Sony v PS3 Hackers Suit

[Phane]

Added stipulation Geohot to turn computers over to a third party, NOT Sony

Sony sent out emails to people with hacked PS3's warning them that they'll be banned from PSN if they don't unhack their consoles. Interestingly enough, some people are reporting that they are receiving these letters WITHOUT ever connecting to PSN on a hacked console and with firmwares pre-dating 3.56, implying that Sony has been data-mining any PS3 with internet access even if they don't sign into PSN and agree to the TOS and without the rumored 3.56 'root-kit'.

Sony Updated their TOS for PSN (after sending out emails proving they were mining and retaining data from PS3's). Included in the update is a ban on ANY "non-licensed" hardware including controllers, power supplies, and (arguably) hard drives. It also includes a stipulation that you authorize Sony to collect and retain data on when and what you do with your PS3 (which they had apparently been doing anyway) and give them the right to disclose that information to the police.

[Deathbeckons]

christ, big brother much?

[Phane]

Minor update: Geohot asked for donations to help pay for his defense and closed the donation link overnight, claiming he's got enough money for now. Guessing a lot of people donated because he said he had something like $10,000 in legal fees already when he opened it and that he wanted to hire two more lawyers to match Sony's team of four.

Pseudo-related note: The lawsuit against Sony for the unilateral removal of the Other OS feature had all of the charges dropped except for one. There is a right to amend the charges that were dropped, so they could be refiled if they fix whatever was wrong with them. However, with even that one charge, the case will move forward. So Sony may have dismissed the majority of the charges but COULDN'T DISMISS THE CASE.

[Phane]

Short update:
Sony gets German police to raid hacker's house, confiscate hardware, press charges for 1 million euros in damages Graf chokolo was the hacker in question. He's "guilty" of working on reverse engineering the PS3's hypervisor in order to install linux on the PS3.

[Phane]

tl:dr = Sony and Hotz's lawyers are squabbling over jurisdiction issues. Sony got subpoenas to get the IP addresses of everyone who saw/commented on the youtube video, visited geohot's website, and/or donated him money through Paypal before he asked for donations for legal fees. Sony fed the judge some false info in order to get a subpoena of data from Hotz's hard drives and got caught, which may paint them in a very negative light later on.

The charges that were dropped against Sony for removal of the Other OS feature were refiled with evidence that Sony lied to everyone about why they removed it. They include many quotes from Sony officials. The claims are that Sony removed it to reduce support costs and NOT due to any known or perceived security / piracy risks.

Sony vs Hotz

Sony is trying to do the whole lawsuit in it's local federal court in California, where they no doubt know the venue and judges backwards and forwards and it'd be costly for Hotz to defend himself (read: home field advantage). The problem with this is that Hotz is in New Jersey and committed his "wrongs" in New Jersey, so Sony needs to prove that a court in California has jurisdiction over him.

They've been doing a lot of b.s. like getting the court to approve subpoenas for Hotz's website host, Youtube, and Paypal to get a list of IP addresses of people who visited his website, watched and/or commented on the "howto" youtube video he posted, and/or donated money to him through Paypal (prior to his request for legal funds, so those aren't included in the subpoena). Sony claims to be trying to prove that the majority of those IP addresses will be based out of northern California.

Sony also got the judge to approve a subpoena of Hotz's hard drives (which are currently impounded with a neutral third party) under the guise that they likely contain Sony's PS3 SDK, which Sony's lawyers claim would have required Hotz to have an EULA with SCEA in California. Unfortunately, the SDK doesn't reference SCEA at all except as a US based contact for support and the EULA on the SDK is with Sony in Japan. In other words, Sony's legal team fed false information to the judge and got a subpoena as a direct result.

So anyway, Hotz's lawyers called hogwash and has accused Sony's legal team of intentionally misleading the court in order to find incriminating evidence against Hotz instead of just jurisdiction information, which would be very illegal. They also provide proof of Sony's legal team playing foul with them in that they were supposed to file a joint letter by a deadline that Sony's legal team themselves set. Sony's legal team withheld critical information from Hotz's legal team until AFTER that deadline, making them incapable of meeting it.

Other OS Class Action

The case against Sony on the removal of the Other OS saw all the charges dropped except for the CFAA violation claim. However, the judge did give them the opportunity to refile the dropped charges with more evidence. They did just that, with a rather big slap to Sony's face.

They claimed and provided quotes from Sony officials that Sony removed the Other OS not for security reasons OR to protect their IP, but because it was costly to maintain. Apparently, whenever they patched something in Game OS, it would break something in Linux and vice versa, so it was like trying to maintain two systems instead of one. So, when the slim PS3 came out, they dropped support on it to reduce support costs and when the hypervisor was hacked, Sony used it as an excuse to drop support from the fat models as well. This explains the mystery behind why Sony removed Other OS from the slim BEFORE the hypervisor was hacked. They also call Sony's bluff by stating that the Other OS feature has NEVER been used to successfully pirate a game or run a backup copy of a game, thus they have no ground to stand on when they say that disabling it was necessary to prevent piracy.

This not only provides strong evidence that Sony's #1 excuse for removing Other OS was a total fabrication, but also paints Sony in a very bad light in both this court case and the one against Hotz, as it ruins their credibility and shows that they have ulterior motives behind both this case and the one against Hotz.

[Phane]

Small update:

Sony filed it's opposition to Hotz's motion to dismiss on the grounds of California not having jurisdiction.

Read if you want. The short short version is that all of Sony's subpoenas apparently turned up almost squat. They're back to trying to argue that Hotz signed up for a PSN account and agreed to an EULA that has legal disputes being handled in CA. They're also claiming that since SCEA is the entity most damaged by his actions and that since SCEA is in CA, that the case can be handled in CA.

Edit: It should be noted that some new sites are posting a bogus article claiming that Hotz has fled the country to South America, was proven to have a PSN account, etc. As far as I can tell, this is a result of people posting Sony's legal filings as fact, instead of just as claims like they should be.

[Phane]

More details: Sony's "proof" involved their records showing a PS3 with the same serial # of one of the four PS3's Hotz owns (one he bought in late February) being used to create a new PSN account on March 10th. The PSN account was created from an IP address geographically located in Hotz's hometown, and was used to create an account named 'Blickmanic'. That's not a name Hotz has been known to use, and it could just as easily been created by a friend / roommate / anyone with access to his PS3. Since Sony didn't claim it was created in his name, it's safe to assume that it wasn't. So Sony tried to prove it was tied to him by doing an internet search and finding a forum post by a 'blickmaniac' (similar, not identical) in a cell phone unlocking forum about unlocking cell phones. They then said that since Hotz is famous for unlocking cell phones, the post MUST have been him.

Anyway, PSX-Scene found that the image posted by blickmaniac on that cell phone forum was geotagged in Cambridge, MA, far away from Hotz's home in NJ.

Edit: removed inaccurate groklaw info claiming the blickmanic account was created after the hacks were released. They goofed on the years thinking Sony was claiming that Hotz released the hacks in 2010 instead of 2011.

[Phane]

Hotz's lawyers have responded and some of it is interesting. I'll start with the big one, whether or not Hotz is, in fact, blickmanic.

Now, SCEA claims that Mr. Hotz must have created a PSN account for the name “blickmaniac” because the serial number of one of the Playstation Computers that Mr. Hotz purchased-- including 3 Playstation Computers that were purchased used-- was used to register a PSN account. The serial number utilized by SCEA, however, is different from the serial number proffered by Mr. Hotz's attorney.

So the Serial # Sony traced to blickmanic apparently doesn't match that of Hotz's PS3. It's possible that Sony claimed to trace one serial number and then in a sealed document showed a trace for another. The exhibit showing the Sony trace is sealed, so I can't compare myself.

Hotz's lawyers claim it's irrelevant, anyway, since the TOS agrees to jurisdiction in regards to disagreements regarding the use of the PSN. This hack has nothing to do with the Playstation Network proper, it has to do with the PS3, thus the PSN Terms of Service don't apply.

California law states that there has to be a majority of harm done in or to the state of California and Hotz's lawyers show that all patents, copyrights, etc are exclusively owned by Sony Japan and not SCEA. Remember when I posted that Sony's lawyers were trying to claim that the majority of downloads of Geohots firmware would be from Northern California? Well Hotz's lawyers fought back showing that even with Sony's numbers, which they claim are inaccurate based upon their own investigation, only 4.1% of the downloads were in California, period.

[Andrecito]

I like how folks can "affirm on information and belief" a totally wrong conclusion as fact.

[Phane]

Class Action v Sony on Other OS Update:

Update on the suit, with Sony's filing another motion to dismiss.

Of note, Sony asked the judge for discovery on the PLAINTIFFS' computers and PS3s. If that sounds odd and perhaps unfair to you, you're not alone. Sony seeks to prove that they have hacked their PS3s and are unable to represent the class. They also claim that if they did, Sony has no obligations to them because they violated the terms of service for the software.

Also of note is SCEA claiming to be a wholly owned subsidiary of SCEI Japan in the Hotz lawsuit, with full authority over the PS3 and it's software in the US, and then claiming to be a completely independent company in this one, having nothing to do with the PS3's hardware and software (and thus not liable for SCEI's removing Other OS).