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Sony sues GeoHot, other PlayStation 3 jailbreak hackers

George Hotz, aka GeoHotSony has decided to take legal action against the hackers that were able to exploit the PlayStation 3 operating system into running homebrew and pirated software, which worked by accessing root keys or "special codes" in the OS that validated any game or application as genuine.

The jailbreak was released late last month, right around the time the security exploit was shown at the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin, by George Hotz (also known as GeoHot; pictured to the right) and a team of over 100 people who are a part of 'fail0verflow.'  George Hotz is credited as being the first person to jailbreak the iPhone 3GS with his development of purplera1n. Now he, along with the other fail0verflow developers, are cited in a lawsuit from Sony sent to the Northern District of California court which alleges that their work is in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

The lawsuit filing seeks a ban against Hotz from further hacking the PlayStation platform and asks for a restraining order against the distribution of the exploited software. Furthermore, according to Wired, Sony is also seeking "unspecified monetary damages."

Hotz, who states he believes in digital rights, told BBC he feels comfortable that Sony has no basis for their actions, which very well may be true considering he was the target of Apple's jailbreak lawsuit last year which resulted in a victory for the jailbreak community.

The lawsuit can be seen in its entirety on George Hotz's Scribd.

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