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GeoHotz court ruling postponed |
Listed in: PS3 Tags: george hotz, news, Sony
This has got to be the hottest case involving the gaming industry right now. But while everyone's up on their toes waiting for a resolution, the federal judge hearing the case against George Hotz, more famously known as GeoHotz, has declined to hand down a ruling.
It seems that US District Judge Susan Illston's hesitation to give a ruling on whether or not George Hotz should surrender his computer gear stems from her uncertainty if the lawsuit really should have been filed by Sony in California Courts. The other possible place where the case could have been filed would be New Jersey, GeoHotz's home state.
According to Sony's lawyer, the case is rightfully docketed in California because the PS3 hack was posted on Twitter and YouTube. What does California have to do with these two Internet sites? That's where their main offices are.
To this, Judge Illston retorted that if that were the reason why the case should be filed in San Francisco, then "the entire universe would be subject to my jurisdiction." But Sony's lawyers are steadfast in their claim that because the PlayStation's terms-of-service stipulate that legal disputes must be settled in federal court in California where SCEA HQ is based, then the case should be heard in San Francisco.
The ruling will have to be made later, at a yet undisclosed time, given that "serious questions have been raised" at the hearing.
Via [VG247]
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No developer will waste millions or create Playstation 3 exlusives when their product can be downloaded and installed with no protection whatsoever.
When PS3's are bricked or corrupted by signed but unofficial malicous code, Sony's customer support will go into meltdown.
Hacking used to be the domain of the tech-savvy enthusiast, but this (rather incredible) breakthrough utterly destroys the system as a viable platform for investment. It could ruin Sony, who are already under-performing globally.
The court case is all about Shock and Awe - if they can contain the damage and terrify people into not hacking their systems, they may salvage their business model.
That said, when has any company, no matter its size, ever defeated the internet?
Oh, and in a final own-goal, this legal action has just massively increased awareness of the issue, making matters worse.
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Sony's lawsuit has a very grim outcome ahead of it. Still, hacked iphones havent killed the market. Neither will hacked PS3s.
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Every console/PC game is cracked, and they will still release exclusive games for each system because they know people will buy and support them.
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if you weren't savvy enough to hack your system, you could easily just find someone savvy enough to do it for you, that really wasn't much of a deterrent.
In the end, precedence of such a case exists, so Sony will hopefully be tolod to shove it if GH's lawyers know their shit.
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Tons of consoles where wide open for piracy yet they remained just fine. Hell, for iDevices all you had to do was go to a website and tap a button! Yet Apples App store remains a hit in game and app sales. All you have to do with every single NDS is buy a cartridge and download the files. Yet the NDS remains the all time #1 selling handheld.
Also, (as of right now) you still have to put your machine in service mode, download a couple firmwares, upgrade or downgrade your system depending on where you're at or where you want to be with the OFW, then apply the patched CFW then apply GH's own CFW. All from USB, in the right folder.... Do you have any clue how many people DON'T KNOW what the heck any of that means?
This is still not a "no brainer" jailbreak. The average person will never do this.
Sony will be just fine. Just like everyone else and their hacked system.
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That's what Sony needs to do, ban pirated PS3's.
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However, as someone who lost PSN network functionality because they refused to update their console after Sony removed the OtherOS feature (without which I would not have bought the console), I say more power to him - and will even contribute money to his legal defense.
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not necessarily, game producers will wait and see how game sales go, if they stay high as i expect they will, then developers and producers will continue to make games available for the system
there's a lot sony can do not least introduce the pc model of a online code for online multiplayer.
then there's regular security updates which will mean the pirates will need regular updates to there game loaders.
then of course there's the size of blu ray games
sony and the ps3 will survive this
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Thats a lie. There are only 3 console game systems out now, with more to come. When this kid gets arrested or is unable to make any more exploits. Sony will go after others, most likely Mathieulh for illegally signing homebrew to run on OFW. This will fill alot of Game Developers with joy and giving them another reason to develop games for the PS3, not just those awesome blu ray graphics, friendly online gameplay, millions of systems sold :)
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the only reason why sony went through with the lawsuit was to make the superstar hacker "geothot" an example out of as his lawyers stated.
if geohot wins this case then it will redefine the lawful standpoint on console hacking or in sony's own terms "circumvention of hardware." it means that you won't have to duck and hide when you mod your console.
go geohot!!!!!
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Even microsoft and nintendo haven't sued anybody for hacking their systems.
I'm curious to see where this goes, probably nowhere.
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One thing that should be noted it, they filed a lawsuit instead of trying to get criminal charges brought. Also, Sony wants to keep this in California due to two reason. Their lawyers are Cali lawyers well versed in Cali law and Cali has stricter digital rights laws the New Jersey. This leads me to believe that depending on the jurisdiction ruling that Sony may/may not have legal recourse against GeoHot. I personally wish him the best of luck. Also a similar hack on the XBOX 360 holds no weight as MS (to which when it happened is was surprised) allows users to create homebrew games(not emus or anything in legal gray areas). Sony took away something (OtherOs) which all PS3 Phat owners legally paid for (including myself). They are the ones that should be sued(If they had the right to take it away, then GeoHot had the right create the hack and distribute the hack). The main legal issue will be the release of the keys. There are other legal precedents besides the iPhone case. Providing a way to bypass DRM is a violation (although hard to convict on) of the Federal DRMA. Providing the keys does that, but not the hack itself. The hack is a means of acquiring the info the keys.
In the end, I would have to read the full lawsuit to see if Sony has any true legal grounds(I'm pretty sure they do at least in Cali), but if it moves jurisdiction then they might not anymore.
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The difference is direct(criminal requires direct consequences) vs indirect(civil doesn't require direct consequences, but proof of liability of the indirect consequences). Gun makers aren't held liable for the actions of murderers(unint ended use of a product) and GeoHot can't be held liable for the use of the hack by others for piracy(an unintended use of it).
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