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Court orders GeoHot to have his hard drive inspected by Sony

Posted Feb 11, 2011 at 6:53AM EST by Mabie A.

Listed in: PS3 Tags: george hotz, news, Sony

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1. Court orders GeoHot to have his hard drive inspected by Sony
2. Page 2
3. Probable cause

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The latest in the ongoing GeoHotz drama comes rolling in today. A federal judge ruled on Thurday that the (in)famous jailbreaker George Hotz surrender his hard drive to Son for inspection.

george-hotz

The ruling was handed down by U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, giving Sony the authority to go retrieve information "that relates to the hacking of the PlayStation."

In his defense, Hotz' legal representation, attorney Stewart Keller, object to the ruling on the grounds that Sony will then be able to have access not only to the PlayStation files, but to everything that's in Hotz' hard drive.

The judge only had this to say to that objection: "That's the breaks."

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Even more fun probably child pornography and snuff films. Conversations with other hackers, bank account details, login details for various sites... A whole smorgasbord of private information to work with.

Maybe he had the foresight to clear that stuff out, but then again since when does anybody clear their history on their own private computer?

-2 # RE: Court orders GeoHot to have his hard drive inspected by Sony — Mabie A. 2011-02-11 12:19

well, george hotz did break into sony's privacy, essentially. it's not hard to imagine rubbing their hands together with silent glee as they gain possession of hotz' files. ooooh, the endless (evil) possibilities!

george isn't in a good place right now, we bet.

# RE: RE: Court orders GeoHot to have his hard drive inspected by Sony — Snaku 2011-02-12 06:23

This doesn't make sense to me. He has to hand over his hdd to Sony? Like, "Here you go, Sony, here's my hdd and you can access it and do whatever you want with no supervision"? I mean, I understand that only Sony would know what to look for, but shouldn't they have to do it with Hotz's lawyer present or something to make sure there's no fowl play? This is nothing like handing a hard drive over to the police.

And what's to stop him from deleting all incriminating data, zeroing the empty sectors a dozen times, and then loading it up with a bunch of movies or whatever and defragging it a few times? I'm pretty sure there would be nothing for them to find then.

"That's the breaks?" For hacking a computer device that he bought and owns, he has to hand over his property to a private company (not a government or law enforcement agency, or even an impartial third party). This case should have never even made it to court and now this happens: it's ridiculous.

One more reason that I'll never buy another product with the name Sony on it. Any company that would treat people like this is one that I don't want to do business with.

+1 # wtf — xavis75211 2011-02-11 12:45

why should sony search the drive? they should have someone else search it so no possible fowl play can come in play. keep it fair. oh wait, American judicial system, they give the finger to fairness.

-2 # RE: wtf — ColorblindMonk 2011-02-11 13:13

Well, "That's the breaks." According to the judge, they have the right now. Doesn't matter if they do some fowl play 'cause now they have the law on their side. Their priority is to get those hack files.

-1 # RE: RE: wtf — TheRockness 2011-02-11 15:35

Quoting ColorblindMonk:

Well, "That's the breaks." According to the judge, they have the right now. Doesn't matter if they do some fowl play 'cause now they have the law on their side. Their priority is to get those hack files.

Because anyone besides Sony is trustworthy with his information right?

# mmmmmmm — emcp6666 2011-02-11 13:34

this just aint right

anyway, come on youd feel tempted to add a few wee easter eggs on the harddrive

-1 # RE: Court orders GeoHot to have his hard drive inspected by Sony — joostin 2011-02-11 14:13

If he has keys and other Sony patented information on his drive then they definitely have the right to search his drive for that information. Remember the original hack was stolen from Sony and was not GeoHotz's intellectual property to begin with. I can give props to people that actually hack a machine with their own code and their own methods...not when they just use a method created by Sony to fix their own systems. That is just lazy. Let him burn!

-2 # well — gragra 2011-02-11 14:14

if you guys knew anything about police work and court cases involving data on computers, you would know that it is standard procedure to confiscate the hardware. nothing shady going on here.

# RE: Court orders GeoHot to have his hard drive inspected by Sony — Phane 2011-02-11 14:29

This is silly. The whole DMCA is silly. He hacked a device that he owns. This shouldn't even be a court case and it's clear the judge has no clue what they are doing. In cases of child porn, you're surrendering your hardware over to law enforcement for a criminal investigation, not to a corporate interest for a civil claim.

-2 # RE: Court orders GeoHot to have his hard drive inspected by Sony — SHimazaki 2011-02-11 14:41

With tousands of web mirrors having those hacks allready, it makes no sense for me, that they need to search files in hot's computer...

Unless they are searching for source codes....and that means that they (SONY) know nothing about they own PS3 product

Lame.

-1 # RE: Court orders GeoHot to have his hard drive inspected by Sony — PS360 Owner1 2011-02-11 14:42

Geohot now has to break the jail.

Sony's really stupid and annoying by doing this instead of simply banning all pirated consoles.

-3 # RE: Court orders GeoHot to have his hard drive inspected by Sony — sawango 2011-02-11 15:16

POOR GEORGE. I promise i'll try to visit him in jail. I might even bring him a cake, with a strategically placed rock hammer baked in it.

-2 # encryption — Neleor 2011-02-11 15:32

hope for him he encrypted the stuff on his harddrive, that's another barrier for SONY

-1 # RE: Court orders GeoHot to have his hard drive inspected by Sony — AssassinXCV 2011-02-11 17:30

if he was smart, he'd encrypt his entire hdd, and i mean everything, like that thing that when you boot up the computer it says "no operating system found" but really, all you do is type a password (nothing appears on the screen) press enter, then windows will load.

-1 # RE: RE: Court orders GeoHot to have his hard drive inspected by Sony — Shaggy_ZE 2011-02-11 17:50

i'm sure there is something in the judges ruling about tampering with the hard drive so if he encrypts it or makes a dos program to fake a "no operating system found"; sony would eventually scan the drive and realize there is data on it and have another order for him to un-encrypt it so that would be pointless.

if he was smart he would upload the source/files encrypted or password protected to an online server and format his hard drive before sony sets a date that way it gives him time to use the operating system and make edits/add files so its not obvious it was formatted recently.

or even borrow a hard drive from a friend and hide his away for awhile.

sony already knows he did it he advertised openly to the entire world what hes done so they shouldn't even need proof to search his hard drives; seems more like sony is butt hurt and wants to prove a point more then anything which would be something like hackers always provail and we have a hard time just stopping one.

-2 # RE: Court orders GeoHot to have his hard drive inspected by Sony — Ricktor 2011-02-11 17:37

Hopefully he did all of his work on an external USB HDD and is hidden in an undisclosed area.

-2 # 0_0 — hush404 2011-02-11 20:23

What a strange, strange story.

-2 # Cloud, cloud, cloud... — Alaba Baju 2011-02-11 20:25

(no my title is not on FFVII :)

it makes me wonder, what if he was using a web OS and online file storage, or some cloud computing service where all his important stuff were on some other computer miles away. Then Sony would read bedtime stories from his hard drive! Not that I support illegal stuff but, Sony cmon...

-1 # RE: Court orders GeoHot to have his hard drive inspected by Sony — Kanoli Joe 2011-02-11 20:34

Whats to stop Sony from falsifying his data?

I'd just break the drive and say those are the breaks bitch. This judge is a whacko. Seriously whats to say that it didn't crash in the time between he made the hack and the court case?

Since when can a judge surrender private property to the plaintiff?

-2 # RE: Court orders GeoHot to have his hard drive inspected by Sony — Kanoli Joe 2011-02-11 20:36

What this judge is doing is ordering him to incriminate himself. Thats wrong. I think he can still delete the files off it and lie. Then Sony won't have a case. This is so messed up I think this country sucks and the Judge sucks and Sony sucks. This case needs to be thrown out.

-2 # RE: Court orders GeoHot to have his hard drive inspected by Sony — Thevirgoprince 2011-02-11 22:28

If he touched any of those files, he will go to prison, he's messing with evidence, just like you aren't allowed to touch evidence at a crime scene,messing with evidence is a serious offence and will net you very long trip to prison for allot of years.

-1 # RE: Court orders GeoHot to have his hard drive inspected by Sony — Deez Nutz 2011-02-11 22:34

Obviously the judge is being paid off by sony.

-2 # RE: RE: Court orders GeoHot to have his hard drive inspected by Sony — PS360 Owner1 2011-02-12 19:56

That makes sense because no logic person would ever take a case like this seriously.

-2 # RE: Court orders GeoHot to have his hard drive inspected by Sony — Tron 2011-02-11 23:10

All geohot has to do is smash the hard drive before handing it over.

Here ya go sony!

-2 # RE: Court orders GeoHot to have his hard drive inspected by Sony — Gangsta457 2011-02-12 04:36

lol hes fucked

-2 # RE: Court orders GeoHot to have his hard drive inspected by Sony — jockthecockofthewalk 2011-02-12 05:54

he can zero the hard drive or place a big magnet on top of his hard drive that would make it useless.

but i agree i've heard of the police confiscating and inspecting property but not the plaintiff, that's just ridiculous.

did he pay for his own lawyer or is it a public defender defending him ?

# BAD JUDGE!!! — GUNBEHINDTHESUN 2011-02-12 11:18

That is stupid! It sounds like this judge is an idiot. They should have a third party do it. It is not like he hacked Sony's personal computer. He only hacked his own things that he bought with his own money. What the judge ruled is against the law and unconstitutiona l.

-2 # would be funny if... — Hollow_Fang 2011-02-12 12:38

would be funny if all his ps3 related files were stored and created on a flash drive that happens to find its way to a large magniet and microwave lol

-2 # RE: Court orders GeoHot to have his hard drive inspected by Sony — jazneo 2011-02-12 13:41

there all idiots they think geohot didnt release everything but he really did when he release the key that info we only need. geohot info useless because we have all the info how to create and get keys from firmwares.

# RE: Court orders GeoHot to have his hard drive inspected by Sony — SonyOwnedYou 2011-02-14 09:48

GeoHotz got owned.. Ouch now everyones mad cause they thought he was going to win and the court was going to drop this case.. lol sony doesnt want any hackers on their system and therefore they are taking legal action to prevent stupid shit from happening yeah he bought it and its his but releasing stuff publicly is what got him in this so he had it coming.. That is all. and who sits on here and rates post down thats uhhh pathetic lol

# epic line — truk 2011-02-14 11:39

"That's the breaks."

haha

# If geohot were smart... — Gefizzle 2011-02-14 16:50

If geohot is smart, his hard drive is encryped. I'd have no problem giving up my hard drives for search and seizure...
Only things you'll find are my OS, a few games, and a ridiculously large file named gtfo.now

Truecrypt ftw.

There's also plausibly deniable encryption methods.

# RE: Court orders GeoHot to have his hard drive inspected by Sony — Cydonos 2011-02-16 11:57

That's funny, I didn't know that as a plaintiff in a lawsuit I would be given the opportunity to manufacture whatever evidence I like.

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Court orders GeoHot to have his hard drive inspected by Sony

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