As much as George Hotz says that the settlement agreement is confidential, after reading them one can understand why he would want them to remain buried under the veil of confidentiality. According to those court documents, which have now been leaked to multiple hacking sites, and posted on Videogame247, Hotz was the losing party in the agreement.
According to those court documents, Hotz has been put under a "permanent injunction" that forbids him from "trafficking in any technology" that "circumvents any of the TPM’s in any Sony product," including any kind of decryption code or technology. He is also banned from assisting anyone else in such activities, or distributing and knowledge or confidential information related to Sony's products.
His hands are tied and his voice is lost when it comes to any Sony products. Further if he does engage in any activity that he is barred from in the court order, he can be fined $10,000 for each incident, up to a cap of $250,000. Should he violate the order, he also agrees that any further court proceedings will take place in California. In other words he agrees that the jurisdiction is officially California - apoint his lawyers argued against during most of his legal battle with Sony.
If there is one thing Hotz won it was that Sony did not ask that he pay any damages or legal fees. Still, Hotz's legal fees were not for free so he ate those, save whatever money he raised from donations and groups such as the EFF.
You can check out the entire document here. Thanks Andrew Eisen for the tip.
Comments
Re: The George Hotz Court Order
No, what I said was they were afraid of the precedent it would set. I didn't say they were afraid of Hotz. They don't want the DMCA questioned in court, they want what every other copyright case has had, a quick and easy settlement where nothing is challenged and the little guy gets gagged.
-Greevar
-Greevar
"Paste superficially profound, but utterly meaningless quotation here."
Re: The George Hotz Court Order
They got NOTHING out of this, in fact they lost. Add up how much money was spent, add up trampling on a persons right to reserve engine hardware and then proclaim be removing a mountain that you have removed all the rocks in the world. Sure they won this battle but the war is not over in fact they have just earned the ire of all the geeks of the world.
Unless the law changes to be less vague and more harsh on such "crimes" Sony has lost.
I have a dream, break the chains of copy right oppression! http://zippydsmlee.wordpress.com/2010/05/21/cigital-disobedience/
Copyright infringement is nothing more than civil disobedience to a bad set of laws. Let's renegotiate them.
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http://zippydsm.deviantart.com/
Re: The George Hotz Court Order
Wait, what?
Sony's goal the whole time was to get Hotz to stop distributing information regarding the jailbreak. They got that, and an injunction to where he can never do anything involving the PS3 except using it what it was designed for. Sony never cared about the money. If they did, they wouldn't have accepted the settlement and would have stomped Hotz for violating the DMCA, running him into the ground legally and financially.
They got everything they wanted, whereas the only thing Hotz got was an agreement making it so he doesn't have to pay Sony a dime in legal fees or damages.
Sony didn't trample on anyone's rights. They defended their own from being trampled on.
Your definition of winning and losing is rather... Odd.
"Power means nothing without honor and pride."
http://grifsgamereviews.blogspot.com My video game review site.
Atlanta Video Games Examiner for examiner.com
Re: The George Hotz Court Order
So basicly Sony won big time. This is little more then a guilty plea....
Plus, professionally, he is pretty screwed. I know a lot of people have been saying 'he is smart and well known, he will have no problem finding work now!'.. but no. Most embedded systems companies would consider him a liability, a toxic asset that would be too great a risk to hire.
Re: The George Hotz Court Order
So, life ruined then as he likely won't even be able to get a job at a fast food joint as they'd be too scared for their computers.
Re: The George Hotz Court Order
Considering the first thing he'd probably try to do is "reverse engineer" the computers to add a button that may or may not be labeled "FREE FOOD", yeah. He'd probably be lucky to get a job at a store that uses a touch-tone phone.
"Power means nothing without honor and pride."
http://grifsgamereviews.blogspot.com My video game review site.
Atlanta Video Games Examiner for examiner.com