Sony and George Hotz Settle PS3 Hacking Lawsuit
By Jared Newman | Monday, April 11, 2011 at 9:47 am
A nasty legal battle between Sony and Playstation 3 hacker George “geohot” Hotz has ended in an abrupt settlement.
A joint statement from Hotz and Sony, posted on the official Playstation Blog, says Hotz agreed to a permanent injunction — meaning he’ll wipe all his PS3 hacking resources from the web — as part of the settlement. Neither side is disclosing the full terms.
Sony sued Hotz and several other hackers in January, after he posted files and documentation for the PS3 jailbreak. As with Hotz’s work on the iPhone, the PS3 hack allowed users to install unauthorized software, including cheats, pirated software and the Other OS feature that Sony removed from the console a year ago. “It was never my intention to cause any users trouble or to make piracy easier,” Hotz said in a statement. Both parties say they’re happy to have the lawsuit behind them.
But the settlement still leaves plenty of loose ends. The joint statement says nothing about the other hackers that the company sued, and there’s no shortage of BitTorrent sites listing Hotz’s jailbreak, limiting the effects of the permanent injunction. To combat hacking, Sony has threatened permanent bans from the Playstation Network for anyone it catches with unauthorized software. Sony’s actions have also drawn the ire of Anonymous, a hacking collective that has attacked Sony’s servers and planned a boycott of Sony stores on April 16. (The statement notes that Hotz wasn’t involved in the attacks.)
Still, the lawsuit was probably hurting more than helping Sony’s reputation. The company angered privacy advocates when it won a subpoena for the IP addresses of anyone who visited Hotz’s website, as a way to prove how many people visited and to allow jurisdiction in San Francisco instead of Hotz’s home state of New Jersey.
Hotz’s image may suffer now that he’s given up the legal fight, but the settlement doesn’t require him to be nice. On his blog, he’s already vowed to boycott Sony products and promises “much more to come on this blog.” Whatever that means, it won’t include PS3 hacking.
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21 Comments For This Post
April 12th, 2011 at 5:14 pm
You can't erase anything from the web. Once another person gets a copy, it will spread. It is impossible. The more popular the data, the more people will have it. And once more than one person has it, it's a permanent part of the internet.
January 4th, 2012 at 7:01 am
This is true, there is absolutely no way to truly erase something from the internet. Even if you somehow manage to get it off the internet, who knows how many copies would be stored locally? Muay Thai Combinations | Muay Thai Kick | Martial Arts for Children
April 24th, 2011 at 10:09 pm
"On his blog, he’s already vowed to boycott Sony products and promises “much more to come on this blog.” Whatever that means, it won’t include PS3 hacking."
Oh I think it did muahaha muahahhhahhahaaaaa
April 25th, 2011 at 1:37 pm
gearge hotz is a real stupid person and ruined online gaming for alot of people. way to go computer genius, hope your happy cause were sufferring
April 25th, 2011 at 3:55 pm
As a famous butler once said… "some people just want to watch the world burn". There is no reason other than egotism for someone to deny the world of a service offered by ANY entity, free or not. I think these "hackers" have been seen before in other forms at other locations – Columbine, VT, etc – don't let them have real guns – if they don't respect the law what in the world makes any of YOU think that you can control what they do next?
April 26th, 2011 at 12:35 pm
george hotz if u ever get locked up please let us know, cause i know of a couple of people who would love a little skinny hacker as a cellmate……..
April 27th, 2011 at 1:13 pm
i hackted ps3 and i didnt get cought and im proud to say that
April 27th, 2011 at 4:24 pm
I think the more is here… Since hackers have taken down the entire Sony PS3 Network. IMO… Sony had it coming.
April 27th, 2011 at 5:33 pm
How and why does Sony have it coming when all they do is let the buyers have free online gaming. They don't deserve that at all cuz they never cheated anyone that i heard of so getting a hold of peoples bank and credit info is a federal crime for you hakers (not toward Hotz : ^.^).
April 30th, 2011 at 1:55 pm
"..and I promise never to hack PS3 ever again.." – G Hotz… interesting that about – after the lawsuit was settled – 'out of court'- PS3's network was hacked to death, causing a complete breakdown of Sony's network and, apparently, requiring a rebuild
April 30th, 2011 at 4:29 pm
I highly do not beileve that Hotz will never hack again… just think of Xbox and also Wii he can still get into and Sony can do nothing about it.
May 1st, 2011 at 1:44 am
yeah sony got what they deserve dirty fu**ing law is meaningless if it only benefits those with billions of dollars to put into making false info and evidence and then theres the judge bribes and what not. from the beginning sony had the judge bribed how else do you get the abillity to monitor ip addresses and rape the privacy we should be able to enjoy in our internet browsing
May 1st, 2011 at 11:40 am
ps3 had it coming
May 17th, 2011 at 10:17 am
Wow, This is beyond me. I can’t believe it. But what were the repercussions of the crime? Isn’t Hotz suppose to be in jail?
September 1st, 2011 at 7:39 am
it was a civil suit. no jail time.
October 22nd, 2011 at 8:29 am
wow there are a lot of trolls in these comments…
unsuccessful troll is unsuccessful.
I bet you guys have all your personal info on facebook and logged into apple huh.
bend over and spread 'em, you're takin it from the man.
November 3rd, 2011 at 11:32 am
November 12th, 2011 at 9:56 pm
doubt it
November 12th, 2011 at 9:59 pm
hahahaha. 360 ftw. dont seem them gettin hacked. kudos to the dickwad for pulling it off with no jail time lol. good luck removing it from internet when its impossible. GET SOMEE
January 18th, 2012 at 1:52 pm
sony is just a bunch of greedy bastards there all ready ettin 300 or more per system why should we pay more?
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