Sony vs. Geohot the settlement

[Bonz]

First a quote
 

 
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.

     Now from what I'm hearing and piecing together from as many sites as i can is that the "permanent injunction" is that George will never be allowed to lay hands on a Sony device ever again.  I'm not 100% on that but it seems like a move Sony would take since George did Vow to hack the Xperia Play.

 

     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.

 
     Let's be honest George knew exactly what he was doing he may not have meant for it to make piracy easier.  But he knew full well that's how it would be used.
 
   

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.”

     So what do you think about this very vague statement.  I'm sure more information on what exactly was agreed to will come out by the end of the week.  I really want to know if Sony Agreed to anything at all here cause from this statement it doesn't look like it.
 
     One thing is for sure.  It will be nice to not see this kind of news on every site we go on.  I know I'm not making any better and for that i apologize.

 

[TwisTtheTwiTcH]

Interesting news. Great job Bonz!

-TwisT

[jrfhoutx]

It's not that Hotz will never be allowed to lay hands on a Sony product ever again (that implies that legally he would never again be allowed to even own a Sony product ever again), it's that he's not allowed to do with them what he is known for, hacking them...

Here's a link to Groklaw and the actual specifics of the injunction:

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20110411173644425

And here's a quote of the very specific and wordy description of what he is not allowed to do with Sony products:

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED AND ADJUDGED by consent of the Parties that Hotz, whether as an individual or as a principal, officer, director or employee of any business entity, and his agents, servants, employees, distributors, suppliers, representatives and all other persons or entities acting in concert or participation with Hotz who receive notice of this Judgment, shall be and hereby are permanently enjoined and restrained from:

A. Engaging in any unauthorized access to any SONY PRODUCT under the law;
B. Engaging in any unauthorized access to any SONY PRODUCT under the terms of any SCEA or SCEA AFFILIATES' license agreement or terms of use applicable to that SONY PRODUCT, whether or not Hotz has accepted such agreement or terms of use, including without limitation:

(i) reverse engineering, decompiling, or disassembling any portion of the Sony Product;
(ii) using any tools to bypass, disable, or circumvent any encryption, security, or authentication mechanism in the Sony Product;

(iii) using any hardware or softare to cause the Sony Product to accept or use unauthorized, illegal or pirated softare or hardware; and

(iv) exploiting any Sony Product to design, develop, update or distribute unauthorized softare or hardware for use with the Sony Product. If any term of such SCEA or SCEA Affilates' license agreement or terms of use applicable to that Sony Product shall be determined by Congress or by a court of law in a final non-appealable decision in an action to which SCEA or an SCEA Affiliate is a party to be illegal and unenforceable, then such term shall not be binding on Hotz.

C. CIRCUMVENTING any of the TPMs or security in any SONY PRODUCT;
D. TRAFFICKING in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof that, at the time of Hotz's trafficking, circumvents any of the TPMs or security in any SONY PRODUCT, including but not limited to the Ellptical Curve Signature Algorithm ("ECDSA") Keys, encryption andlor decryption keys, dePKG firmware decrypter program, Signing Tools, 3.55 Firmware Jailbreak, andlor any other technologies that enable unauthorized access to andlor copying of the PS3 System andlor enable compatibility of unauthorized copies of other copyrighted works with the PS3 System.

E. Distributing or posting any SCEA or SCEA Affiliates' confidential or proprietary information relating to any SONY PRODUCT;

F. Knowingly assisting or inducing others to engage in any of the conduct set forth in A-E above solely directed at any SONY PRODUCT or that otherwise constitutes contributory liabilty under the law.

So, what it boils down to is that he can own Sony products, but aside from using them for the purpose and in in the manner intended by the manufacturer (Sony) he's not allowed to do anything... He's not even allowed to talk about it, or even advise others about doing it...

[techninjadude]

At least he starts hacking Xbox 360 Lol.

Ah he did a good job for many people, although he is not aloud any more Sony devices its not like he buys them people will send him free stuff. Seriously If I was hacking a device I would like to be sponsored first.

[robin1989]

Yeah that agreement isn't the best as it doesn't just apply to him.  And includes hardware hacking in there.

[jrfhoutx]

Ah he did a good job for many people, although he is not aloud any more Sony devices its not like he buys them people will send him free stuff. Seriously If I was hacking a device I would like to be sponsored first.

he didn't do anything for other people, and he is allowed to own sony products, he's not allowed to hack them anymore, read and comprehend before you open your mouth please...



Not the best outcome, but could have been far worse.

[[HoP]]

blah, this is why when you release something you always release it as a group... also you suddenly stop then you come out as a new group and claim that you are using the code from the previous group with "new modifications" like dAx did with psp...

If i was in a situation like Hotz, i would just start fresh as a "new group" and work from there... i would be cautious and post via proxies from wardriven access points.

that is just because i believe that information should be free. i can make mrs fields cookies from scratch, does that mean that they can stop me from doing it?

what would happen if car makers decided that you cant modify your vehicle because it makes it run in a way that was not intended by them...

where would it end???

[DuctTapedGoat]

blah, this is why when you release something you always release it as a group... also you suddenly stop then you come out as a new group and claim that you are using the code from the previous group with "new modifications" like dAx did with psp...

Or like Bill Gates did with his original crew... wait - he started a multi billion dollar monopoly doing that...

[Bonz]

It's not that Hotz will never be allowed to lay hands on a Sony product ever again (that implies that legally he would never again be allowed to even own a Sony product ever again), it's that he's not allowed to do with them what he is known for, hacking them...

Here's a link to Groklaw and the actual specifics of the injunction:

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20110411173644425

thanks man that is the kind of info i was looking for when i found what i did but i never found that site