Sony Suffers Setback In PS3 Hacking Case

Thanks for the update and link to the Groklaw article Joel! Those of us who feel they were screwed over by Sony on this are really rooting (ha!) for the guy.

GeoHotz blog can be found here: http://geohotgotsued.blogspot.com/

The funny thing here is the serial numbers. When you register an account on a PS3, Wii, or even a PS2, Xbox etc the serial number is recorded automatically. So if they do not have matching serial numbers tied to an account which would be directly tied to Mr Hotz, then how in the world can they represent that it was him as well as that that is at all a factual or provable truth. I would seem to me that a judge would throw that out on principle alone.

Sony should just give up and accept that what someone whats to do with something they purchased from them is that persons own right.

Couldn't agree more. Sony is just hurting themselves trying to crack down so harshly, all people are seeing is Sony bullying it's customers. Hopefully they cut their losses soon and just stick to making top notch electronics, because soon their quality won't be enough for people to deal with this.

What if he used another ps3 to sign up for the account and is now sold? :D

There really is no case, Sony's mad that they were duped, and their security system circumvented and cracked so they target a publicly known figure associated with "hacking, cracking etc." who happens to be messing with the PS3 he paid for and wasn't doing so for any malicious reasons (I.e. pirating), hence GeoHotz is being sued.

As things go on with all this nitpicking and splitting of hairs eventually the court is going to get tired of Sony trying to fabricate a case against mr. Hotz and the charges will be dropped... however we live in a country where things are done fairly, and Sony's claim has to be treated as so, and with our judicial system and court of appeals... it going to take a long time.

Here is Sonys Official stand on the entire event of the PS3 Getting Pwned.

http://i52.tinypic.com/2h33ha0.jpg

Uh, no. There's most definitely a case here. George isn't going to walk away from this free-and-clear, I guarantee it. That doesn't mean Sony has the case it *wants* to have, but he's going to have to take a few punches. Furthermore, there's a much more direct link between Hotz, Fail0verflow, and the PS3 than you seem to think there was. Sony may not be able to get Hotz on piracy, but he was definitely circumventing the DMCA while lacking the credentials to declare himself an actual researcher.

Sony will likely settle out of court if it thinks the FTC might rule that removing OtherOS was a violation of consumer law. If that doesn't happen, this could drag on another 5-8 years.

Instead of sueing him they should hire him to design and test their security software haha.

Well George Hotz may have done so in a way he alone cant be held accountable for everything their throwing at them.

I Believe once you purchase a product its yours to do with as you please as long as it doesn't harm anyone.

Althoughh Sony accuses him of trafficking in devices that circumvent controls meant to protect copyrighted works, that inclines he meant to harm or damage those copyrighted works in a way, which I don't believe he wanted to do.

He wanted to install another operating system, a non-copyrighted OS on a device he owned and paid for.

Fail0verflow is the one who circumvented the DMCA with the root-key or jailbreak code

>> "George isn't going to walk away from this free-and-clear, I guarantee it. "

>> "he was definitely circumventing the DMCA while lacking the credentials to declare himself an actual researcher."

This is the same guy who unlocked the iPhone. And, he got away with it, free and clear. They even added an exception to the DMCA for hacking a system to run legally obtained software.

You could argue that he could be sued for distributing the keys (not copyright-able, to my knowledge), but they were easily obtainable after fail0verflow's research (which isn't subject to the DMCA). Putting him in jail for that is at best akin to putting someone in jail for screaming fire in a movie theater when there's a fire in the movie theater.

The difference between the iPhone and the PS3--at least as far as I'm aware--is that the latter is protected for reasons that directly relate to copyright infringement. With the iPhone, Hotz violated Apple's EULA--but there's no law that says you can't use an iPhone on a network other than AT&T.

I think Sony will go after Hotz for circumvention under the DMCA. Separately, the case against Sony for removing Other OS will go on, as well. Since Hotz' work can be used (theoretically) to enable Linux on both PS3 Slim and PSP Fat, he could wind up at fault on the Slim side of things while his work to restore Linux on the Fats is upheld under consumer protection law.

Or he could get hit by a bus and we never find out anything.