Sony filed a lawsuit which includes a temporary restraining order against infamous iPhone jailbreaker George "GeoHot" Hotz. Hotz made the trip from New Jersey to a U.S. District Court in San Francisco, CA where he and his attorney responded to the charges.
Update: GeoHot speaks with G4TV
Hotz' attorney went after Sony's case through a number of avenues such as the fact that the PSN Terms of Service do not apply to Hotz since he never signed up for the service and that Hotz has never accepted money. In fact, Hotz has repeatedly warned others not to donate any money and that anybody asking for donations was a scam. Humorously, the only evidence that Sony has presented thus far as evidence that Hotz profited from his release of the PS3 root key and subsequent custom 3.55 firmware is a transaction that Sony itself initiated (rumored to be just one dollar).
"This case is not about Sony Computer Entertainment America LLP attempting to protect its intellectual property or otherwise seek bona fide relief from the court," Hotz' attorney said in a statement. "Rather, it's an attempt for Sony to send a message to any would-be individual that attempting to use any hardware it manufacturers in a way it does not deem appropriate will result in harsh legal consequences, irrespective of any legal basis or authority for such action.
"Sony, through its marketing of the PlayStation computer has touted its versatile ability to do more than play video games. And yet, this is the crux of Sony's argument as to why the system cannot be treated like the computer that it is. The PlayStation computer has the ability to play films on Blu-ray discs and other media and it has the ability to access the internet and play music and a myriad of other features. All of these additional features can be enhanced by an end user's ability to install and run third-party software on the PlayStation computer. Instead of pointing out the possibilities in innovation and enhancement to the PlayStation, Sony has instead chosen to quote internet chat boards and other unauthenticated hearsay sources to demonstrate the 'truth' of the matter asserted: that 'jailbreaking' the PlayStation computer has no use other than to play pirated, copyright-protected, video games."
The temporary restraining order portion of the lawsuit is scheduled for a hearing on Friday morning. However, Hotz' attorney pointed out that the restraining order was fruitless as the PS3 security keys are out in the wild as are all the tools. "Sony's own pleadings admit that the code necessary to jailbreak the Sony PlayStation computer is on the internet," according to the statement. "Sony speaks of 'closing the door', but the simple fact is that there is no door to close.
The other parties named in the lawsuit, two members of the hacking group fail0verflow, were understandably not present at the hearing as they do not live in the United States and thus are not bound by any court summons.
Via: NeoGAF
Comments
Use the gearhead argument, us gearheads have been monkeying with the ECU chips under our hoods ever since they plugged computers into our engines. A number of commerically available products will do the job, Banks tuners, FlashPaq, Superchips, Bully Dog, Gryphon tuners, you can even buy complete aftermarket ECU's. This guy sounds to me like he is to gaming console what Jeg's is for cars, trucks, etc
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