Settlement in George Hotz Case

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.

[Pedantic91]

It ended peacefully.....

I wonder, will anonymous still go through with the boy-cotting on 16th ?

[theonlylolking]

It took a while but at least it is settled.

[hay]

Well, I think everyone wins.
Gamers, when anon will f*ck the hell off right now.
Sony, no need to waste more money on this lawsuit.
Gamers, if settlement injunction covers PS3 hacking/jailbreaking.
Hotz, his ass is safe, but he can still hack if won't be caught.

Need details.

[lociefer]

i just hope anonymous get caught or gtfo

[Acquiescence]

after such a high profile case.

But at least we won't get any articles on N4G about that smarmy-faced asshat GeoHot anymore, and it'll make Anonymous's in-store boycott this week look even sillier than it was before.

And hopefully no more rap videos as well.

[Dragun619]

After so many retarded articles over Geohot & Anonymous.
Finally, all this BS can end.

[Istanbull]

Sony just made someone their b!tch.

[EYEamNUMBER1]

after all the crying everyone around here was making doing all the "sony is gonna own him" etc etc
they just settle and hes not allowed to post a code that's already all over the internet?
meh it was obvious he would get off from this

i lol at everyone who was going on about this case BUT also yawn at how anti climactic this was
i was at least expecting something to happen at the end

[ziggurcat]

@ ImHereNow:

no, you fool, this means that hotz conceded that he had no case and settled before he got put through the ringer.

[evrfighter]

Lol sooo many ppl were calling for his head here at n4g.

Huge victory for hotz. Huge. Well done

[Christopher]

***$ony had NO CASE better to go out on a settlement then being the loser***

Actually, it proved otherwise. GeoHot wouldn't have settled if there wasn't a case to be had.

People have to recognize here that GeoHot caved in on the ideals he said he was out to defend, meaning his right to do what he wants with what he purchased. Taking that away from him is a bigger win than most people understand.

[StanSmith]

From reading the press release, it seems to me that hotz isn't supportive of what anonymous are doing and opted to reached a settlement with Sony.

[Dante112]

Great for both sides. But wtf at the psxscene forums, they're pretty mad at Geohot for settling. I thought they would be happy to hear the news though.

http://psx-scene.com/forums...

[StanSmith]

@dante

Cheers for that link. It provided me with some lol moments! They are seriously pissed at hotz lmao!

[gaffyh]

@EYEamNumber1 - Actually this is a permanent injunction, meaning he has to cease all activities against Sony in the future too. He could still do it anonymously (which he should have done in the first place the idiot!), but if it ever get's traced back to him, he's in the sh*t.

[sikbeta]

@Dante112

thanks for that link man, reading all the crying in that site is totally hilarious ROFLMAO! XD

O-T

Sony win on this one, the guy can't touch any Sony product and release all the codes or whatever thing that can affect the security of saying product, if he does it, he'll pay 10k to 250k cash!

[HolyOrangeCows]

*Gamers want GAMES, not hacker "rights"
*Illegally distributing others' IPs isn't "freedom of speech"
*Geohotz is a hack; he's just as happy stealing credit by rushing out a "concept CFW" with stolen code as he is actually hacking something.

I guess GeoSteals realized he wasn't doing anyone any favors, including himself. E-penis wasn't worth millions in debt, no one wanted his "help" in hurting the game industry for the "right" to distribute others' copy-protected intellectual properties, and the effects would only be negative.

[NateCole]

Well i for one am glad its settled peacefully.

I think Sony never wanted to ruin this kids or other hackers life. Sony just wanted to protect their investment which is what this settlement will do.

Despite all the garbage Hotz and Anno said about Sony being the evil corp out to destroy everyone's freedom. This settlement clearly shows how mature Sony is and what their intentions were all along which is to plug the hole that is Hotz.

Sony was never the evil corp that was out to set a precedence to get a win for the corporate big boys to stomp over the little mans freedom. I always said that that was hogwash.

[Mahr]

Oooh, injunction against buying future Sony products, that has to sting.

On the bright side, the Homebrew community just got Showtime Media Player running stable 1080p on the PS3, and Region-free Blu-ray is on the horizon. Thanks, geohot!

[harrisk954]

Are you kidding? This thing was over in a flash, blink-and-you-missed-it... These types of cases usually drag on for years.

[OneSneakyMofo]

Better to settle now than spend five times that much in court costs. Like someone said above, Sony made someone their bitch. You know Hotz is thinking he beat Sony, but truth is, Sony just didn't feel he was worth fighting him in court over, lolol.

[Thugbot187]

This whole thing shows Sony's mismanagement. First off Sony huge support for home brew to get popularity to the PS3 when it came out was a misstep. PS4 you can bet they won’t do that again. The other issue is instead of hiring GeoHotz and asking him for help on cleaning up the security flaws, they attack him in a lawsuit. Anonymous got one of their main demands drop the GeoHotz lawsuit…. Plus they made Sony’s staff look stupid.

[KDubyah]

Nawh, far more people than these few hackers you hear bout want OtherOS..

[Misterhbk]

So no one got paid but I want to know what this injunction means. Hotz will no longer own a ps3? Hotz will not use sony's intellectual property? Or he just won't post them online anymore?

Could be anything. Need more details.

[shwiggity]

an injunction pretty much means that hotz must stop from doing certain actions (e.g. posting his hacks online) or else he will be charged with a criminal offense, facing possible jail time

[Misterhbk]

Yeah, I know what injunction means but I want to know exactly what his injunction is.

[shwiggity]

Yea, im not sure if we will ever find out. I doubt sony would post the details, but i feel like hotz might put it on his blog or something

[Eamon]

Same enquiry. I read the article but it didn't properly explain what the terms of the settlement are.

My guess is that geohot will stop his work on the PS3 but not get sued.

But this doesn't solve whether jailbreaking a PS3 is legal or not.

[morganfell]

Jailbreaking the PS3 is still illegal. That has never changed. It could change in the future but right now the PS3 and other game consoles are not excepted under the DMCA in the same manner as devices such as the Iphone are allowed to be jailbroken.

[ziggurcat]

@ eamon:

jailbreaking the PS3 was never legal.

[gamingdroid]

Actually I sort of wish (at Hotz expense though, so I don't blame him) it went all the way.

I view this as a freedom of speech and consumer rights being stepped over. This doesn't just apply to Sony, but MS and even Nintendo all have the right to remove features at will, restrict your usage and this has never been contested in a court of law.

Ideally, I would also like the law to allow for programs to allow modification of software at will as long as it isn't to allow the software to do illegal purposes.

This is really the only way to get around the fact that for almost all human time in business we are allowed to change our product and discuss how we changed it. Nobody stopped me from publishing information on how I modified my car (within legal means), my house, my wrench.... yet I modify my console and all hell breaks loose!

[ziggurcat]

you are allowed to modify your PS3's hardware all you want. this case was never about the PS3's hardware, it was about the *software*.

your analogies all reference different types of *hardware* modifications.

[gamingdroid]

"your analogies all reference different types of *hardware* modifications."

That was the point I was trying to make. Your hardware these days is essentially useless without the software. If it is, then the freedom of use of your products have now been essentially limited. Why should one hold software to a different standard then hardware?

The mere act of installing your own software these days, might get you in trouble unless you have specialized equipment that doesn't use the manufacturers software to load yours.

I'm saying, it shouldn't be like that and is a major issue. In the future, you might find your wrench has a chip with software so you can't use it any way you want! You car (probably already does) have chips to control certain fuel injections and hey they might just want to disable it for whatever reason....

Is that really a future we all want?

[ComboBreaker]

GeoHot: "Hey, hackers, donate some money to help me in this legal case."

*Hackers donated thousands and thousands of dollars to GeoHot*

GeoHot: "Now that I have all these money, time to settle so I don't have to pay anything."

*GeoHot settled and use hackers' money to buy himself a brand new car. He LOL-ed at hackers. *

[Mahr]

"Jailbreaking the PS3 is still illegal"

Not in Spain.

Some good day, the same will be true for the Land of the Free.

[SarahFox]

so glad this garbage is over, I hope I never see his face on tv again

[-Alpha]

We still have to deal with Anonymous' annoyances, but at least this dude is put behind us.

[Kee]

Okay, I don't understand law, someone will have to explain this to me.

[snaz27]

seems to me sony is scared after all, i mean why even bother taking him to court in the first place? Lol, i like others on this page would like to know exactly what the injunction covers... But so much for all the people saying he's going to jail etc... And maybe anon did help his cause after all... I'm quite suprised it ended like this to be honest, i'm a bit gutted, i wanted this to go all the way! Seems sony didn't, but then i guess you could say hotz didn't either seen as he settled... Hmmm well guess more info will come out in the wash.

[gamingdroid]

Yeah, I think Sony backed off.

Essentially, it is a political move. Sony had really nothing to gain in the first place other than "trying" to scare hackers. When that didn't work (as we have seen donations poured into Hotz when needed), the only face saving way of getting out is through a settlement with some terms in favor of Sony to make them look better.

You could say it is a small insignificant win with a lot of bad publicity for Sony.

Hackers, cheaters and pirates will continue... unfortunately. How about Sony spend some of that money going after the cheaters, hackers or support that recently shuttered game!

[Jdoki]

Don't think Sony is scared. Both sides would have agreed this. If Hotz thought he had a case then he didn't have to settle - he seems fairly egotistical, so I can't see he would have backed down unless absolutely necessary. If Sony had a water tight case they wouldn't have offered settlement.

Sony win/Hotz loses, because Hotz has effectively been gagged. Sony also have shown they are willing to invest time/money in to pursuing someone, and shown how serious they are in protecting their IP. Considering most 'hackers' are probably bedroom coders, it might have acted as a good deterrent.

Sony lose / Hotz wins, because the hack is out there for those that didn't update their FW, and Hotz' work was already done - it's other people that have carried on the work with trying to hack the firmware, and Sony have little chance to catch them.

Both sides win because neither have to pay their lawyers any more!

[lee_ten]

sony is scared of a guy who probably lives in his mom's basement. okaaay...

[snaz27]

i don't really think sony wanted to chance their arm of this being a test case either! Imagine if it were ruled that hotz was in the right and he had every right to do what he did! Lol it would open the flood gates just like with the iphone... It's defo strange anyway, why go to all the trouble of getting search warrants and gaining access to peoples ip addresses just so they could settle!... And i have to laugh at all the disagrees, i only own a ps3 but there are so many fanatics on here that you can't say a negative thing against sony lol, i feel for these people, and i offer anyone that disagreed a big hug to soothe their owwies lmao.

[snaz27]

how has hotz been gagged? The info is already out there lol... I thought that's why they were suing him... If sony had a water tight case why would they settle? Wouldn't the best message to send be to finish it through and have the courts rule? Who knows what's gone on behind the scenes, maybe they said hotz to take the injunction? We'll never know i guess, and that's my point, it's not definative is it?

[GarandShooter]

'Imagine if it were ruled that hotz was in the right and he had every right to do what he did!'

Never would have happened. Copyright laws are there for a reason.

'If sony had a water tight case why would they settle?'

What could Geohot possibly have that Sony wanted, other than for him to cease his actions, which he has?

Further, if he had an air tight case, with the possibility of counter suing, do you think his lawyers would have turned down their percentage?

@ droid

A lot here are acting like Sony dropped the case. The fact is, nowhere does it state who initially offered the terms of the settlement. I can easily see Geohot's lawyers going to Sony's and saying: "Look, we're willing to cease our activities forever voluntarily, if you're willing to cease pursuing this suit."

Seems far more plausible to me than Sony backing off, who by the way had no need to 'save face'.

[joeorc]

Hotz called it just like Sony the fact that George has a perma. injunction is quite clear who really wanted to settle.

This was about hacking the software, an pretty much Hotz Really would have been in deeper trouble if he did not do something like this.

The fact that he took a perma. injunction is pretty clear why.

that's far less than the other trouble that could face him further.

[cemelc]

Well theres a pdf of the settlement here:

http://psx-scene.com/forums...

The guy got pwned, read the Stipulation.pdf and youll see that the guy kneeled before sony...LOL the guy was all talk and no show.

[Nivalis]

"If sony had a water tight case why would they settle?"

What would they gain from taking it all the way if he has to ask for donations just to pay for his lawyers?, kids broke, they wouldn't get a dime - so they switched it and made sure he or anyone he works with, EVER, can have anything to do with hacking any Sony product, EVER.

[rabidpancakeburglar]

I very highly doubt that anonymous will back off, they are the type of arseholes who thrive on creating havoc

[BenEViolent]

hotz =/= anon

[Prototype]

I'm glad this is over with, now we can go back to the typical "our games is better than yours"

Now watch the millions of articles "sony/geohot won and heres why..."

[mastiffchild]

Hotz will have annoyed a lot of people who blindly gave donations for his costs expecting him to duke it out in court with their cash. Why? Because he set himself up as a martyr for their cause-he was the one troing to take the high moral stance in the face of the "evil" corporate aggressor etc. THAT'S why, I think a few people are wound up at him for settling-and a silent settlement at that might show he didn't have too strong a position or may have had to do more back scratching than he'd like made public(though, surely, Sony, will be in a similar boat and th mystery serves as a scarier deterrent than public details showing both sides cuddled up in the end to some extent)-and esp after setting himself up as a new age Jesus for Hackers' rights.

I still don't believe, for a millisecond, that he did what he did without KNOWING he was aiding piracy but life's too short to care too much and suffice to say I think anyone claiming this as a result for either side will be WAY off the mark. Many hakcres have stood firm in the face of corporations of late so if Hotz was all in charge he would have gone for it-no doubt in my mind. By the same yardstick Sony wanted to scare people from doping the same to future consoles and a settlement isn't anything like as good as a proper sentencing and punishment for Hotz meted out by a judge. Nether side got anything like what they wanted lout of this-Hotz will be pleased to be free and not bankrupt and we can only wonder what Sony got in return from him-information, expertise or even straight up ratting his mates out-who knows? But they've got something or they wouldn't have settled and would have backed their lawyers for longer than Hotz could afford to his-financially speaking they could have done what he couldn't.

Most likely there wasn't going to be a quick way out for either side and an offer was made by one side and when both felt they had something of use they quit it and decided to keep schtum for all involved-cos NOBODY will look very good.

[AaronSponk]

This is a huge win for software and hardware developers.

Hotz "accepting" a permanent injunction means he's publically admitting to doing wrongby aiding piracy and theft.

Permanent is a very long time, folks.

[jke82]

ya gotta wonder if this sets the fact that geo did indeed harm sony and set the tone to make a monetary civil suit possible to recoup losses because of piracy on the ps3 not sure if it would any legal students think it makes sense

[OhMyGandhi]

...how about instead of boycotting them, he could have simply sold the console or whatever. Give up on Sony's products only as a personal matter for him to deal with alone.Going the extra step is quite laughable, and extremely immature.

if I buy an Ipod, and it doesn't act or respond exactly as I want it to, I don't launch a massive crusade against apple because of my hurt feelings.

I barely have enough enthusiasm to brush my teeth three times a day, where he gets this sort of energy to do all this is beyond me.

[llMurcielagoll]

Speaking of Anonymous, they came out of nowhere with the the message threatening Sony and stole V's mask as its background or their icon probably. Did some Denial of Service attacks, then Poof disappeared.

Is it possible they got bored because Sony didn't give a rat's @$$? Or its part of their evil plan to disappear then strike back again with something up their sleeves?

[Trackboss]

Wait so who got paid?

[Godmars290]

The lawyers. Though I bet that Hotz will come out of this claiming a win, as apposed to being allowed to walk away from this not ruining his life more than he has.

[joeorc]

some may say that george won this but really no, not at all an it seems he's very luckey to gather this asw his penalty.

permanent injunctions are a penalty!! not something you get if you win...!

a perma. injunction...WOW!

I mean what we do not know the full point's of the injunction, but they could be quite severe. I mean check out this one.

http://www.lawandenvironmen...

[zootang]

Maybe hotz paid sony in code?

[Lord_Doggington]

Hotz won the money.

Anonymous won the day.

[Arksine]

Wrong. A settlement was reached, Hotz didn't win any money. What he did manage to do is lie to everyone who donated to him though. By agreeing to his injunction, he wont be touching the Xperia Play or any other Sony Product.

I'd be willing to bet he spilled what he knew about anyone else that hacked the PS3 as well. Of course those idiots posing as Anonymous will claim that this is their doing, however this settlement has likely been in the works for some time.

[Trackboss]

/ sarcasm

[Ravage27]

*facepalm*

Looks like Hotz can't touch the NGP now...though the attention whore in him won't be able to resist it. For Sony, this could be a nice trap to get his ugly ass into jail.

[Eamon]

To be honest, it only means geohot won't be able to gain credit for any hacks that happen in the future.

He may hack other Sony products but post them anonymously.

[mastiffchild]

No, not really. Sony would have LOVED to have got the full result over Hotz. It would have served as a massive threat to future hackers-they wouldn't give two shits about what Hotz could actually pay in reality.

Fact is Sony either didn't have quite enough to get exactly what they wanted or Hotz offered them something pretty juicy in another direction(ratting out others or whatever)and forced their hand. Hotz, I believe, would also have loved to have won the case(other hackers have stood firm with seemingly similar cases and won so why not hotz with all the support he had, mm?)but, for whatever reason, knew he couldn't.

Thing is Sony only have themselves and the shareholders to answer to-Hotz, meanwhile, set himself up as the martyr in all this and settling with the "bad" guys is more embarrassing for him than for Sony I'd suggest.

Overall, though, anyone suggesting a massive victory for either side is barking mental or, more likely, suffering from wishful thinking. The most likely answer, but it's only my opinion, is that hotz offered them something, dunno what, Sony weighed it up against the cost and risk and publicity of court and decided not to make the lawyers any richer or wind up people like anon more than needed.

It definitely doesn't send out the scary message Sony would have wanted to future would be hackers BUT it sure as hell doesn't make Hotz' high moral stance look convincing either. All we can tell is Hotz got away without being bankrupt and have to guess what Sony got, and they'll have to have gotten something, in return. So much for standing up for a belief though, eh Geo? If you wanna be a martyr you really HAVE to go the whole nine yards-even moreso when you've had "your" people funding your side of the sodding case. I doubt many donated in the hope Geo would settle to save his own hide without making any point about hackers freedom to do what they wished.

[cemelc]

To all the ppl defending HOTZ:

http://psx-scene.com/forums...

Read the Stipulation.pdf and enjoy how hotz got his a$$ handed to him by sony.

The settlement goes something like this:

Sony:"Hotz hand over your balls"
Hotz:"there you go"

You dont believe me? read the pdf...LOL

[jerethdagryphon]

basically the injunction states that he cantnot do anything to gain access to any sony product he cannot assit others in it or distribute it even if somone posted a link on his blog to the latest firmware update that could be seen as distributing it

the fines are 10k per infreaction non ditributing

and 250k per distribution and you can bet sony will be keeping an eye on him and the scene

[news4geeks]

So Sony won?

[Lord_Doggington]

haha why would you think this? sony were the ones to start the litigation in the first place. the code had already been distributed. they wanted retribution.

and they suddenly "settle"?

honestly, this sounds like anonymous and hotz both bitch slapped sony.

[news4geeks]

fair enough

[Karooo]

permanent injuction. Sony cant really win against the internet will cause much more damage, so this was good.

[shwiggity]

How did anonymous and hotz bitch slap sony?

They wanted hotz to stop posting his hacks, and this injunction probably covers that.

Don't think for a second that Sony wanted money from this douche, they wanted his hacks off the internet, and that's what they've partially accomplished...

if anything it sounds like Sony sort of got what they were looking for

[NYC_Gamer]

@shwiggity

in reality,Sony wasted a lot of time all they did was get this dude mainstream attention.and the PS3 is still open with all kind of hacks.

[tdrules]

@shwiggity

you know when GeoHot jailbroke the iPhone, he didn't get fined or lose out, he got an internship at Google.

This guy hacked the "unhackable" console, the Titanic of the console world.
If he doesn't get a job out of this somewhere I would be very surprised

[P_Bomb]

Sony wouldn't have agreed to settle if they weren't getting what they wanted. Hotz obviously gave em what they wanted or told em what they wanted to hear and in return, his grandkids won't be stuck paying his legal bills.

Retribution, Doggington? Pretty sure the death penalty or a 7 figure restitution were never realistic options, lol! Always knew it'd end like this. Most cases do.

[rezzah]

^
Only reason why it was hackable was because code where released. Not like he went in a did it himself.

He was aided by the stolen codes which doesn't make one so great as many would think they'd be.

Edit: @ tdrules

[joeorc]

people that do the bitch slapping do not take perma. injunction's.

So that right there shows who got bitch slapped.

[badz149]

"PS3 is still open with all kind of hacks." - yeah...like CFW 3.60 to play latest games and and access PSN...oh wait...THAT doesn't exist!

PS3 hacks are overrated! if it was not because of the stolen USB, none would have been able to do even a simple "hello world" let alone fully hack the PS3! the key was also stolen with the help of the USB!

and for those who said that Sony loses need to think again! permanent injunction is the sign of "winning" to you guys? guess who got the injunction? it's GeoDouche, not SONY! means that he can't even touch any Sony product till he dies or at least he can't brag and take credits about any hack against SONY's product ever again like he always do! he's a bitch to SONY now with a string attached and if he tries anything clever, he's down for $10k - $250k! woohoo...winning!...NOT!

[Perkel]

Anonymous Won.

1. Sony sued Hotz for releasing ps3 hack.

2. They got like 5 lawyers vs 1 lawyer of Hotz.

3. Sony is releasing some shit like GeoHot running to mexico.

4. Anonymous take action

5 Few days later it's over. Hotz don't pay anything and he only must promise that he won't do it again (btw he already did lol).

6. Sony lost a lot of $$$ for nothing.

Kackker winz ;)

You don't &&&k with internet Sony ;)

[cemelc]

Or you actually read how sony got hotz to kneel before them??.

http://psx-scene.com/forums...

Read the pdf and see how the guy cant touch any sony product again in his life...Yeah sony must be crying right about now/s

[jerethdagryphon]

the setlement was decided 10 days ago before anoncrap got involved

[Ahasverus]

I think they payed him a good money for this

[P_Bomb]

Plaintiffs tend not to pay defendants in settlements.

[NYC_Gamer]

i think sony,did this because their back was against the wall with all the attacks and etc.but thats just my opinion.

[ehandlr]

This settlement was reached two weeks ago, prior to the attacks.

[a_bro]

surpising that this was posted on the blog LOL

[JonnyBigBoss]

Agreed. :)

[coolasj]

Ok. So, what happens now? So many questions.

[Zir0]

Wow so Hotz didn't even get sued any money.

This certainly won't help scare hackers from hacking.

[DrFUD]

You can sue a person for a bazillion dollars but if they don't have it and never will, what's the point.

[TreMillz]

thank you sir, you are like the first person to use common sense in this article section...bubbles+

[shwiggity]

his legal fees must be astronomical though...

large companies wont sue an individual for the simple reason that this person doesn't have the millions of dollars required to settle a lawsuit

that's why companies will sue other companies, because they can actually pay up

[StupidDude]

sure it will.

not everyone will make enough donations to pay for the legal costs that Hotz did. he's a superstar in their community.

but, imagine if you're just some low-level nerd who hacked the PS3, and released it to the wild. then, Sony sues you.

who's going to help you?

this was a special case where Hotz was popular enough in the hacker community to get extra funding from them. not everyone (in fact, outside of Hotz and Chokolo, probably no one) will be so lucky.

[Neo Nugget]

Hm, I was hoping Sony would have destroyed Hotz.

[ALFAxD_CENTAURO]

Hotz It's sanctioned for life under Sony products, that at least is something than getting out without any punishment.

[harrisonxxi]

sony didnt care about a monetary reward, they will earn more money b/c their console is more secure.

[Raendom]

Damnit. Was hoping he'd be fined http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[EvilC]

Perfect

[SuperStrokey1123]

So what actually happened here? Does anyone win here or is it lose lose? Could some one more up on legal terms post what actually happened here?

[StupidDude]

settlement means both parties got at least something they wanted.

Sony probably got him to agree to lay off Sony consoles.

Hotz probably walked away without having to pay them anything.

[Jellzy]

We'll only know once we find out what the injunction was.

It could be a number of things... Most likely a ban from releasing code pertaining Sony hardware though.

[Perkel]

1.HOtz got sued over releasing ps3 hack @ internet = jailbroken ps3.

2. They had 5 lawyers on Sony side vs Hotz 1 lawyer.

3. Anonymous attak Sony.

4. Few days later satllement is ready:

-Hotz don't pay anything and he won't use any sony device again.

Summary:

Sonyy lost a lot of $$$, Hotz is Free and he didn't pay anything to Sony. Ps3 is Jailbroken

How is that Sony Win ?

It's Clearly Hotz Win and probably the main party that won is anonymous.

In few days they probably done more damage to Sony that Hotz and others.

[BigPenguin]

Hey retard, how about you read the article, then realize that this was inked 2 weeks ago, far before any of the anon bullshit happened.

[badz149]

how many times do you intend to copy + paste THAT?

You said settlement like GeoDouche walked away with nothing! he no longer has the right for 100% free speech from now on! he can't hack any Sony product till he dies or else fined $10k is back-tracked to him and $250k if he release it online! sounds like winning? lol

and the Jailbroken PS3 can't access PSN after 3.60 and CFW is nowhere to be seen, which is actually a very good news for SONY and all paying customers!

[nightmarex121]

Seems like a draw to me.

[Acquiescence]

but I wanted to see GeoHot bankrupt and left reeling from the case :(

What a total anti-climax.

[tdrules]

so George has agreed to not publish his stuff i.e permanent injunction.
therefore Sony have probably employed him to close the loopholes by the sounds of things.
Being a grey hat hacker has its benefits huh

EDIT: N4G, the website that will criticise capitalism in the form of DLC then back up any decision made by a corporation if said corporation says it will affect the user.
stay classy

[C0MPUT3R]

Mr Anderson we will be willing to wipe the slate clean and give you a new start if you work for us.

[kuge456]

Good example,why not turn to M$ this time. AP2.5 got trouble.

[Eamon]

lol

[Emilio_Estevez]

We need some deets!

[hot111]

lol Sony
What was the point in suing him then,everything is online and other(much smarter than him) will continue to hack everything Sony related.

This looks like a PR stunt.

[Tdmd]

Other than it's finally over, I can't say I'm happy with this. Imo, Hotz needed to be made an exemple of, which in the end, he was not. It seems to me that he's actions (as well as his insolence) were left unpunished.

[Silly gameAr]

Glad this is over. Maybe now less focus on George, more focus on gaming.

[Raven_Nomad]

I am guessing Sony saw the trouble was more then it was worth by bringing so much attention to the problem. No matter how big you are, you can always be brought down a peg or two.

Glad they took the same route at Nintendo and Microsoft when it comes to hackers and issues like that, the less public the better.

[XabiDaChosenOne]

You do know that geohot was the one who offered the settlement right? And Sony would have not agreed to it if they were not getting what they wanted.

[iDotDotDot]

This is so ... weird,and sudden. I need more information before I can decide if this is something to be happy about.

[_Q_]

I think no one won here. Sony wasn't willing to invest so much to gain so little. A hard fought battle with one man could very much make Sony look like a villain. Sony cant have Hotz seen as a martyr they need him to look like sell out. Sony seems to be working this one smart. Stay tuned folks theres more to this.

[Perkel]

-PS3 jailbroken
-Hotz is Free and he will not pay anything to Sony. He can't use any Sony product again (derp, as if someone will controle it)
- Sony lost a lot of money due to anonymous attacks and 5 lawyers.

Is it Sony win :> ? No..

[Treyb3yond]

PS3 is no longer jailbroken.

You obviously don't know sh1t.

And Americans, please watch this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/c...

[meetajhu]

Sony and Hotz lost. anonymous won

[AssassinHD]

Anonymous has accomplished absolutely nothing, so how have they "won"?

[Butt0n_m4sher]

Well actually, Anonymous might have played a part in this. Sony might have realized that it would take too many resources (which could be used better to produce games and such) to battle Geo and Anon at the same time.

With Anon coming into the picture, Sony probably just figured that if they settled with Geo, Anon would stop their assault as well. Just trying to take an unbiased view on this.

[AssassinHD]

Yeah I don't think Sony was terribly concerned with a couple of minor DDoS attacks and some pizza being sent to Mr. Tretton. It takes two parties to settle, and Sony got the better deal.

[ATiElite]

Sony won and they won with class. They offered Geo a deal and he took it. if he would of said No and this would of went to trial Sony would of had Geo by the Balls. Put the COD down and go read a Law Book.

Sony made their point and gave Hackers a warning. The next jerk to pull this I'm sure Sony will make an example out of them.

Sony is a billion dollar company that just beat another billion dollar company (LG) in the court room. Do you think Sony's team of Lawyers would loose to some punk kid from New Jersey. Once again put the COD down and go read a Law Book.

[green]

So what was the point of the lawsuit? He did not get penalized and the hack can still be found online. Fail to see how this was any benefit to Sony.

[Trroy]

Ah, its over eh? Seems nice of Sony. Hotz sure enjoyed that South American vacation on his supporters' money though.

[KillerPwned]

Good i never wanna hear about this kid again..

[cliffbo]

it's just a shame that this ahole got away with it he should of served time in jail to set an example to others who may try similar hacking.

[ehandlr]

This was a civil case, not criminal. He never would have did jail time.

[RyuCloudStrife]

now lets smoke some weed

[AstroZombie1]

Will Anon fuck off back to their cave now?

[VonBraunschweigg]

Nobody won or lost yet, it's too soon to say if the new security system that 'replaced' the rootkey actually works and keeps the network safe from cheats enabled by piracy. As a gamer that matters most to me. I think the injunction is really important, if he breaks it he will go to jail, and I think that sooner or later he will pick up his old habbits and help the hack, I mean homebrew community in a way that's not allowed. He probably has a new&used PS3 already, it's only a matter of time before he will post another manual for 'homebrew' he accidentally found in his machine along with a BS message on not supporting piracy. Then it's back to court, and the kill cam...one shot from the hip all away across the map GTFO!
If PSN will remain free of that everybody wins, even George with his prolonged minutes of fame. Anonymous will remain the scriptkiddielosers they are, untill they free Bradley Manning of course.

[Tzuno]

In essence Sony lost. Bwuahahahahhh!!!

[joeorc]

Is that why Sony took a perma. injunction?

OH that's right George Hotz did, if he did not settle, he may have faced more than this. the point was he stated before this case he was fighting for the right's of the consumer but yet he settles?

the point is not only did he settle but he settled with a perma. injunction on himself, an you call it Sony lost?

a injunction is a penalty!

you do not as a winner get a penalty.

[danielle007]

Kind of anti-climatic.

[VonBraunschweigg]

Just read his blog, the man is boycotting all Sony products from now on:) He has to, he's not even allowed to use tape to fix his old walkman, any tinkering with Sony products and it's BAM to jail, and Georgieboy is smart enough to realise he'll be hacked hard himself if that happens.

[REDHULKSMASH]

he violated the confidentiality of the settlement just by saying he can't comment on the confidentiality.
nice picture by the way geohot.
all this to save $$ games now he can't play games. Theres always wii and the hefty library of microsoft exclusives.

If he wasn't so young and stupid i'd be pissed he didn't do time. I think now that he relized he was that close to pissing half his life away he won't wanna rip anymore.

to throw away your life on a game that is $60 one minute and $9.99 the next doesn't make sense, and anyone willing to do that and risk 10-30 years of their life on a product that depreciates that quick has to be undecended testicled youths or the legally retarded for lack of a better word.

"geohot" ....thank The Man Upstairs you got a second chance.

[artsaber]

1. Sony wanted Geo to stop distribution of company property/code to prevent hacking of their devices. - Done with injunction

2. Sony wanted to prevent Geo the ability to hack future Sony products - Done with injunction

3. Geo wanted to be able to continue hacking away at Sony products including the upcoming Xperia Play - Failed due to injunction

4. Geo wanted Sony to reinstate the "Other OS" feature that his actions encouraged their removal. - Fail

5. Hacking community is pissed at Geo for rolling like a dog with fleas when a deal came up. (I wouldn't be surprised if he rolled over on a few of his fellow hackers in secret).

How in the heck is this a win for Geohotz? Him going to jail or getting sued for a Gazillion dollars was never options on the table in the 1st place.

Sony got what they wanted, George didn't. But George seemed to evade stricter punishment by accepting this plea IMO.

[joeorc]

Yupper's

If the defense has such a case to defend their standpoint, an yet the person takes a perma. injunction on themselves?

An yet people still think Sony Lost?

LMAO..perma. injunctions are a penalty!

people

This is clear he took this to avoid further punishment he was smart to take it. Sony was smart to accept. think about this any further cases Sony can go forward with injunctions on further hacker's if need be.

If the hacker get's caught further hacking a companies products under perm. injunction, it's no longer civil, its criminal.

This in of itself is a big win for not only Sony but Nintendo an Microsoft also. this case can still be pointed to. even though the case was settled. it was settled in a perma. injunction. against a Hacker this was far from a win for the defense , unless you count keeping george from further penalty's.

[NeloAnjelo]

So thats it? I mean I'm glad its over, but does anyone believe that Hotz won't go and run his mouth like he's known for? Let wait and see.

[Shani]

Good to see settlement that is beneficial to gamers.

[NotSoSilentBob]

Would have been more beneficial if mrs. Geohotz had kept her ego under control and just stayed away from hacking the ps3 and causing the flood gates to open.

[Treyb3yond]

Lets face it, hackers suck ballz.

[btk]

You get real hackers... Linus Torvalds, Stallman, Maddog Hall, Dennis Ritchie, Gosling...
They actually build stuff that everyone benefits from. They stand for something and build platforms.

Then you get GH and co. They break stuff. Not all bad... but the arrogance he exhibited sort of takes away sympathy for his case.

[Dagobert]

Ok, uhh not much of a lawyer here (as a matter of fact, not one at all), nor am I that familiar with law terms. So like what the fuck happened? What did they settle on? Hugs?

Oh and I still hate Geotwat.

[Nivalis]

He's basically banned from messing about with any Sony product, ever.

[Xander756]

I am curious to know what exactly the injunction requires him to stop doing?

[ReBurn]

Read it for yourself.

http://psx-scene.com/forums...

[ReBurn]

So pretty much this whole thing was a huge waste of time. All of that time and money spent and all that came out of it was an agreement from Hotz to not hack Sony's stuff any more.

Makes me wonder why Sony agreed to drop the case. My guess is that they didn't want to risk losing and subsequently set a legal precedent that left the doors open for hackers. But I guess we'll never really know.

[kratosgdz]

Another source: http://www.ps3news.com/PS3-...

[NeloAnjelo]

I posted the supposed settlement agreement on Geohot's blog and Anonymous' Facebook fanpage. Its been a good day.

[dukester]

Let's be honest here, had it been Microsoft ganging up on ONE person hacking the 360 you all would have went ape-feces about how terrible Microsoft is....

It was bad PR plain and simple, Sony looked like the bad guy pushing around one dude and there was significant backlash. I know you basement dwellers here at N4G would go so far up Sony's posterior if they ever came to a sudden stop...

Meanwhile the Kinect is being hacked and Microsoft shrugs. But if they ban people from Live you refuse to clean your bedrooms for a month. Sony is the Evil Empire in this case, just face facts.

[Agent_hitman]

So what the meaning of "Permanent injunction?" and who won in this case?

Is Hotz call for settlement with sony?

[Mister_G]

It means he can never disclose the terms of the settlement, EVER! Otherwise he's big trouble because the courts imposed the injunction, so he'd be trouble with them. No BS about juristication.

Think both parties came to an "agreement".

Who won? Dunno... Sony I hope. But since the settlement is confidential we may never know.

[billabong1985]

At last we can hear the end of this rubbish, in the end a simple case of common sense prevailing. Geohot was never going to 'win' against Sony and eventually accepted this and settled. He never had a strong enough case and regardless of what anybody says about true motives, hacking inevitably leads to piracy (and you can claim 'homebrew' all you want, if you want to develop your own software, there are plenty of PC development suites and OS out there that are 100% free and legal so why would you need to hack your PS3?!) and Sony were never going to let the PS3 go the same way as PC gaming. Afraid to say I also find it hard to sympathise with all the people who donated money to his cause, which was a lost cause from the start, if you ask me anyone daft enough to stump up their own cash to support this has only themselves to blame

[Nivalis]

You guys saying hots/anonymous won, need to watch more crime/law shows, someone only ever accepts a deal if they know things aren't looking good for them and the other side has evidence to nail you harder should you not accept.

As for Anonymous, they didn't do much of anything except some script kiddy attacks that got stopped in their tracks by prolexic (hence why they changed to organizing a sit-in at Sony stores), the settlement has taken the wind out of their sales, but as ever with Anonymous, they won't stop there because they haven't had enough publicity out of it, not enough airtime.
So expect the faceless basement bandits to be around for a little while longer trying to spin things to look like their involvement was the cause for the settlement, or that they're going to continue anyway.

Fact of the matter is, Geohot ran out of ideas to stall the case, and didn't have the resources to fight Sony, and Sony clearly saw that they would get nothing financially by pursuing the case, so did the next best thing and insured that Geohot could never be a problem for the PS3 or any future Sony console, ever.

And some of you guys think Geohot won?, lmao!

[TheEatingChampagne]

HAHAHAHAAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAHAHAHHA HAHAHAAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAHAHAH
HAHAHAHAAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAHAHAHH AHAHAHAAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAHAHAH
HAHAHAHAAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAHAHAHH AHAHAHAAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAHAHAH

I told you this would happen but you guys chose to call me delusional, and that Sony "is a multi billionaire company that is not afraid from hackers blablabla"

[Nivalis]

Kids not allowed to mess with a Sony device, ever, and for the rest of his life the moment he employs, is employed, or has any help in any way, every single person he's in contact with becomes liable to his agreed settlement, so if anyone he works with or he himself, were to do anything at all, ever, to a Sony device, he would be fined $10k per instance.

Were he to release a code online again, it would come under distribution, for which the settlement would demand 250k per unit on each access to said code.

Guys absolutely, positively screwed with regards to anything Sony - so much for the tongue in cheek hacker and his "When's the Xperia play out again?"

[TheEatingChampagne]

He doesn't need to talk about a Sony product ever again..
The howto hack the machine is already posted online and whoever wants to try it on his PS3 might as well do it...
He won this time and it's all thanks to anonymous

[sak500]

@nivalis

"Kids not allowed to mess with a Sony device, ever, and for the rest of his life"

Oh and that's a punishment? I've not touched a sony product since i had to throw my 50" 720p HDTV 1 1/2 years ago because it developed severe pixalation and would have cost me more to repair than to buy a new tV. So i went and bought 50" Panasonic 1080p plasma and was so happy later bought another 43" pana 1080 plasma.

THe last sony device is a 8 year old handy cam only used 1year and developed problems exactly after one year so had to pay for it and then it again appeared so i left it gathering dust.

NO a biggie since sony was hyping to world that they will show teh hacker not to mess with them and in return not millions of $ in the settlement but a perma ban on using sony products. I guess he's not alone in the world not using sony products.

[Metfanant]

@sak

Can you show me where Sony ever publically stated that they were going to "show teh hacker not to mess with them" or that they wanted to get millions of dollars in return?...

no you can't...because you're making stuff up...

you = fail

[Pledius]

lolwut? do people don't read or something? permanent-injuction = Sony lost? what?

maybe they read it, but still don't know what permanent injunction means. I suggest people to google it.

good job Sony I congratulate you for this awesome victory

[Claudinho69]

wish i could see the video to the meeting, was prob something like the one on the facebook movie