Sony Fights PS3 Hackers in Court

January 12, 2011 -

According to documents on the web sites of PS3 hacker George "geohot" Hotz and hacking group fail0verflow, Sony Computer Entertainment America has asked a court to issue a temporary restraining order against parties involved in circumventing its console's "technological protection measures." The motion further seeks to take those circumvention "devices" offline.

The websites of both parties feature court documents and a warning that "any legal fund donation things you see are 100% fake as of now, don't get scammed."

The complaint filed by Sony also accuses Hotz of gaining "financial benefit through his unlawful conduct" via a PayPal account. The motion also names group fail0verflow and its alleged members: "Bushing," Hector Cantero, Sven Peter and "Segher," as well as a number of "John Doe" defendants.

The motion further asks the court to impound the "computers, hard drives, CD-ROMs, DVDs, USB sticks and other media" of the named defendants that "contain circumvention devices."

Sony's court action is a direct result of the aforementioned parties creating hacks and custom firmware for the PS3. Mostly, these groups did this to enable homebrew software and re-enable the OtherOS (allows users to run Linux) feature on the PS3.

Holtz's older web site is still available here.

Legal Documents:

Source: Kotaku

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Comments

Re: Sony Fights PS3 Hackers in Court

Submitted by Bennett Beeny on Wed, 01/12/2011 - 14:07.

I just want to play Codemasters' International Cricket 2010 on my console. I mean, surely it shouldn't be that difficult. I live in the most powerful nation in the world, a nation that has espoused consumerism for centuries.

But Sony won't let me. Neither will Microsoft or Nintendo. Not because the game won't work on the system - it works fine in England. My only option, if I want to play here in the US, is to hack the console.

This is not just about backing up media or DRM. It's about gaining access to media that should be available to everyone who owns a console, not just the privileged few who happen to live in the right countries.

Re: Sony Fights PS3 Hackers in Court

Submitted by Andrew Eisen on Wed, 01/12/2011 - 16:49.

"My only option, if I want to play here in the US, is to hack the console."

Just import it. The PS3 is region free so it should play just fine.

Andrew Eisen

Re: Sony Fights PS3 Hackers in Court

Submitted by SeanB on Thu, 01/13/2011 - 03:47.

Not all games are Region free. All games are capable of being region free, and it's up to the publisher weather it is or not.

So him blaming Sony for the region lock on his cricket game is wrong... unless of course it's a Sony made game, but I don't think so.

Re: Sony Fights PS3 Hackers in Court

Submitted by Andrew Eisen on Thu, 01/13/2011 - 12:43.

While that's technically possible, as far as I know, no game has done that (except maybe some Korean games or something) and International Cricket 2010 appears to be no exception.

http://community.codemasters.com/forum/international-cricket-2010-game-1...

Andrew Eisen

Re: Sony Fights PS3 Hackers in Court

Submitted by ZippyDSMlee on Wed, 01/12/2011 - 16:26.

I know the PS3 works JPN-?USA and JPN/UK but I dunno if it likes UK/US I never did confrim that and I know the 360 is set to whatever the publisher sets it to.

But rather than that I'd like to use open soruce stuff to run more than 4 formats of media and store my games on the HDD for quicker acces.

I have a dream, break the chains of copy right oppression! http://zippydsmlee.wordpress.com/2010/05/21/cigital-disobedience/

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http://zippydsm.deviantart.com/

Re: Sony Fights PS3 Hackers in Court

Submitted by hellfire7885 on Wed, 01/12/2011 - 12:04.

That didn't take long.

Re: Sony Fights PS3 Hackers in Court

Submitted by ZippyDSMlee on Wed, 01/12/2011 - 11:24.

It dose not matter the individuals right of plying a backups and their own media supersedes any DRM scheme short of what is kept on someone eases sever. We already can not return bad media and tools to whack modded consoles even modded data thats a decent trade off to allow backups and mod chips regardless of what conglomerates and their fuck buddies want.

I hope sony loses big on this menavuer!

I have a dream, break the chains of copy right oppression! http://zippydsmlee.wordpress.com/2010/05/21/cigital-disobedience/

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http://zippydsm.deviantart.com/

Shout box

Andrew Eisen: The rest, including a joke about how his wife left him over this, can be found on his feed with minimal scrolling. https://twitter.com/samfbiddle10/19/2014 - 2:16pm

Andrew Eisen: For what it's worth, Biddle tweeted a few apologies. Here's one: https://twitter.com/samfbiddle/status/52324627795005849610/19/2014 - 2:15pm

Andrew Eisen: Oh, "Mercedes"! The car! Anyway, here's a relevant link: http://theralphretort.com/mercedes-pulls-ads-gawker/10/19/2014 - 2:11pm

Neo_DrKefka: Thanks Matt. Linking on my IPhone doesn't work to well here and there.10/19/2014 - 2:01pm

Matthew Wilson: http://imgur.com/XzpWeWw here is the twiter exchange in question.10/19/2014 - 1:39pm

Andrew Eisen: I either don't remember or didn't see it. Still have a link?10/19/2014 - 1:38pm

Matthew Wilson: its the twiter exchange I linked too a few days ago.10/19/2014 - 1:29pm

Andrew Eisen: That link doesn't work. Browsed the Twitter feed but couldn't find anything. Did find someone claiming a Gawker writer advocated bullying but didn't say who or where.10/19/2014 - 1:05pm

Neo_DrKefka: Gawker loses advertiser MERCED ES https://mobile .twitter.com/TheRalphRetort/status/522813815260733441/photo/1 after Gawker writer advocates bullying of nerds with an anti Gamergate rant10/19/2014 - 12:32pm

Matthew Wilson: https://soundcloud.com/totalbiscuit/weaponised-charity a interesting audio log.10/19/2014 - 12:04pm

prh99: Also there is no story in rational and respectful discussion (where you can find it).10/19/2014 - 10:44am

prh99: Well they are probably doing it on Twitter and probably the GG hashtag so any voice reason gets drowned out by idiocy. Also it's far easier to broad brush a group.10/19/2014 - 10:41am

Wonderkarp: dont fool yourself, Technogeek. Remember Mass Effect 3? How about the ferver against Phil Fish?10/19/2014 - 10:18am

MechaTama31: None of which is the fault or responsibility of the people who are not trolling, harassing, threatening, doxxing, etc. So why is their opinion hostage to the people who are?10/19/2014 - 10:06am

Technogeek: If the developer were male there wouldn't have been a "conversation" in the first place.10/19/2014 - 2:27am

Monte: trolls are just at their absolute worst when it comes to women and feminist. You could bet good money that if the developer were male the trolls would be silent and the conversation would actually focus on the journalism.10/18/2014 - 9:18pm

Monte: Papa: Not the first time we've had a journalism scandals before, but the harassment never got close to this level; the difference with this scandal is that feminists are involved. Without the feminist angle, their would be A LOT less harrassment10/18/2014 - 9:15pm

Papa Midnight: Monte: That's honestly rather short-sighted. As has been proven with other persons who have been targeted, if it wasn't Quinn, it would be someone else.10/18/2014 - 6:26pm

Avalongod: I think that's part of what gives an esoteric news story like this real life...it taps into a larger narrative about misogyny in society outside of games.10/18/2014 - 3:29pm

Avalongod: @Monte, well the trolls made death threats that came to police (and media attention). I think this is tapping into a larger issue outside of games about how women are treated in society (like all the "real rape" stuff during the last election)10/18/2014 - 3:28pm

All shouts

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