshi Mishima]

Welcome to last decade, when corporations gutted "fair use" laws, to pave the way to saying you did not actually own dvds, cds, and games you bought, but that you just are borrowing a license, and therefore you have no right to make a personal copy or do anything with them. or reincode movies you own if you move to a different region so they work on that regions dvd players etc, nope you are required to burn your dvds, cds and games and rebuy your whole library.

Where was all this outrage when this was going on? There is a more valid argument that i should be able to buy a barney dvd for my kids, make a backup copy for them to view since you know kids like to color throw break dvds given half a chance but the gitted laws say that is illegal and i should just give them the retail dvd and pay to have it replaced when something goes wrong. Same thing with games, you used to be able to make a personal backup copy that was all good under fair use, i think it even still held for vhs and cassettes.

This is bigger than some random geek that hacked a ps3 vs the evil corp sony, this is a case that will determine if you in fact own or do not own your console and have the right to do with it what you want, that includes smash it with a hammer, throw it in the bathtub, or reverse engineer it. Those are the stakes here.

Sony does seem to be going overboard in its scope, but if the judge allowed it i think it is safe to assume that they showed the judge something that seemed to indicate that something was going on despite his claims, it sure seems like they would have had to to to just allow them to go digging thru all his paypal records.

This case is far more interesting and important tho to be flaming each other over. This case could determine your rights on your wii or xbox or ps3 for decades to come.

I'm glad someone see's the scope of this Sony vs Geohot thing.

Exactly my line of thinking, I am so glad someone came out and said what I was thinking all along. A lot of the people who are rooting for Sony haven't the slightest idea of what they're really supporting when they want Sony to win. It isn't just "punishing a guy for wanting to restore a feature Sony unfairly removed" - and don't give me the bullshit about the "user agreement", because that is nothing more than an escape clause allowing Sony to get away with whatever kinda crap they want. In the end it's all about making money, and perhaps Sony genuinely felt it was too beneficial to pirating.. but guess what guys?

Nintendo tried something similar with the Wii. How many of you remember the 4.2 firmware update that didn't hurt the people who enjoyed Homebrew insomuch as it hurt people who hadn't done anything at all? Yeah, bricked a lot of consoles of innocent bystanders, and that's essentially what Sony did with the PS3 by removing OtherOS and whatever other features are no longer available. Just cause it didn't actually brick the system doesn't mean it didn't render the thing useless to a lot of people who bought it.

You can spout all the nonsense you want about Sony being justified in its actions, but in the end, you're only hurting other users and giving corporations the opportunity to pull the wool out from under its users.

I may not support pirating officially, but I fully support what this guy was doing. There should be nothing wrong with modifying something you fucking bought for your own use. This stuff about not owning the firmware, well we don't own the operating systems for our computers, but plenty of people sure do go around tinkering with them to suit their needs. Without the freedom to experiment with our stuff, we lose the ability to grow and adapt. If we leave this solely in the hands of people who don't care about change and are only interested in making money, we'll never grow.. neither as a society, nor in technological advancement.

..okay that last bit was me going off on a tangent, I apologize. But in the end, my point still stands, and there is nothing anyone can say to me which will change my mind that Sony needs to be slapped down, and companies need to be dragged kicking and screaming into the Information Age where they can learn to adapt/evolve with the times, or die out like the unfortunate dinosaurs... This may not be WMG vs YouTube, but it is in a similar boat that companies just don't know how to survive in today and seem to still think they can just sue everyone for whatever little reason they think of. Them going after the PayPal accounts will still get them information on people who aren't even a party to what was going on, and that itself is wrong on so many levels...

 

[RikSharp]

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.

QFT and the first thing i thought when i read the title.
i sure hope that when this article says "sony" they mean "lawyers working on behalf of sony"

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

So why is it so important to them to hold this case in California rather than New Jersey? Does Sony have some sort of legal edge if it's held in California?

Because California is the only place in the U.S. that will see a video game related case. The other states think that a video game business based lawsuit isn't worth their time. They think it's trivial. California just voted down a bill that would restrict violent video game sales. Other states would have passed it very qiuckly.

 

[Darkauthor81]

So why is it so important to them to hold this case in California rather than New Jersey? Does Sony have some sort of legal edge if it's held in California?

Because California is the only place in the U.S. that will see a video game related case. The other states think that a video game business based lawsuit isn't worth their time. They think it's trivial. California just voted down a bill that would restrict violent video game sales. Other states would have passed it very qiuckly.

Ahhh so that's it. Thank you for the info.