Sony takes Geohot and Fail0verflow to Court

[theENIGMATRON]

We knew it would happen. Geohot released on his blog the PS3 “root key” and various tools to run homebrew on the PS3. Geohot posted on his blog the following:




As of 1/11/2011 7:20 PM EST, I have been served with papers, see below…

Motion For TRO
Proposed Order

old front page, with relevant info removed, is here

contact me geohot … gmail

You can download the court papers here (an interesting read):

* Motion for TRO
* Proposed Order

Fail0verflow is also stuck in the mess, here is some responses from the team:

From Fail0verflow’s Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/fail0…
“Looks like Sony decided to ignore the facts and sue us all for it. See http://geohot.com/”

From Hector Martin’s Twitter
http://twitter.com/#!/marca…
“Ah, so Sony decided to sue everyone under US law. Guess I won’t be visiting the US in a while…”

From Muscle Nerd’s Twitter
http://twitter.com/#!/Muscl…
“EFF has done a fantastic job keeping iPhone jailbreaks (not piracy!) legal..hope they can do the same with this PS3 news”

List of charges:

* Confidential Information On Computer
* Intent To Defraud And Obtain Value
* Knowing Transmission of Code
* Intentional and Reckless Damage And Loss
* Trafficking in Password
* Intent to Extort

Seems like Sony isn’t planning going down without some payback first. What are your thoughts about this? What do you think will be the outcome of this case?


See Documents attached for the papers

[YorkshirePud]

i think its funny the guys who hacked it arnt surprised they are gettting taken to task for it

me? i know too little to fully comment on it im agaisnt piracy but these guys say they are agaisnt it too...

[theENIGMATRON]

i think its funny the guys who hacked it arnt surprised they are gettting taken to task for it

me? i know too little to fully comment on it im agaisnt piracy but these guys say they are agaisnt it too...

Correct so it will be a interesting case.
They have caused no Damage, and the states they dont condole piracy and it is not possible to install it on there CFW

But i think Geohots may get it in the Neck as he publicly released the master key :sicko

[DJ-Daz]

It's a civil case, and even if Sony win, GeoHot isn't employed he's a student, so what will Sony actually gain from this?
It's not like he's asked for money, so he's not rich.

If anything his home insurance might cover the costs of going to court, but not a multi million dollar payout.

I guess all Sony can do is to prevent the Ps4 from being a target, or maybe this will have the opposite affect and attract a lot more attention... just to piss Sony off even more.

[DJ-Daz]

I've also read that Sony are fiing suit with DMCA claims aimed at failoverflow.
Now if I'm not mistaken, that law still doesn't apply anywhere in the world but the USA.
So is failoverflow safe?

[theENIGMATRON]

I've also read that Sony are fiing suit with DMCA claims aimed at failoverflow.
Now if I'm not mistaken, that law still doesn't apply anywhere in the world but the USA.
So is failoverflow safe?

Its based on breach of the Terms and Conditions tho aint it....
That is worldwide

[DJ-Daz]

geohot website:

As of 1/11/2011 7:20 PM EST, I have been served with papers, see below...

Motion For TRO
Proposed Order

Complaint

old front page is here

contact me geohot ... gmail

any legal fund donation things you see are 100% fake as of now, don't get scammed

500 - Internal Server Error
Sony sued us
Motion for TRO / Proposed Order / Complaint

* Our motivation was Sony's removal of OtherOS.
* Our exclusive goal was, is, and always has been to get OtherOS back.
* We have never condoned, supported, approved of, or encouraged videogame piracy.
* We have not published any encryption or signing keys.
* We have not published any Sony code, or code derived from Sony's code.

We are NOT currently asking for donations. If there is ever a legal defense fund, it will be linked here. Anyone asking for donations in our name is a SCAMMER.

Now with failoverflow they didn't release any keys or Sony code, it was all their own work, and they did what they did in retaliation to Sony removing OtherOS, which is against both retail law, and Sony's own Terms and Conditions. So did Sony shoot themselves in the foot by making a legal complaint against fail0verflow? A court will decide.

[Symonator]

Sony will win, they will also take into account all the chat and videos he has created, iphone past and what he has done with the sony device, end of the day... it is against the law to reverse engineer things as clearly stated.

The documents are a good read.. i am glad.. honestly i look forward to his case, he gunna get but raped.

Don't you guys support sony in this? I think these guys who ruin the gaming world/piracy are and will be made an example of.

All they did was allowed piracy, yeah homebrew is good but only a small percentage use it for that, the rest is to download a game of pirate bay..

[theENIGMATRON]

Am mutual in it all TBH

I dont support Sony nor do i support Geohots.

Whats done is done.

Only thing i question is If Sony Can take him to court and Win?
Why Haven't Apple done so considering its him who started all the jailbreaking....

Its all interesting news thats all i can say.


Am only mutual as i would like to see some Homebrew on my PS3.
MKV support........
More Visual Animations when playing music.
Maybe a N64 Emulator hehe Freaking awesome

But then again i would not run it due to PSN Bad etc.

So its all 50/50

Sony should open up a SDK for developing applications
Like Android and Apple

[DJ-Daz]

It's less about the "law" and more about terms and conditions.
T&C's can state anything you like, they could say that if you release any security codes we can come around to your house, rape the dog, shoot the wife and kneecap you.

I haven't read the PDF's yet, so I could be talking outta my arse.
T&C's are about protecting your interests, and not about law. Infact if T&C's break the law they become invalid.

Then there's the fact the European Courts ruled recently that T&C's dont actually apply, because the majority of people dont read them and if they do, don't fully understand them. With Europe being a democracy, majority rules. America isn't part of Europe, but it is a part of the European Union.

There are a lot of points in favour of the defendents.
I think this entire case boils down to a moral judgement and possibly only slightly a legal one. Sony could win, but if Sony loose, then it will have MASSIVE implications for Companies across the globe.

[Symonator]

Am mutual in it all TBH

Why Haven't Apple done so considering its him who started all the jailbreaking....

Because jailbreaking an iphone is not illegal...it's a common misconception that people think it is..Under the DMCA, jailbreaking is legal in the usa.

When you bust open a ps3 to enable piracy, that is a crime and of course illegal.

[DJ-Daz]

Am mutual in it all TBH

Why Haven't Apple done so considering its him who started all the jailbreaking....

Because jailbreaking an iphone is not illegal...it's a common misconception that people think it is..Under the DMCA, jailbreaking is legal in the usa.

When you bust open a ps3 to enable piracy, that is a crime and of course illegal.

Playing backups has never been illegal, but of course how many people do that? The majority will use it for piracy.

I think we (pretty much everyone on the forum) are intelligent, informed and we tend to lean towards what is morally right. So while some of us might pirate some games, I doubt we (those who do pirate software) will have massive collections of copied games.

Will I use my CFW for pirated games? Probably, but if online is a no no, then whats the point, my life (gaming and internet) is spent playing online, only Mirrors Edge and infamous were played offline. Maybe one or two other games, but not many, most are online.

[theENIGMATRON]

Am mutual in it all TBH

Why Haven't Apple done so considering its him who started all the jailbreaking....

Because jailbreaking an iphone is not illegal...it's a common misconception that people think it is..Under the DMCA, jailbreaking is legal in the usa.

When you bust open a ps3 to enable piracy, that is a crime and of course illegal.

Well yer, but it leads to Piracy.

So whats so different on the PS3, There is no Piracy but it will lead to it.

[InfiniteStates]

Don't you guys support sony in this? I think these guys who ruin the gaming world/piracy are and will be made an example of.

All they did was allowed piracy, yeah homebrew is good but only a small percentage use it for that, the rest is to download a game of pirate bay..

I support Sony in this. I don't give a shit what the supposed motivation was. What they guys have done is the equivalent of my coming round your house and kicking your front door off it's hinges.

They claim they want to run homebrew? Why? They can get much more powerful hardware in PCs. It's bullshit. They wanted to see if they could. It's the challenge.

If their alleged motivations are true, why are they not hacking car computers? Or microwaves? Or anything else? It's a fucking intellectual ego-wank between a small group of people. This is evidenced in that video by the fact they spent a large proportion of time saying that it was the removal of other OS that lead to it, and when you factor that in it took as long to break as the XBox. "Ah well, we could've done it sooner, but we didn't want to. Because we're Robin Hood." Bollocks. They couldn't give 2 shits about the millions of other users that don't want to worry about aimbots etc, and who occasionally like to buy 2nd hand games on the cheap without then paying more to unlock the majority of content.

However, a cynical part of me was enteraining the thought that Sony may have had a hand in it (or publishers maybe) so that they can move on with their plans to fuck over the trade-in market with less backlash.

I hope they go to prison personally. These are the same ilk of people that write viruses as well. Just because a footballer shrugs his shoulders and looks innocent after taking his opponent's kneecap off doesn't mean he didn't intend it. It's the same with these guys. They know full fucking well what they're doing and implications.


I'm not against game piracy per se... I don't go in for it, because I don't play copied games properly. I just sample them and move on, whereas I like to play games properly and buying them more often than not makes me inclined to do that. However, people ruining something good for a majority for their own selfish entertainment pisses me right off. Especially when they try and justify it or plea innocent.

[theENIGMATRON]

ROFL
Where you slightly cheesed off typing this LOL.

Its funny you should Say SONY give a hand in the break of the console.
I was lien in bed a few nights ago thinking the same thing.

Not so much on the unlock codes for online use.
but Publicity stunt.

What better way in sell more Consoles.
Convert the Xbox Boys who play copied games and pay for online.

To a Console that plays copied games and FREE online.
(1 - 2 years of Xbox Online pays for itself)

Enough are sold and accessed online, a Upgrade comes along and knocks it all off.
Hey sony increased console sales by 10% - 20% or w/e
Its made most news sites.
BBC for an example.

Anyway my conspiracy theory lol

Back on Piracy,
I can hold my hands up, i am one for it, Much of my software i use is pirated.
Games on the other hand, u support them, and pay for them (Other than rentals)
Iphone, I download cracked games, trial them, and then buy the full game if its worth keeping.

Android i dont have to bother as you have a 15 minute time window.
You BUY your app, play it / try it, dont like it within 15 minutes,
delete it off your phone and you are issued with a refund straight away.


PC Piracy for software yes am a shit for it, and ill hold my hands up, i use too many different types of programs to afford them,
And some are WELL overpriced, from £300 upto £900