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Joint settlement reached between Geohot and Sony
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biglo30
Senior Member
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11. April 2011 @ 14:41 |
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In the meantime here is the statement that Sony made public:
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Joint Statement
Sony Computer Entertainment America (?SCEA?) and George Hotz (?Hotz?) today announced the settlement of the lawsuit filed by SCEA against Hotz in federal court in San Francisco, California. The parties reached an agreement in principle on March 31, 2011. As part of the settlement, Hotz consented to a permanent injunction.
Both parties expressed satisfaction that litigation had been quickly resolved. ?Sony is glad to put this litigation behind us,? said Riley Russell, General Counsel for SCEA. ?Our motivation for bringing this litigation was to protect our intellectual property and our consumers. We believe this settlement and the permanent injunction achieve this goal.?
?It was never my intention to cause any users trouble or to make piracy easier,? said Hotz, I?m happy to have the litigation behind me.? Hotz was not involved in the recent attacks on Sony?s internet services and websites.
In the action, SCEA accused Hotz of violating federal law by posting online information about the security system in the PlayStation 3 videogame console and software that SCEA claimed could be used to circumvent the security system in the console and allow the playing of pirated videogames. Hotz denies any wrongdoing on his part. Hotz?s motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction was still pending before the federal court in San Francisco but a preliminary injunction was issued requiring Hotz to take down the postings challenged by SCEA.
?We want our consumers to be able to enjoy our devices and products in a safe and fun environment and we want to protect the hard work of the talented engineers, artists, musicians and game designers who make PlayStation games and support the PlayStation Network,? added Russell. ?We appreciate Mr. Hotz?s willingness to address the legal issues involved in this case and work with us to quickly bring this matter to an early resolution.?
In the meantime here is what GEOHOT has to say on the matter at hand:
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Joining the SONY Boycott
As of 4/11/11, I am joining the SONY boycott. I will never purchase another SONY product.
I encourage you to do the same.
There is much more to come on this blog.
I say we throw out everything labelled with Sony on it also, and support maybe Samsung instead??? I am sure they would LOVE to join into the GAMING WORLD, now that SONY has basically stated it is ILLEGAL to change their PRODUCT in any shape or form. Have a READ of our WIKILEAKS PDF file, it gives you all the juicy details!
Source:PSX Scene
Also here is the link to the pdf for a full read if you want to, here.
Pretty bad news in my opinion, apparently even the courts think that something we purchased with our own money doesn't belong to us. Might as well make jailbreaking and root your phone illegal as well.
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Senior Member
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11. April 2011 @ 15:03 |
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Pretty bad news in my opinion, apparently even the courts think that something we purchased with our own money doesn't belong to us. Might as well make jailbreaking and root your phone illegal as well.
Actually the courts did not make this decision. It was a settlement or "agreement" between Hotz and Sony hence an "out of court settlement"
In the agreement, Hotz agreed to not to touch any Sony products and doing so will result in a hefty fine between $10,000 to $250,000.
I wonder if the end result of this case will affect the Graf case.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 11. April 2011 @ 15:07
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bigo93
Senior Member
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11. April 2011 @ 16:05 |
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Geohot did what was best for him in the end. A case like this is probably stressful so he probably wanted it to end sooner rather than later.
Lot's of mixed reactions. I for one think he should not have bowed down as much, maybe agree not to hack the ps3, but agreeing to all sony products is a bit much; as it also means he cannot touch sony's new phone, so even though it would have been legal for him to jailbreak that, he has new signed an agreement not to do it.
People who donated seem to be pretty upset, geohot claiming he will go all the way, and now suddenly giving up.
So there are are good things and bad things we can take from this outcome, though it is not the one we were hoping for. One things for sure, Sony won this case.
Question is why did Sony settle? If they had enough evidence why not make a lesson of geohot to scare away other hackers. Again rumours that geohot may have sold out may be the case as well, considering the settlement is apparently confidential...
As for the graf case, based on his former actions, I doubt he would have done this and probably wouldnt bow down as easily as geohot has. But that case we will have to see what happens with it.
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Senior Member
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11. April 2011 @ 16:15 |
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Originally posted by bigo93:
Geohot did what was best for him in the end. A case like this is probably stressful so he probably wanted it to end sooner rather than later.
Lot's of mixed reactions. I for one think he should not have bowed down as much, maybe agree not to hack the ps3, but agreeing to all sony products is a bit much; as it also means he cannot touch sony's new phone, so even though it would have been legal for him to jailbreak that, he has new signed an agreement not to do it.
People who donated seem to be pretty upset, geohot claiming he will go all the way, and now suddenly giving up.
So there are are good things and bad things we can take from this outcome, though it is not the one we were hoping for. One things for sure, Sony won this case.
Question is why did Sony settle? If they had enough evidence why not make a lesson of geohot to scare away other hackers. Again rumours that geohot may have sold out may be the case as well, considering the settlement is apparently confidential...
As for the graf case, based on his former actions, I doubt he would have done this and probably wouldnt bow down as easily as geohot has. But that case we will have to see what happens with it.
That's the things with settlements. We may never find out who settled?My money is on Geo's lawyers advising him that though he intendeds to see this to the end, financially he would have never outlast Sony.That's juts my theory.Also reading the pdf file there's nothing in the docs that Sony had to do anything as part of the settlement unless that's on separate document.It was purely a list of things that Hotz had to abide by.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 11. April 2011 @ 16:22
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bigo93
Senior Member
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11. April 2011 @ 19:48 |
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It's clear that geohot gave it. Sony accused him of hacking the ps3, yet the agreement is that geohot will not be allowed to even look into any sony product ever! This agreement now also includes the xperion phone sony released. It would have been completely fine for him to jailbreak that, but this agreement now prohibits him from doing so.
People were willing to donate for his defence, he got £10,000 or more in less than 2 days! So he could have easily just asked for more donations if his legal costs were running high again.
There is nothing in this agreement so far that shows that sony must do something in return. So far the only thing sony have given up is suing geohot and not have him pay for their lawyers. It is a completely one sided deal based on why geohot was taking them on, the only way this is a settlement is that geohot wanted to get off with as little consequences as possible.
Now yes it's his neck on the line here, but then he did ask for donations to help defend all OUR rights, and that's where the anger is coming in. I can see a lot of people who donated trying to reverse their donations now or setting up complains to paypal to get refunds. I think geohot replied to someone saying geohot threw away our rights, to which I think the reply was "your rights are not the same as my rights". So asking for donations to defend our rights then chickening out cos he couldnt take it, well it seems people dont like him doing that.
I dont see why he settled either. Sony's lawyers were making fools of themselves. Geohot's lawyers used the fact that it is SCEA trying to sue geohot when SCEA is not written anywhere on the ps3 console, manuals or the box, SCEI is. So SCEA has legal precedent to take him to court anyway.
Add the fact that Sony;s lawyers used 2 underhanded tricks i)telling him to be in court in 12 hours 2500 miles from where he lived ii)trying to convince the judge geohot had made a running when he was on a pre-planned holiday. The fact the judge ignored these shows how incompetent she was.
Geohot most likely would have won this is it continued, unlike sony's lie, it does look like geohot has made a runner from this case with his tail between his legs.....it;s a shame really but it happens.
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biglo30
Senior Member
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11. April 2011 @ 19:50 |
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Originally posted by Bawango:
Pretty bad news in my opinion, apparently even the courts think that something we purchased with our own money doesn't belong to us. Might as well make jailbreaking and root your phone illegal as well.
Actually the courts did not make this decision. It was a settlement or "agreement" between Hotz and Sony hence an "out of court settlement"
In the agreement, Hotz agreed to not to touch any Sony products and doing so will result in a hefty fine between $10,000 to $250,000.
I wonder if the end result of this case will affect the Graf case.
Hmmmmm I didn't look at it that way, thanks for pointing that out.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 11. April 2011 @ 19:54
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biglo30
Senior Member
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11. April 2011 @ 20:01 |
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Originally posted by bigo93:
It's clear that geohot gave it. Sony accused him of hacking the ps3, yet the agreement is that geohot will not be allowed to even look into any sony product ever! This agreement now also includes the xperion phone sony released. It would have been completely fine for him to jailbreak that, but this agreement now prohibits him from doing so.
People were willing to donate for his defence, he got £10,000 or more in less than 2 days! So he could have easily just asked for more donations if his legal costs were running high again.
There is nothing in this agreement so far that shows that sony must do something in return. So far the only thing sony have given up is suing geohot and not have him pay for their lawyers. It is a completely one sided deal based on why geohot was taking them on, the only way this is a settlement is that geohot wanted to get off with as little consequences as possible.
Now yes it's his neck on the line here, but then he did ask for donations to help defend all OUR rights, and that's where the anger is coming in. I can see a lot of people who donated trying to reverse their donations now or setting up complains to paypal to get refunds. I think geohot replied to someone saying geohot threw away our rights, to which I think the reply was "your rights are not the same as my rights". So asking for donations to defend our rights then chickening out cos he couldnt take it, well it seems people dont like him doing that.
I dont see why he settled either. Sony's lawyers were making fools of themselves. Geohot's lawyers used the fact that it is SCEA trying to sue geohot when SCEA is not written anywhere on the ps3 console, manuals or the box, SCEI is. So SCEA has legal precedent to take him to court anyway.
Add the fact that Sony;s lawyers used 2 underhanded tricks i)telling him to be in court in 12 hours 2500 miles from where he lived ii)trying to convince the judge geohot had made a running when he was on a pre-planned holiday. The fact the judge ignored these shows how incompetent she was.
Geohot most likely would have won this is it continued, unlike sony's lie, it does look like geohot has made a runner from this case with his tail between his legs.....it;s a shame really but it happens.
Yeah I agree with what your saying there fully.
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bigo93
Senior Member
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12. April 2011 @ 04:45 |
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Quote:
So SCEA has legal precedent to take him to court anyway.
I obviously meant So SCEA has no legal precedent to take him to court anyway. :P
The good thing we can take away is that if sony settled with geohot they will settle with other hackers. Though I doubt many will agree to not touching any sony product.
I think what we want to know is when is someone now going to release cfw 3.60? Though I think any future releases will probably be done anonymously, which may take longer for things to get released.
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Turkish2
Newbie
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12. April 2011 @ 12:40 |
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Fact is this should have never happened.
If he didnt try to become a glory hunter by releasing his hack in the first place otherOS would still be there not only that.
Its pretty known that sony are very open and supportive to developers as well as outside suggestions and such.
He should have went to them in the first place saying "hey ive found a major flaw in your security, how about you guys work with myself and some other hackers to create a homebrew path and ill show you guys how to fix it?"
Atleast that way it would have been civil and then sony would have atleast been warned.
But hey it seems that whats done is done id love to see sony + hackers come together and create maybe a homebrew tool, kind of like the theme tool sony released.
Maybe the homebrew would have to be in certain code and then the sony tool would compile it to a ps3 format ?
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bigo93
Senior Member
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12. April 2011 @ 13:15 |
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Actually geohot starting to hack the ps3 was just the thing sony were looking for. They needed an excuse to remove otheros. Although first saying it was "security reasons" they then admitted it was for financial reasons, but then quickly removed that statement goign back to security reasons.
Sony were looking to get rid of otheros anyway, as seen by it not being added to the slim versions. Yet graf has shown that the slims can more than handle having linux installed.
AS for corporations working with the community, I don think so. Corporations are out there to make money by selling services, the community wants to provide similar services but for free. So corporations will never truely be on the side of the community, yet they have fully utilised the community and their services to increase their own profits. Just look how many use linux, more than 90% of web servers are linux based.
If only the guys who started linux added that it was not for corporate use...things would be a lot different.
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