Settlement in George Hotz Case

[iamawesomewicked]

Joint Statement

Sony Computer Entertainment America (?SCEA?) and George Hotz (?Hotz?) today announced the settlement of the lawsuit filed by SCEA against Hotz in federal court in San Francisco, California. The parties reached an agreement in principle on March 31, 2011. As part of the settlement, Hotz consented to a permanent injunction.

Both parties expressed satisfaction that litigation had been quickly resolved. ?Sony is glad to put this litigation behind us,? said Riley Russell, General Counsel for SCEA. ?Our motivation for bringing this litigation was to protect our intellectual property and our consumers. We believe this settlement and the permanent injunction achieve this goal.?

?It was never my intention to cause any users trouble or to make piracy easier,? said Hotz, ?I?m happy to have the litigation behind me.? Hotz was not involved in the recent attacks on Sony?s internet services and websites.

In the action, SCEA accused Hotz of violating federal law by posting online information about the security system in the PlayStation 3 videogame console and software that SCEA claimed could be used to circumvent the security system in the console and allow the playing of pirated videogames. Hotz denies any wrongdoing on his part. Hotz?s motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction was still pending before the federal court in San Francisco but a preliminary injunction was issued requiring Hotz to take down the postings challenged by SCEA.

?We want our consumers to be able to enjoy our devices and products in a safe and fun environment and we want to protect the hard work of the talented engineers, artists, musicians and game designers who make PlayStation games and support the PlayStation Network,? added Russell. ?We appreciate Mr. Hotz?s willingness to address the legal issues involved in this case and work with us to quickly bring this matter to an early resolution.?

Source

And that's a win for Sony!

[Ayepecks]

More like a wash (or win, however you want to look at it) for everyone involved. He's not going to keep modding the PS3, which obviously helps Sony. At the same time, Sony could have gotten a precedent set if it won the case, which would've made similar legal action in the future easier. But I'm guessing there was too much bad publicity for them to want to move forward. And now clearly Hotz doesn't face legal action, which is the major advantage for him (duh).

Still, great news (Y)

[TheLegendOfMart]

Im glad he never got sent to prison or fined a ridiculous amount of money, Sony just clawed the tiniest little bit of respect back in my eyes. Maybe they should get a clue and hire him to work on NGP or next Playstation security.

[carson2255]

Source

And that's a win for Sony!

The only winners here are the lawyers.....

[DukeEsquire]

This is pretty much a 100% win for Sony.

GeoHotz would never have been able to pay the millions of dollars in damages anyways. A win would be meaningless.

Sony mostly wanted the injunction so GeoHotz would stop further hacking the PS3.

[CGar]

Dang, this got settled with much less chaos than I was anticipating.

[lalalawawawa]

The only winners here are the lawyers.....

And Sony... I'm starting to think they might be able to come at my house one day, take everything Sony I own, because I painted the damn things in a different color.

[Teebor]

I just see that he had to take down posts that Sony don't want people to see which I thought had already been done

So not much has really changed, just all the legal is not hanging over Hotz's head

[TheLegendOfMart]

And Sony... I'm starting to think they might be able to come at my house one day, take everything Sony I own, because I painted the damn things in a different color.

Oh dear.

They are just protecting what is theirs, the software.

[DukeEsquire]

More like a wash (or win, however you want to look at it) for everyone involved. He's not going to keep modding the PS3, which obviously helps Sony. At the same time, Sony could have gotten a precedent set if it won the case, which would've made similar legal action in the future easier. But I'm guessing there was too much bad publicity for them to want to move forward. And now clearly Hotz doesn't face legal action, which is the major advantage for him (duh).

Still, great news (Y)

Precedent wouldn't have done much, because the precedent was already there. Everything Sony was alleging is pretty basic law and nothing novel or radical.

As far as I know, the only other ongoing PS3 hacking related case is in Europe where this case wouldn't have meant anything.

[HawkMan]

Im glad he never got sent to prison or fined a ridiculous amount of money, Sony just clawed the tiniest little bit of respect back in my eyes. Maybe they should get a clue and hire him to work on NGP or next Playstation security.

Why would they hire him ? the age of companies hiring hackers as well over a decade in the past, it doesn't happen anymore. security experts already know the same tricks the hackers do, and they're generally smarter people (for one they're not breaking the law), and Hotz may be a decent hacker, but he would be way outside his element if you put him in the team with the security experts at sony. being able to break down some walls(with a LOT of help) doesn't mean he's good at building those walls with secure doors.

[stevember]

I wonder if he is going to donate the money back if there is any left from his campaign?

[iamawesomewicked]

Plus if they hired GeoHot, they'd have to hire anyone thinking of hacking anything Sony related.

[iamawesomewicked]

As of 4/11/11, I am joining the SONY boycott. I will never purchase another SONY product.

I encourage you to do the same.

Why would you not boycott a company who feels this way about you?

There is much more to come on this blog.

Source

Sure sounds like a child to me... WAAAA I LOST IN COURT... WAAA BOYCOTT BOYCOTT BOYCOTT..

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Awesome (Y)

This in my eyes also makes it clear as day Geohotz knows what he did was illegal, that he was lying about half the nonsense him/his lawyer spewed and any drama that comes now can be met with "dry your eyes mate".

I do however still laugh my ass off at anyone who donated.

[Rudy]

It's a shame for every one who donated to his legal "fund" :/

[NeoTrunks]

The whole Sony boycott is laughable. I doubt any of the participants were willing to buy much more than the console anyway.

[DPyro]

Terms of the settlement are confidential...hrm, Sony hired Geohot?

[Rudy]

Sony hired Geohot?

why would they do that?

[DPyro]

why would they do that?

Sony tried to hire one before?

[DukeEsquire]

Terms of the settlement are confidential...hrm, Sony hired Geohot?

Settlements are almost always confidential.

I've never seen one that isn't unless it is for a specific reason (ie: someone has agreed to apologize for something).

Sony tried to hire one before?

So?

My company hired a red-head once. Does that mean they will hire every red-head?

[DPyro]

So?

My company hired a red-head once. Does that mean they will hire every red-head?

Man, you are really bad at analogies...

[Southern Patriot]

why would they do that?

Because he is demonstrably smarter than most of the people who designed the PS3's security?

[Reacon]

http://www.defacto2.net/groups/razor1911/pitbull.htm

If any of you think he deserves jail, read this. It'll change your mind :)

Jail is a wretched place. I wouldn't wish it on anyone. It's much more appropriate that someone like him gets a large fine.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Because he is demonstrably smarter than most of the people who designed the PS3's security?

Where is your evidence for this?

The Sony security engineers managed to completely overhaul the way the security system works in firmware 3.60 themselves.

I just cannot understand why people keep asking if/saying Sony should employ this guy. I have to believe anyone that says such things has absolutely no business/employment aptitude considering everything we know about Geohot and how he acts.

Also considering his new cry baby blog post, why would he even accept to work at Sony? He doesn't want to work for a security portion of a company tightening up and protecting security, he wants to run rampant DISABLING security.