The legal tussle between Sony Computer Entertainment America and George Hotz rages on, with the PS3 hacker's attorney trying to dismiss the case entirely by claiming that a PSN account linked to the crime does not belong to him.
The IP of PSN user 'blickmaniac' was traced to an area near Hotz's house. SCEA will have firm grounds to charge the hacker for breaking the network's terms of service. However, the defendant's lawyers are saying that that the serial number linked to the account doesn't match a most recent PS3 purchase. If that doesn't work, there's also the claim that Hotz's neighbour created the account on another, loaned console.
"See, I live next door to George Hotz and we've always been good friends," reads a statement in Hotz's defence papers from said neighbour. "At the time I bought the console, I was waiting to be connected to the internet by my ISP so I asked Hotz if I could use his for a while. Good neighbours, that's all."
There's also the claim that Hotz wasn't aware that Sony Computer Entertainment America even existed, and that his actions were understood to have been made against Sony Japan. Not forgetting the final claim that Hotz never even opened his PS3 manual.
"The message that Sony Computer Entertainment America ("SCEA") is conveying to George Hotz ("Mr. Hotz") and the public is of great consequence," the defence paper states. "SCEA advocates and encourages the Court to accept that simply by connecting to the Internet, you are consenting to jurisdiction anywhere in the world.
"SCEA has taken advantage of these unfamiliar concepts in order to present the Court with misleading sets of facts and affidavits."
The IP of PSN user 'blickmaniac' was traced to an area near Hotz's house. SCEA will have firm grounds to charge the hacker for breaking the network's terms of service. However, the defendant's lawyers are saying that that the serial number linked to the account doesn't match a most recent PS3 purchase. If that doesn't work, there's also the claim that Hotz's neighbour created the account on another, loaned console.
"See, I live next door to George Hotz and we've always been good friends," reads a statement in Hotz's defence papers from said neighbour. "At the time I bought the console, I was waiting to be connected to the internet by my ISP so I asked Hotz if I could use his for a while. Good neighbours, that's all."
There's also the claim that Hotz wasn't aware that Sony Computer Entertainment America even existed, and that his actions were understood to have been made against Sony Japan. Not forgetting the final claim that Hotz never even opened his PS3 manual.
"The message that Sony Computer Entertainment America ("SCEA") is conveying to George Hotz ("Mr. Hotz") and the public is of great consequence," the defence paper states. "SCEA advocates and encourages the Court to accept that simply by connecting to the Internet, you are consenting to jurisdiction anywhere in the world.
"SCEA has taken advantage of these unfamiliar concepts in order to present the Court with misleading sets of facts and affidavits."
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Comments
DrkStr 29 Mar 2011 12:59
1/8
"My neighbour borrowed it" ??? What's next? "The dog ate it!" This is getting stupid!
And as for if he knew SCEA existed or not, of course he did, it's just lies that Sony can't disprove!
Lock the f**ker up and throw away the key!
And as for if he knew SCEA existed or not, of course he did, it's just lies that Sony can't disprove!
Lock the f**ker up and throw away the key!
JSPGLET 29 Mar 2011 23:24
2/8
DrkStr, do you think we should pander to indulge this faceless corporation's lust for profit over the welfare of real and breathing individuals? A little bit fascist but not unexpected. George Hotz has risked everything to express his creativity and intelligence which will one day transform the industry for the better and scumbags like you have nothing but contempt for him.
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Rango 30 Mar 2011 00:59
3/8
Hang-em high. If yer frickin DMF nuf to record your crime and put it on you(lame)tube, you deserve to fry.
Necromantik 30 Mar 2011 06:28
4/8
@JAPGLET What about the real devs, with actual families, actual faces whose jobs are put on the line as piracy increases. Who then have to increase costs to us the consumer (the real people) as the piracy increases because of idiots like this. Nothing comes for free, someone pays the price every time. This has implications for an industry, for the quality of games we the consumer will receive.. Did you want multiple million dollar/pound titles or everything you buy to be a flash game...
Necromantik 30 Mar 2011 06:37
5/8
@Jspglet The fact is if nobody is producing anything for you to want to bother pirating, nobody researching into another console as it's wild west territory.. What has been achieved with "great intelligence transforming an industry" (you gay for Geo?), it lies in ruins. People who actually work for a living such as devs aren't going to stay in a non profit business. You'll just see an increase in low price point mobile app style crap. Gone will be the big budget games. You sound like generally a smart guy, are you really dumb enough to believe that somehow by opening up a secure system it will revitalise an industry rather than close it? That's idiotic..
DrkStr 30 Mar 2011 08:27
6/8
JSPGLET wrote:
DrkStr, do you think we should pander to indulge this faceless corporation's lust for profit over the welfare of real and breathing individuals? A little bit fascist but not unexpected. George Hotz has risked everything to express his creativity and intelligence which will one day transform the industry for the better and scumbags like you have nothing but contempt for him.
I'd rather pay Sony for the work done that they funded developing an entertainment platform and the software to enable me to play great games than have this little idiot going around enabling other idiots to rip off that work and put real people in the job queues.
I'd rather have the option to install an OtherOS, but GeoHotz killed that idea by using that system to try and crack the PS3 and telling the world about it, forcing Sony to remove the feature or risk pissing off all the devs and publishers who's games would be pirated by people using GeoHotz crack.
He didn't even crack the PS3 this time around, he took other people's work and went the next step then published what he found for the entire world to see. This opened up the whole PS3 platform to piracy as well as "homebrew" software.
Then when Sony comes after him, he starts the BS, rap videos on YouTube, fund raising on the Internet, holidays in South America, claiming he never read a PS3 T&C statement, that his neighbour used his PS3 to set up an account and that he's never heard of SCEA?
For the sake of the few hundred people who wanted to develop on a PS3, and play games or connect to PSN without buying two, who were affected by OtherOS being removed, this kid has threatened the jobs of the thousands upon thousands of developers, artists, publishers, retailers and journalists who work in the games industry.
The kid is an arrogant dipshit and a dangerous one. He should be stopped and made an example of. There is a huge industry that will become a wasteland if he wins this case because it'll open up the floodgates for cracks and hacks of every platform out there.
I can't believe anybody who plays games at all can defend him. Using the "faceless corporation greed" defence means you don't understand that the people who work for that "faceless corporation" are affected too.
irritant 30 Mar 2011 09:44
7/8
I find it quite funny when people place such a huge value on homebrew software and cite it's existence (or potential existence) as a reason to crack console security - saying that it's not about piracy. Particularly since the first homebrew software that inevitably turns up for a new system is always emulators for old systems allowing people to illegally play pirated ROMs.
And to prove the point:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf2QsSQzsiY
And to prove the point:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf2QsSQzsiY
DrkStr 30 Mar 2011 12:42
8/8
irritant wrote:
I find it quite funny when people place such a huge value on homebrew software and cite it's existence (or potential existence) as a reason to crack console security - saying that it's not about piracy.
I think there has been exactly one piece of useful homebrew software ever on consoles and that's XBMC.
There was almost nothing developed for PS2 Linux, which was an official release or PS3 Linux, which was sanctioned by Sony. Not even XBMC made it onto these platforms despite there being an official Linux port and even an iOS version!
All "homebrew" is used for is personal "itch scratching" and piracy. The first I have no issue with, but the second is just wrong.