Sony Wins Restraining Order Against Geohot

[JDKJ]

With that judge tip-toeing around jurisdiction issues, I would have to think Hotz has had plenty of time to disappear anything that makes him even remotely culpable to any civil suit made by Sony.

I have a feeling this is going to be a no-win for Sony.

What sucks is after all of this or even before it is done, Sony is going to get all whiny and pissy and then screw everyone over with something over the top draconian to brick every PS3.
PlayStation 3 owners, disconnect your cables now before Sony acts. You'll be lucky to play Zork or Hangman on a system.

If he did wave his magic wand and make stuff disappear, he -- and his attorneys, if they were party -- could regret performing that magic act. There are rules against destroying relevant evidence once you've been sued or have knowledge that a suit is imminent. Besides, nothing's ever really irretrievably disappeared from a hard drive. Give a hard drive to any decent forensic technician and they can often make reappear that which had disappeared. If any disappearing act is discovered and brought to the attention of the Court along with a request for sanctions, it could result in an automatic win for the plaintiff. Courts don't take kindly to litigants who destroy evidence.

 

[JDKJ]

Geohot was hacking OtherOS to get access to the RSX, which Sony should have provided from the start (rather than blocking it out in 2.10), so Sony removes OtherOS, which screws over people who explicitly bought the PS3 for that feature. He then hacks it again to put OtherOS back.

That's total misuse of the DMCA, but it's not as if it's ever been used properly anyway.

Are you saying that because Sony removed the OtherOS feature from the PS3, that Hotz is justified in hacking it so he can reinstate the OtherOS feature? Is that some kinda "an eye for an eye" argument? If Sony removed a feature that purchasers relied on in making their purchase, then the remedy is to give Sony back its product, have them return the purchase price, and otherwise hold them accountable for false advertising or deceptive trade practice or something of the like. But there's no moral, ethical, or legal basis to violate the law and create your own remedy by hacking the product. That's just two wrongs (which never make a right).

 

[Cid Silverwing]

So Sony is going after a guy who cracked their security? Shit they should ask him how he did it and develop something better off that, not go after him with a lawsuit.

Shows how stupidly selfish corporate are these days.

 

[UberNoodle]

If only SOny would be honest about this. The same goes for Nintendo and Microsoft. The same goes for the MPAA who sue the makers of region free media players.

YOU ARE REALLY SUING FOR 'LOSS OF A CONTROL OVER A MARKET'. Can one sue for that? Well they can, if they manipulate clauses in copyright acts to change the focus from what the modifications in question ARE USED FOR to how they are MADE. Ok, so THEN they sue for the breach in copyright required to MAKE the modification, ie, the illigitimate use of keys and code.

But this is rubbish. These companies and organisations lobbied ... er ... I mean 'bribed', the US government for years to put such language into acts like DMCA. They made it look 'fair' by even claiming to make available, 'managed copies' in the DVD age. Um ... where were they? According to the DMCA, any technology that cracks content protection and even region protection codes is in violation because of the reason stated above.

It is sickening that such things be distorted as copyright infringment, put up there with ACTUAL examples of piracy. How can consumers be a criminalised in such a way?

 

[ECHO 062]

"it was appropriate to try the case in California, since Hotz lives in New Jersey and committed his alleged crime in that state. "Serious questions have been raised here today," Judge Susan Illston said at the time.
Those questions appear to be answered, at least for the moment. In a ruling made yesterday, the Judge declared that her court "may exercise specific jurisdiction over Hotz because he purposefully directed his activities at the forum state."

Am I missing something here? How is it that he can be tried in a State were he does not live, and where Sony (presumably, being a Japanese company) is not based? Surely that's not right? I don't get it. Surely he should be tried in the state where he lives, as if he hasn't broken any laws there, he hasn't done anything illegal?

 

[geekcj]

they took his toys....BASTARDS. They must be afraid he is going to hack the ngp before its release

 

[Void Droid]

What he did should have been perfectly legal. He owned the machine he modified.

If he did do it for himself then I doubt Sony would really care but he overstepped the line when he shared how it was done with others, when he went online and bragged about doing it, otherwise Sony would not even know about it, he got cocky and now he's in trouble for it.

If I sell someone a gun that I shouldn't have had access to in the first place and that person goes and shoots someone then while I didn't actually pull the trigger I still give that person a way to do harm. Common sense costs nothing.

 

[SurfKansas]

The only reason to jailbreak/root is to steal shit.

Really? The ONLY reason. Like, you have talked to every single person who has ever jail-broken a locked platform, and that's the only reason any of them have? Your powers of clairvoyance astound me.

 

[dsmops2003]

Lets hope he encrypted his data better than Sony did.

 

[utopaline]

What I really love is how Sony will complain that this hack is taking away from software sales and is the reason they are doing so poorly. Yet this has only happened recently and the PS3 has not been selling a lot of software. Hell the 360 has been hacked for years and they are still going strong.

Uto

 

[JDKJ]

"it was appropriate to try the case in California, since Hotz lives in New Jersey and committed his alleged crime in that state. "Serious questions have been raised here today," Judge Susan Illston said at the time.
Those questions appear to be answered, at least for the moment. In a ruling made yesterday, the Judge declared that her court "may exercise specific jurisdiction over Hotz because he purposefully directed his activities at the forum state."

Am I missing something here? How is it that he can be tried in a State were he does not live, and where Sony (presumably, being a Japanese company) is not based? Surely that's not right? I don't get it. Surely he should be tried in the state where he lives, as if he hasn't broken any laws there, he hasn't done anything illegal?

Sony Corporation (Japan) does business in the U.S. through a wholly-owned subsidiary, Sony Corporation America, a business registered under U.S. law and based in New York City . Sony Corporation America handles its PlayStation business through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA), a business registered under U.S. law and based in San Mateo County, California. It is SCEA, an American company, that's filed the suit against Hotz. Hotz, while a resident of New Jersey, allegedly engaged in conduct that caused SCEA injury in San Mateo County (and, arguably, all other places where Hotz published the circumvention information). Therefore, the Court has personal jurisdiction over Hotz in San Mateo County where SCEA filed its suit ((and, arguably, a court in any other place where Hotz published the circumvention information would also have personal jurisdiction). Voilà.

Any jurisdiction in which Hotz's allegedly injurious conduct occurred will have personal jurisdiction over him (and, when the injurious conduct is by way of posting stuff to the internet, that's all 50 States).

 

[migo]

Geohot was hacking OtherOS to get access to the RSX, which Sony should have provided from the start (rather than blocking it out in 2.10), so Sony removes OtherOS, which screws over people who explicitly bought the PS3 for that feature. He then hacks it again to put OtherOS back.

That's total misuse of the DMCA, but it's not as if it's ever been used properly anyway.

Are you saying that because Sony removed the OtherOS feature from the PS3, that Hotz is justified in hacking it so he can reinstate the OtherOS feature? Is that some kinda "an eye for an eye" argument? If Sony removed a feature that purchasers relied on in making their purchase, then the remedy is to give Sony back its product, have them return the purchase price, and otherwise hold them accountable for false advertising or deceptive trade practice or something of the like. But there's no moral, ethical, or legal basis to violate the law and create your own remedy by hacking the product. That's just two wrongs (which never make a right).

Clearly, that remedy isn't going to work, because Sony's not going to pay the US military thousands to millions of dollars in damages.

Besides, Sony explicitly supported Linux. For them to expect Linux users not to hack is utterly retarded.

Hacking the PS3 to support putting OtherOS back in and RSX access isn't wrong. You only think it's wrong if you're some sort of corporate slave.

 

[Asehujiko]

As was expected, the second this piece of shit released his work to the net, it was used for exactly the purposes pretty much everyone knew it would be, but Hotz and his hooligan friends claimed were not their intent. You reap what you sow.

So you believe that Alfred Nobel is a genocidal monster because the military found some unintentional uses for his invention that reduces mining accidents?

 

[The Rockerfly]

Well because of all this security thing and just how Sony has handled it, I will never buy another Sony product.
Not because I am going to pirate anything but just because they are willing to put a man in jail over one of the most irritating laws created in history. How they have handled this has been atrocious as they could have hired this man and how they are contemplating using key codes.
I say no
I will not support a company that bullies other people for their security problems. Along with this, taking away the linux feature and web browser is really shitty.
People say Microsoft is greedy and they maybe right, but at least they haven't taken away significant features like Sony have.

Wait when did they take away the web browser?

*turns on ps3 fires up web browser starts talking to console
me:did you know you are not supposed to have a web browser?
PS3:Really who would say that I am here and working fine.
me:Oh I guess it is just another case of the internet being wrong.

All you had to say is sorry you might want to check your facts, no need to be a dick about it. Just a simple edit will clear my facts up

 

[JDKJ]

Geohot was hacking OtherOS to get access to the RSX, which Sony should have provided from the start (rather than blocking it out in 2.10), so Sony removes OtherOS, which screws over people who explicitly bought the PS3 for that feature. He then hacks it again to put OtherOS back.

That's total misuse of the DMCA, but it's not as if it's ever been used properly anyway.

Are you saying that because Sony removed the OtherOS feature from the PS3, that Hotz is justified in hacking it so he can reinstate the OtherOS feature? Is that some kinda "an eye for an eye" argument? If Sony removed a feature that purchasers relied on in making their purchase, then the remedy is to give Sony back its product, have them return the purchase price, and otherwise hold them accountable for false advertising or deceptive trade practice or something of the like. But there's no moral, ethical, or legal basis to violate the law and create your own remedy by hacking the product. That's just two wrongs (which never make a right).

Clearly, that remedy isn't going to work, because Sony's not going to pay the US military thousands to millions of dollars in damages.

Besides, Sony explicitly supported Linux. For them to expect Linux users not to hack is utterly retarded.

Hacking the PS3 to support putting OtherOS back in and RSX access isn't wrong. You only think it's wrong if you're some sort of corporate slave.

Who said the military gives a rat's ass that Sony removed OSOther and will therefore seek to recoup a cent in damages from Sony? I've never heard them complain. Have you?

For George Hotz to expect that he can hack a PS3, publish the means to do so on the internet, and not have Sony's attorneys crawl up his ass and lay eggs in his intestines is utterly retarded.

Hacking the PS3 to support putting OtherOS back in and RSX access is wrong if for no other reason than all PS3 users agreed not to do so. You only think it isn't wrong if you're some sort of person completely lacking in morals and who's word isn't worth shit.

 

[JDKJ]

As was expected, the second this piece of shit released his work to the net, it was used for exactly the purposes pretty much everyone knew it would be, but Hotz and his hooligan friends claimed were not their intent. You reap what you sow.

So you believe that Alfred Nobel is a genocidal monster because the military found some unintentional uses for his invention that reduces mining accidents?

Alfred Nobel though enough that he'd be remembered as a genocidal monster that upon his death he willed the bulk of his estate towards the establishment of the Nobel Peace Prize.

 

[migo]

Who said the military gives a rat's ass that Sony removed OSOther and will therefore seek to recoup a cent in damages from Sony? I've never heard them complain. Have you?

I have. Google is your friend, and since you clearly don't know what you're talking about, I'm done with you.