SCEA v. Hotz, Round II

While Sony may have recently secured a temporary restraining order against George Hotz, lawyers for the man that helped jailbreak the PlayStation 3 are continuing the fight based on jurisdictional issues. An exhaustive report on Ars Technica gives us the blow-by-blow. Hotz' lawyer, Stewart Kellar, is asking the court to dismiss the temporary restraining order on the basis that the case is in an "improper venue" and on the grounds of a lack of personal jurisdiction.

Sony will have a hard time proving that all of Hotz' online activities were aimed at California when the internet is global. Further, Hotz' conducted most of his internet communications from his computer in New Jersey. Hotz' lawyer cited Schwarzenegger v. Fred Martin Motor Co. (find out more about that here), saying that a three-pronged test must be applied to prove personal jurisdiction.

"Under the first prong of a specific jurisdiction test, SCEA must demonstrate that Mr. Hotz 'purposefully availed' himself of the privilege of conducting activities in California, or purposefully directed its activities toward California," Kellar argued. "Mr. Hotz maintains a passive website... The site merely makes information available and does not allow users to interact with the host computer or exchange information."

"In the present case, SCEA cannot demonstrate that Mr. Hotz's activity could even arguably be construed as expressly aimed at California. To the contrary, the sole alleged activity in this action involves Mr. Hotz—who is located in New Jersey—purportedly improperly accessing portions of his own Playstation computer—which is also located in New Jersey," he continued. "The Playstation computer is not made by SCEA. It is made by Sony Inc. which is a Japanese corporation."

Hotz' lawyer also took issue with a quote that painted the defendant as extorting Sony by saying the company should contact him to make future consoles secure. Kellar pointed out that Sony omitted part of that statement. The whole quote posted on his web site read: "If you want your next console to be secure, contact me, any of you."

With part of the quote omitted, Sony made it look like Hotz was seeking something from them in exchange for his expertise.

"The double-hearsay quote, derived from a screenshot within a forum post within a website... omits the full statement, which undermines SCEA's claim that Mr. Hotz directed any statement toward SCEA," Kellar wrote.

We will continue to follow this legal battle as it unfolds.

Source: Ars Technica