# Sony vs. Geohot



## Gh0sti (Jan 12, 2011)

as of 01/11/2011 Sony is officially fed up against the hacker George Hotz aka "Geohot" 

Sony is now suing Geohot for jailbreaking and giving out the keys to the PS3 



			
				QUOTE said:
			
		

> "Their MIB (lawyers in black suits) have landed, and the target is of course Mr. George Hotz aka "geohot"!
> 
> Recently "Geohot" had published the PS3 'root key' on his website, along with various 'signing tools' and samples of possible ways to install and run 'homebrew'
> 
> ...



http://psx-scene.com/forums/f6/sony-mib-te...rge-hotz-75467/

wow seriously

here is the Clerk Notice

http://psx-scene.com/forums/attachments/f6...erks-notice-pdf


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## cacildo (Jan 12, 2011)

Sony overeacting. 

Bad, bad decision.

Lawsuit against Geohot and the ability to remotely explode your PS3?

We´re not gonna take it.


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## Joe88 (Jan 12, 2011)

well geohotz did state a week ago in the BBC article he was afraid of sony suing him


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## deathking (Jan 12, 2011)

he should open up level 2 just to spite them now


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## ThatDudeWithTheFood (Jan 12, 2011)

deathking said:
			
		

> he should open up level 2 just to spite them now



lv2 can already be patched and people even have distributed CFW with peek and poke the problem is sony did something to lv2 in 3.55 which is why you have to open up lv1


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## Bladexdsl (Jan 12, 2011)

oh it's on now there will be retaliation!


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## Terminator02 (Jan 12, 2011)

Joe88 said:
			
		

> well geohotz did state a week ago in the BBC article he was afraid of sony suing him


this

i wonder if this will impact geohot's activity in the ps3 scene


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## DigitalDeviant (Jan 12, 2011)

aww he's removed the root keys/links to his cfw files from his site 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 (should've snagged them when I had the chance, not that I would've installed it anyway)


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## TheDarkSeed (Jan 12, 2011)

So it begins.  
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




If Sony indeed does have a killswitch for any Jailbroken Ps3. then they're in for a real shit storm 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




Edit:oops.


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## o0ICE0o (Jan 12, 2011)

Shit. Is. Going. Down.


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## deathking (Jan 12, 2011)

"6. 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(7)(B) – Intent to Extort
Finally, SCEA will likely prevail on its claim under §1030(a)(7)(B), which prohibits
“intent to extort from any person any money or other thing of value” by threatening “to obtain
information from a protected computer without authorization or in excess of authorization or
to impair the confidentiality of information obtained from a protected computer without
authorization or by exceeding authorized access.” *Hotz violated this provision when, in the
same post in which the published SCEA’s Keys, he attempted to obtain from SCEA “a thing
of value” in the form of employment:[*b] “if you want your next console to be secure, get in touch
with me[/b].” Bricker Decl. at ¶22, Exh. U.
To prevent further harm to SCEA, the Court should immediately enjoin Defendants’
unauthorized access of the PS3 System"


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## DigitalDeviant (Jan 12, 2011)

melisande said:
			
		

> DigitalDeviant said:
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Where do you get that nonsense? Your source? oh wait your first post and its this. 

My troll senses are tingling.


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## ChuckBartowski (Jan 12, 2011)

Apparently numbers are illegal now.


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## DigitalDeviant (Jan 12, 2011)

ChuckBartowski said:
			
		

> Apparently numbers are illegal now.



I suppose sony's claim is that its their intellectual property and the reliability of their brand(to developers) that is at stake here. Although they really botched their security.


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## DigitalDeviant (Jan 12, 2011)

deathking said:
			
		

> "6. 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(7)(B) – Intent to Extort
> Finally, SCEA will likely prevail on its claim under §1030(a)(7)(B), which prohibits
> “intent to extort from any person any money or other thing of value” by threatening “to obtain
> information from a protected computer without authorization or in excess of authorization or
> ...



Egohotz is screwed then, or maybe not, he used lawyer up.


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## Rydian (Jan 12, 2011)

They're not getting him for just posting the keys, please read the documents if you want to participate in the discussion.



			
				deathking said:
			
		

> QUOTE said:
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> ...


Shit.  They got him on bypassing TPMs, too

I'm no longer certain that he's going to come out even relatively safe. >>;


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## Snailface (Jan 12, 2011)

So I guess he didn't get the job.


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## DigitalDeviant (Jan 12, 2011)

Rydian said:
			
		

> They're not getting him for just posting the keys, please read the documents if you want to participate in the discussion.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



well I suppose Egohotz is a better name to describe him.


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## zachpl (Jan 12, 2011)

There are sueing fail0verflow members too.


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## DigitalDeviant (Jan 12, 2011)

zachpl said:
			
		

> There are sueing fail0verflow members too.



source?


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## Joe88 (Jan 12, 2011)

DigitalDeviant said:
			
		

> zachpl said:
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I think at psxscene
the documents geohotz released for people to see


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## zachpl (Jan 12, 2011)

SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT AMERICA LLC 
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 
SAN FRANCISCO DIVISION 
SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT 
AMERICA LLC, a Delaware limited liability 
company, 
Plaintiff, 
v. 
GEORGE HOTZ; HECTOR MARTIN 
CANTERO; SVEN PETER; and DOES 1 through 
100, 
Defendants

http://geohot.com/Motion%20For%20TRO.pdf


			
				QUOTE said:
			
		

> KaKaRoToKS
> 
> Sony suing 103 people? wtf.. this is 'scary'.. oh well, if they want to loose more money in lawsuits..
> half a minute ago via web


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## Snailface (Jan 12, 2011)

Interesting strategy. Instead of cutting the head off the hack, they're cutting the head off the hacker. ( 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





 'ed by sony)


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## Rydian (Jan 12, 2011)

QUOTE said:
			
		

> I. INTRODUCTION
> Defendants George Hotz, “Bushing,” Hector Cantero, Sven Peter and “Segher”
> (collectively, “Defendants”) are computer hackers.
> 1
> ...


Whoops, I made a mistake earlier because I skimmed.  I assumed by "TPM" they meant "Trusted Platform Module", not "Technological Protection Measure".  Not so sure if they can easily sure for it now (though their other points may work).


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## Terminator02 (Jan 12, 2011)

that link to the document on geohotz's site takes forever, use this instead
http://fail0verflow.com/motion_for_tro.pdf
and the proof is right on http://fail0verflow.com/


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## zachpl (Jan 12, 2011)

Yay, I tipped engadget and they put an article up. XD


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## deathking (Jan 12, 2011)

We need to "jailbreak" Geohot from Sony now...


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## m3rox (Jan 12, 2011)

Meh, geohot had this coming to him.  He knew this would enable piracy, he didn't do it for "Linux" as he claims, and I think the majority of people know it (whether or not they will openly admit it).


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## DigitalDeviant (Jan 12, 2011)

m3rox said:
			
		

> Meh, geohot had this coming to him.  He knew this would enable piracy, he didn't do it for "Linux" as he claims, and I think the majority of people know it (whether or not they will openly admit it).



which is why Egohotz is a better name for him. He gives failoverlow a bad name.


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## Canonbeat234 (Jan 12, 2011)

Sony is using lawsuit barrage! 
Geohot is hit, it does critical damage!! Geohot uses.......................escape! 
Geohot move is unsuccessful.
Sony uses lawyers!
Geohot is hit directly, Geohot damage is in the red. Geohot uses................struggle!
Geohot move is used, does little to Sony, he damages himself. 
Geohot faints, Sony gets pwnage exp!


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## Linkpal (Jan 12, 2011)

I don't think Geohotz can afford a decent lawyer. I hope that whatever attorney he gets, it's a decent one, because he's gonna need it. One man and a group of hackers against a huge corporation doesn't sound so hot. Can't wait to see how this turns out, but I hope it's in the hacker's favor (especially since bushing is another under suit).


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## Sheimi (Jan 12, 2011)

The shit just hit the fan...

Well, I wonder how this will turn out


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## Dangy (Jan 12, 2011)

Revenge tastes best cold. :3


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## _Chaz_ (Jan 12, 2011)

Someone exploited a design flaw that Sony paid people to fix. 
Sony got mad, Sony cried, Sony is telling.


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## Zerox8610 (Jan 12, 2011)

Copypastefrumotherthread:
If they want, they can win. I'm guessing there will be a deal between Geohot and Sony.
Sony has a team of top dollar lawyers. Geohot.... idk how much the guy makes, but it can't be enough to defend against that... 

agree disagree?


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## Nathan Drake (Jan 12, 2011)

Sony is really unhappy. The sheer amount of suing for some very odd reasons is just showing how desperate they are to try to get something back for what they have inevitably lost now. Only thing I was worried about when the initial break happened was the possibility of developer support being lost due to the incredible piracy to go with.

Sony is just looking at the big picture I suppose, but they are going about it entirely the wrong way. Hitting the sue button 103 times is pretty over the top.


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## Snailface (Jan 12, 2011)

Overheard at Sony:

Geohot, you've earned an Achievement! "Just got served"

Hopefully, the community will continue awarding Achievements to $ony in response. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



Edit: Lol,  
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 'ed by geohot (next post)


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## Rafinesque (Jan 12, 2011)

Geohot just put the CFW and encryption key back up on his site...


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## Zerox8610 (Jan 12, 2011)

Rafinesque said:
			
		

> Geohot just put the CFW and encryption key back up on his site...



He never took it down?
They are sue...ing... him (idk, suing? sueing?)
It wasn't just a cease and desist order


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## _Chaz_ (Jan 12, 2011)

Did he receive a cease and desist order? Or was this totally out of the blue?


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## Zerox8610 (Jan 12, 2011)

_Chaz_ said:
			
		

> Did he receive a cease and desist order? Or was this totally out of the blue?



If he did, we didn't hear about it


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## _Chaz_ (Jan 12, 2011)

Zerox8610 said:
			
		

> _Chaz_ said:
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If he didn't, then that could help him out, if only a little bit.


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## Zerox8610 (Jan 12, 2011)

Well that and most of the community is supporting him rather than sony, if you get some of the lawyers in the community in on this... he could have some free help?

Sony doesn't need to win... but I assume they will... They know much this could hurt them, like the way the psp was hurt with piracy.

You need a LOT of storage for PS3 games tho


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## bowlofspiders (Jan 12, 2011)

Zerox8610 said:
			
		

> Well that and most of the community is supporting him rather than sony, if you get some of the lawyers in the community in on this... he could have some free help?
> 
> Sony doesn't need to win... but I assume they will... They know much this could hurt them, like the way the psp was hurt with piracy.
> 
> You need a LOT of storage for PS3 games tho


"buys cheap 2TB HDD"
You were saying?  
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





ontopic: this really sucks for Hotz.


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## Canonbeat234 (Jan 12, 2011)

Fine I'll post that's a bit realistic! 

On-Topic: Notice that Sony didn't sue Geohot till it got to the point that he kept continuing with the hacking scene. Geohot just didn't care about no one but himself, which tends to happen to a lot of hackers. If someone remember a few posts ago, didn't Geohot tried to created a CFW with his own bypass or something.

So Sony is only doing something that comes naturally, getting even with their competitors either formal or informal.


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## darkriku2000 (Jan 12, 2011)

Zerox8610 said:
			
		

> Well that and most of the community is supporting him rather than sony, if you get some of the lawyers in the community in on this... he could have some free help?
> 
> Sony doesn't need to win... but I assume they will... They know much this could hurt them, like the way the psp was hurt with piracy.
> 
> You need a LOT of storage for PS3 games tho



Hate to break it to you, but as I've told others: Sony is a VERY big company, with MILLIONS to spend on lawyers. Any help George can get, whether it's probono or extremely expensive, isn't going to do much.


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## FireGrey (Jan 12, 2011)

Sony won't be achieving things by putting this guy in jail.
He's already posted the stuff, hmm, updates for them?
Other people know the keys so it won't be too hard to make open-source updates.
Sony can't take the fact that their "un-hackable" system is finally getting killed worse than the DS.


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## Snailface (Jan 12, 2011)

darkriku2000 said:
			
		

> Zerox8610 said:
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A sensible judge is all Geohot needs to get this junk thrown out, though.


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## Gh0sti (Jan 12, 2011)

i hope geohot can get out of this, the hacking scene still needs him along with fail0verfl0w team

i liked comex's response its ok to hack a phone but a game console is a big no no
i hope the EFF can help him out


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## GeekyGuy (Jan 12, 2011)

Glad, if true.


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## Linkpal (Jan 12, 2011)

Sorry to post again, but this is a very interesting case for me. I think the outcome will determine the future of homebrew in general. As was said before, I don't think numbers and a few letters fall under any kind of copyright law, or the ability to hack your own console, but perhaps this will change that. Well, I don't see how, because that would conflict with a number of existing laws, but we'll see.


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## Costello (Jan 12, 2011)

please continue discusson after reading this thread:
http://gbatemp.net/t274112-sony-attempts-t...straining-order


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