Sony wins court case against hacker Geohot

Following a brief delay, a San Francisco court has granted Sony a temporary restraining order against hacker George "Geohot" Hotz - the man who cracked PS3 wide open.

Hotz, along with the help of hacking team 'fail0verflow', kicked off 2011 by revealing to Sony and the rest of the world that they'd finally cracked open the deepest layers of the PS3's defense against running unauthenticated code, leaving the machine wide open to "homebrew" (and piracy).

Hotz is now banned, via the temporary injunction granted this week, from "offering to the public, creating, posting online, marketing, advertising, promoting, installing, distributing, providing, or otherwise trafficking" any information or software to circumvent PS3's security.

He can't "provide links from any website to any other website", or "engage in acts of circumvention of TPMS in the PS3 System to access, obtain, remove, or traffic in copyrighted works," according to PSX-Scene, via Joystiq.

Basically, before he can even say "PS3", a big lawman with a funny wig will lean through his window and say "SHH!"

It has been recently rumoured that Sony will overcome the PS3's recent security breach by shipping new games with unique PC-like serial codes which users will have to input on their consoles to launch titles.

source

what makes no sense to me that geohut didnt even put back up game files in he cfw he didnt support pricary games and many poeple jb ps3 didnt do it to play free ps3 games so sony stupid but as long they fix the problem maybe there not care about jailbreaking anymore

I guess you can't open up a closed platform without Sony sicking the dogs after you. It's his intellectual property that he legally purchased and is free to do whatever he wants to it. The main issue people like to attribute hackers for this situation, is that they are pirates. I'm personally sick of hearing of such. Yes, I hack, I don't do it for malicious means. I don't do it to "pirate" stuff. I don't use such types of hacks to cheat in online games unless it's a group of friends in a private match, unranked in certain matters.

The lawsuit filed against him goes to show that if you try to claim credit on something that is of controversy, the consequences of such will favor you more than the benefits. Though past history that is completely unrelated to this subject although similar in some way; Once deemed "evil", "illegal" or whatever you call it; Has at some point been disputed and/or proven to be innocent and possibly productive in a good way.

Should everyone who hacks in some way or form, be penalized because a few bad eggs decided to reap the benefits of something and hence use that knowledge and exploit it to cause grief, harm, danger to others? I think not as that's a form of profiling. It's like saying white people are racists which systematically insults the entire Caucasian race.

I'm going to use the following example to explain this case in a nutshell.

You buy a nice 2010 Corvette. You have the legal rights to it's ownership. However, you decide to change one thing in it; Something that the company of the vehicle doesn't like. You decide to take the engine out and place a modified Dodge Viper engine in to. The company finds out that you have told hundreds of people how to do this and what is required. The company, in fear of losing money, decides to sue you for circumventing the original design of the Corvettes engine, housing, etc and demands you to surrender the car to you as ordered by a TRO along with any tools, schematics, & software you may have used to aide in the circumventing of the Corvette.

Many have used Sony's TOS & EULA against this issue as they believe it is a legally binding contract. It isn't. They should have made it clear then in the TOS that if you circumvent the PS3, you can face civil lawsuits & TRO's. lol

/end rant

im dont know if this is true but i heard that tomorrow 5.56 CFW will get released.

The Washington Post recently reported this morning that a California court has recently approved Sony’s restraining order against GeoHot. Less than three weeks ago, the consumer electronics giant, Sony, proceeded to file an order against jailbreaker extraordinaire George Hotz also known as GeoHot. Hotz and his team were in Sony’s legal line of sight for allegedly bypassing “effective technological protective measures” in the PlayStation 3 firmware 3.55. Earlier this month, GeoHot released the controversial jailbreak which enabled PlayStation 3 hackers to run custom packages on the console.

[Hotz] maintains that he never intended the hack to aid game piracy and, in fact, told the G4 network show “Attack of the Show” that he took measures to keep the code from being used in that manner.

Sony previously encountered some resistance in its pursuit of a temporary restraining order when Judge Susan Illston “expressed reservations over whether or not her jurisdiction extended to the case.” The California court ended up ultimately choosing sides with Sony. According to published reports, Sony’s temporary restraining order (TRO) requires GeoHot to stop putting hacker-related information and instructions on the web about the PS3 hack. Hotz has just 10 days to comply with the court order and fork over his computers to the PlayStation maker. As the Washington Post notes, GeoHot’s hack is already “readily available through mirror sites across the Internet.” Sony’s restraining order is in reality powerless to change the reality.

So that brings the big question out. What exactly is Sony trying to accomplish? Sony is probably trying to make an example of GeoHot. Will it work though? Hotz will probably “become something of a cult hero in the hacking community.” Sony’s persecution will likely serve to only increase GeoHot’s celebrity status.

source

PS3 hacker George Hotz has been ordered to hand over his computers as part of a temporary restraining order.

Sony has been granted a temporary restraining order against the PS3 hacker which will prevent him from publishing any more information about his hack online. As a part of the agreement, 21-year-old George Hotz must also hand over all of his computers and hard drives.

The Register cites U.S. District Judge Susan Illston of San Francisco who said Sony supplied substantial evidence showing the hack constituted a DMCA violation. Judge Illston also said that Sony was likely to “suffer irreparable harm” if the hacking continued.

The ruling comes as a disappointment to those who support Hotz, especially considering initial skepticism that the case could even be pursued in a California court because Hotz himself is from New Jersey.

source