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Sony subpoenas Google, Twitter for PS3 hacker info

Publisher hopes to track down the rest of fail0verflow team

Sony has issued subpoenas for information to various websites and social networks, requesting various data related to accounts believed to be held by members of the fail0verflow hacking team.

Documents passed on to hacking community site PSX-Scene are understood to show the requests, and contain concerns over whether or not all of the relevant details of the case have been fully disclosed.

The move indicates a marked ramping up of the company's attempts to prosecute the hackers behind the breach, which have previously been focused on George Hotz, known in the hacking community as GeoHot.

Hotz, along with several others, was successfully legally restrained by Sony from distributing the published hacking information any further, but Sony believes that others are still doing so.

Sony believes that by obtaining account information from the companies it has subpoenaed it will be able to track down further members of the team responsible and prosecute them.

The details Sony is requesting include account details, IP addresses, personal information and access to created posts and documents. Sony claims that any delay in the process is causing them further harm, as the unknown members of the group continue to distribute the hack.

A rapid resolution to the subpoenas will allow Sony to "identify the Fail0verflow Defendants and other culpable entities so appropriate action can be taken against them for the distribution of the illegal circumvention devices," the documents claim.

"The infringers will continue to distribute the illicit circumvention devices while SCEA must wait to be heard on its request to discover the identities and locations of those infringers."

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Dan Pearson

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