Sony Takes Legal Action Against Infamous PS3 Hacker GeoHot

[semitop]

It appears infamous PS3 hacker GeoHot aka George Hotz is now in hot water himself along with 27C3 lecturers and fail0verflow members Marcan aka Hector Martin and sven aka Sven Peter and 100 John Does, as posted on IRC and his site Sony Computer Entertainment has now filed suit against him.

Charges include:

• 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(2)(C) – Confidential Information On Computer
• 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(4) – Intent To Defraud And Obtain Value
• 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(5)(A) – Knowing Transmission of Code
• 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(5)(B) and (C) – Intentional and Reckless Damage And Loss
• 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(6)(A) – Trafficking in Password
• 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(7)(B) – Intent to Extort

To quote from his site: "As of 1/11/2011 7:20 PM EST, I have been served with papers, see below...

• Motion For TRO
• Proposed Order

old front page, with relevant info removed, is here

contact me geohot ... gmail

any legal fund donation things you see are 100% fake as of now, don't get scammed"

From the legal docs, to quote: "Upon information and belief, Defendant George Hotz is bound by the Playstation Network Terms of Service and User Agreement (the PSN User Agreement), 14 of which states in relevant part that both parties submit to personal jurisdiction in California and further agree that any 23 dispute arising from or relating to this Agreement shall be brought in a court within San Mateo County, California.

Finally, SCEA will likely prevail on its claim under §1030(a)(7)(B), which prohibits intent to extort from any person any money or other thing of value by threatening to obtain information from a protected computer without authorization or in excess of authorization or to impair the confidentiality of information obtained from a protected computer without authorization or by exceeding authorized access. Hotz violated this provision when, in the same post in which the published SCEA's Keys, he attempted to obtain from SCEA thing of value in the form of employment: if you want your next console to be secure, get in touch with me."

From Marcan42: "Ah, so Sony decided to sue everyone under US law. Guess I won't be visiting the US in a while..."

From fail0verflow: "Looks like Sony decided to ignore the facts and sue us all for it. See http://geohot.com/."

From IRC: (log to be added with IPs etc removed)


More PlayStation 3 News...

Sony is always reaching when it comes to this hacked ps3 thing

[Makkah]

Good, I hope they win.

[ShadowWolfe Hellscream]

Good, I hope they win.

Why? Punish a few people because their devs didn't do a good job of securing their product?

[Makkah]

No, punish the people that are making it possible to rob them blind. If I refuse to lock my door does that give you the right to walk right in? No, it's the same thing.

The last time I checked Sony doesn't make a profit from PS3 sales, but from the games and accessories that are sold. So they actually have every right to be fearful and take any action necessary to protect their IP.

[ShadowWolfe Hellscream]

if you refuse to lock your door and a theif walks right in, you shouldn't have a complaint cuz people act regardless of if its right or not. They lose more money in legal fees than they get from sales.

[Ωmega]

No, punish the people that are making it possible to rob them blind. If I refuse to lock my door does that give you the right to walk right in? No, it's the same thing.

The last time I checked Sony doesn't make a profit from PS3 sales, but from the games and accessories that are sold. So they actually have every right to be fearful and take any action necessary to protect their IP.

IF u leave the door open and a thief walks in...u shud just stfu and say "oh well i asked for it". but thats my opinion still....

....They lose more money in legal fees than they get from sales.

How you know that?

[semitop]

they dont lose more than they get in sales but they likely won't get anything out of the cases.

[TechGT]

Looks like team fail0verflow has release all there tools today and tell everyone to share it....

[Makkah]

if you refuse to lock your door and a theif walks right in, you shouldn't have a complaint cuz people act regardless of if its right or not.

IF u leave the door open and a thief walks in...u shud just stfu and say "oh well i asked for it". but thats my opinion still....

No. Whether or not I lock my door is irrelevant. The point is that you have no right, legal or otherwise to enter my home without my permission. That's the point I was trying to make.

At any rate I don't care if anyone wants to bootleg stuff on their PS3, 360 or whatever. That's their business. They should just be willing to deal with the consequences that come along with such actions, instead of saying "they should have protected it better". That must be the same mentality of people who walk into other people's yards picking their mangoes, limes and whatever else have. Then when the rottweiler jacks them up dem wha bawl .

[semitop]

The ps3 is not sonys home or atleast thats the argument hackers make. The hardware was bought which makes it the hackers home, not sonys. Sony is the intruder and it matters not who built the house. Would you like the people who built your house walking all over that?