The legal battle in the civil trial between Sony and George "GeoHot" Hotz over the PS3 jailbreak continues to take twists and turns. Yesterday, documents revealed that Sony had accused Hotz of leaving the country after failing to provide all the necessary components of evidence required of him by the court. Hotz and his lawyers fired back saying that he is on vacation and that the missing components were not integral and a misunderstanding with a neutral 3rd party.
Hotz wrote on his geohot goes sued blog last night that, "Factually, it's true I'm in South America, on a vacation I've had planned and paid for since November. I mean, it is Spring break; hacking isn't my life. Rest assured that not a dime of legal defense money would ever go toward something like this. And of course Townsend loves the idea of painting me as an international fugitive. I have been in contact with my lawyers almost every day; I would not let the case suffer. That said, I also won't let this ridiculous lawsuit run my life either. Then the fearmongerers win."
Hotz's attorney, Stewart Kellar followed up with IGN by saying that Sony's claims that Hotz sabotaged his hard drives before turning them over are false and were a misunderstanding. "The ‘integral components’ SCEA is talking about are stock controller cards, not the hard drives themselves,” he said. "Those controller cards have since been provided to the neutral so the point is moot."
Kellar also struck down any rumors that Hotz was misuing funds donated to him for his legal defense by saying, "As for any question as to whether Mr. Hotz has used donation money to take a trip to South America, that's pretty silly. Litigating against a massive company like Sony, who is represented by five attorneys, is very costly for a 21-year-old. The donation money George has received is being used exclusively for his legal defense. If there are any funds left after the lawsuit, George is planning to donate the money to the EFF [Electronic Frontier Foundation]."
Neither Hotz or his attorney have responded to Sony's accusation that Hotz lied about never having created a PSN account.
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