PS3 hacker case delayed by 'jurisdictional' confusion
Sony wants Californian trial due to use of Twitter and PayPal
The initial hearing of Sony's lawsuit against PlayStation 3 hacker George Hotz has already resulted in a delay to the case.
San Francisco district court judge Susan Illston questioned whether it was appropriate to hold the case in California, given Hotz's breaching of PS3 security was attempted in his home state of New Jersey.
However, Sony's lawyers argued that the hack was revealed via California-hosted services Twitter and YouTube, and in addition Hotz allegedly received fan donations via another California-based site, PayPal.
With the State debate raising doubt about where online-centric lawsuits should physically be held, Illston worried that "If having a PayPal account were enough, then there would be personal jurisdiction in this court over everybody, and that just can't be right.
"That would mean the entire universe is subject to my jurisdiction, and that's a really hard concept for me to accept."
The ruling on these "serious questions" has been pushed back to an as-yet undecided time.
Sony hopes to force Hotz to surrender any and all computer equipment used to create the hack, as well as unspecified damages and the removal of the jailbreak from its hosting sites. At the time of writing, the hack remains freely downloadable.
Hotz surrenders an old Atari ST and his [unjailbroken] ipod to Sony as a gesture of goodwill accounting for all his 'computer equipment' with the only [legally bought] track being "Why Cant We Be Friends" by War.
/end irony
These tactics aren't foreign to Sony. A long time ago, there was a PS1 emulator for PCs called Bleem!. Sony kept Bleem! in court for so long that Bleem! had to shut down simply because they couldn't afford the endless legal action despite how the courts found that Bleem! was legal.
They should be paying for original games (specially in PC) and stop wating the money in a guy that (i hope) will never do something like this again.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Alfonso Sexto on 17th January 2011 3:06pm
p.s. problem with Play-Asia is that they will not sell any SONY products to the EU...
btw: the Califonia judge chucked out the twitter, paypal, youtube, excuse Sony is using because if they allowed it would mean nearly everyone on the globe would have to be judged in a California court...
Given the resources Sony can bring it weights things heavly in their favour.
I am not defending him but I am also not siding with Sony on this one.
I know that I will save my money and use it for somthing else like a few new games for my 360 or PC
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Temi on 17th January 2011 6:10pm
Sony could paradoxically argue to some extent that the PS3 is indeed a "closed" yet "open" system, as it's primarily made to play PS3 games (plus Blu-Ray & DVD's) and it only allows other titles on the console as "open" software (minis, PSN/PSP and so forth and so on) at their discretion (you can't play Wii or 360 games on the console, as far as I know =P).
They can also cite Hotz' tinkering previously "forced" them to remove Other OS because they felt their system had been compromised (it's NOT a phone, sorry - the cell market is a wholly different animal and a crappy one here in the US with the limited carriers we have to suffer with) and this new hack was another attempt to "force" them to make more changes to the hardware and possibly add unecessary restrictions on those consumers who simply wanted to use their PS3's as intended. Hell, property rights or not, not every consumer is a modder, wants to mod or has an interest in it at all.
If the judge falls for that while looking at other cases where "hacking" was seen as harmful to a big company, Hotz is toazt. Of course, I'm making up those legal arguments on the fly, but I expect that one of two things will happen:
Smart Judge, painful decision either way (based out of the "need" to protect Sony from individuals out to do harm OR the need to protect curious individuals who want to tinker). Dumb Judge: worse decision (not based in reality, as the judge has no tech knowledge). Either way, as noted, gamers end up losing thanks to whatever Sony decides to do in future updates or any new consoles.
Yes, the bleem! suit sucked (why Sony didn't just BUY the company, slap the tech into their PC's and make a fortune selling computers and laptops that played enhanced PS1 games is beyond me. Would have been a win-win in my book), but this is a bit different (or a LOT different, depending on who you ask).
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Greg Wilcox on 17th January 2011 7:58pm
The music industry is a good parallel; but unfortunately it takes just one guy and a instrumento to compose a song, while a modern game take at least US$5mi to develop... it will be a challenge to make it a profitable business when the publishers loose control over the distribution. The industry will have to re-invent itself, like Thiago said.
But that's what businessmen do, find a scapegoat, instead of dealing with the real problem at hand.
When DeCSS was cracked (the digital encryption for DVDs) the ensuing legal battle set a very beneficial precedent for purchasers to be able to backup their content, and in the end, the consumer was acknowledged - as they should be. I foresee another event like this happening with Blu-Ray.
Back in 1985, when I first began diving into the Rabbit Hole, I could understand the unexplored country. But 2011? It does indeed continue to be like an endless Black Hole of not getting a grip on basic issues of IP protections, legal reforms and (most importantly) an International Industry Watchdog Organization whose duty it is is to alert companies of the "latest" hacks and holes.
Companies are losing billions. I have the feeling that they would reach into their pockets for a centralized Center which would specifically specialize in protecting their properties. Oh, I know, each company has their own Alert Centers. It is their choice: depend on their own singular resources or use their resources with a combined world-wide co-operative alert/fix center.
United We Stand, Divided We Fall. (I'm a Yank, of course...)
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Tom Zelinski on 19th January 2011 8:47am