Settlement in George Hotz Case

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Joint Statement

Sony Computer Entertainment America (“SCEA”) and George Hotz (“Hotz”) today announced the settlement of the lawsuit filed by SCEA against Hotz in federal court in San Francisco, California. The parties reached an agreement in principle on March 31, 2011. As part of the settlement, Hotz consented to a permanent injunction.

Both parties expressed satisfaction that litigation had been quickly resolved. “Sony is glad to put this litigation behind us,” said Riley Russell, General Counsel for SCEA. “Our motivation for bringing this litigation was to protect our intellectual property and our consumers. We believe this settlement and the permanent injunction achieve this goal.”

“It was never my intention to cause any users trouble or to make piracy easier,” said Hotz, “I’m happy to have the litigation behind me.” Hotz was not involved in the recent attacks on Sony’s internet services and websites.

In the action, SCEA accused Hotz of violating federal law by posting online information about the security system in the PlayStation 3 videogame console and software that SCEA claimed could be used to circumvent the security system in the console and allow the playing of pirated videogames. Hotz denies any wrongdoing on his part. Hotz’s motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction was still pending before the federal court in San Francisco but a preliminary injunction was issued requiring Hotz to take down the postings challenged by SCEA.

“We want our consumers to be able to enjoy our devices and products in a safe and fun environment and we want to protect the hard work of the talented engineers, artists, musicians and game designers who make PlayStation games and support the PlayStation Network,” added Russell. “We appreciate Mr. Hotz’s willingness to address the legal issues involved in this case and work with us to quickly bring this matter to an early resolution.”

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258 Comments

  • I hope that everything works out good because as for us gamers, we don’t want to have any problems. We are here (and there) to play & enjoy our games – whether it be via offline or online.

  • That took a while.

  • I’m glad we can put all of this behind us now. I give Sony a ton of credit for taking the initiative against piracy. Regardless of your stance, everyone on this blog should be here because they love Playstation and support the legal use of their products.

  • No cheaters online,thank god.

  • Congrats Sony!!!

  • This was the right thing to do. Great job Sony.

  • I don’t see why Sony don’t just hire Hotz?

  • Thank god this seems to be over for now….Now that it’s done SONY get on Anonymous case.

  • So the hackers won?

  • Ooh, saucy! Nice to see Hotz buckling under the pressure. I wonder what the terms of the settlement were? It sounds as if Hotz acquiesced. I’m sure he’ll try and spin this as a victory, when all he really did was avoid costly litigation and escape with a small measure of his pride.

    More important things going on in the world than this nonsense anyhow.

    Such as: will D3 be porting the PSP version of WKC?

  • Awesome Sony. Hope you gave it to him good.

  • It would be nice to see what the deal that they reached was

  • Yaaaayyy. Go sony.

  • Great, now when do we get a patch that eliminates people from using their exploited ps3 to use exploits in games?

  • about time… This was a silly lawsuit not about cheating but about control. Its about time its ended.

  • @ 8 “permanent injunction” was one of the clauses of the settlement. So no, Hotz did NOT win.

  • Sony will hire Holtz either by the end of the year, or next year. I’ll bet on it.

  • as far as I know none of the cheating that has been happenning on PSN has anything to do with people who hacked there PS3 they were just using exploits inside those games that anybody could use

  • *Likes this*

  • Congrats to Sony for being the bigger man (company). I guess it would be kinda cool if they hired Hotz now, it’s funny how all of my contempt for him disappeared after reading this post.

  • Anon is still out there though.

  • this soft stance will come back to haunt you and all the psn users who want a hack-free/cheat-free environment.

  • It’s all good for gaming.

    gg

  • @20

    “Anon is still out there though”

    Yeah, sending pizzas to peoples houses, oh noes!

  • I’m not thrilled that he was even mentioned by name here, but cool beans I guess.

  • Well, at the very least this episode should make sure SCE is going to put a little more effort behind securing the NGP.

  • Good news. Now you can focus on this Anonymous crap.

  • Seems like Hotz and consumers are the losers here.

    I mean I’m all for curbing piracy and cheating, but removing fundamental features of the equipment I bought is stealing.

    I bought a PS3 to use OtherOS and PSN. Not to have to choose between them.

    With this, Sony can remove any feature they want at any time, and you have no option but to accept it. Try and get your feature back, they’ll sue you into the ground.

  • Yay for peace resolutions!

  • Hire Hotz would be wrong sense sony sue him & but if he is not mad at sony for sueing him then maybe. Overall i am happy its over now. But sony you need to check online games more i came cross alot cheaters who lag or hack online games were there can shoot like super quick. When i came back into the game my dude just die before i even got back into game. But i did took photos of there PSN ID names trying to find way to send it to sony. anyway keep up the good work sony i got your backs always.

  • This is worthy of a PS blog posting?

  • Glad that didnt take long

  • maybe Hotz can figure out XGC? :-)

  • Is good to Know, but the damage is done, and Hotz hasn´t taken out its code from his blog i just google it and its still there

  • I hope Sony didn’t cave in to those terrorist hackers with this soft sentence.

  • Sony – 0
    Consumers – 1

    At least… I think this was a victory for us. It doesn’t sound like a precedent has been set that consumers don’t own the hardware they purchase, and for that I am thankful.

  • Glad its done. Now, let’s get back to what we all love to do and that is play and enjoy games.

  • Im shocked this is on the official blog. Props Sony.

    Though im somewhat disappointed Hotz didn’t get what he deserved. :/

  • ….

    i think this whole thing is ridiculous. ON BOTH PARTIES.

    When we pay for a product WE OWN IT. We should do whatever we want with it.

    If i want to buy a PS3 and run it over with a car then light the pieces on fire i can do just that.

    I love sony products but cmon this is ridiculous. When i pay you for the product SONY NO LONGER OWNS IT!

    Now piracy is crap but still if i want to turn my PS3 into a music box with a ballerina i can.

  • So what happened to george hotz demanding the return of other OS. what a punk? Proved right along that he wasn’t in this for the ‘poor consumer’ who wanted their linux back.

  • @Guardian_Bob

    “I mean I’m all for curbing piracy and cheating, but removing fundamental features of the equipment I bought is stealing”

    the thing is the otherOS feature as neither fundamental or used very often … other than tools like Hotz who got it taken away from YOU so blame Hotz if you really want to cast blame … sony did nothing other than protect itself and legitimate players who hate cheaters and morons who think they can do as they wish …

  • Sony has to realize that Geohot is still going to be hacking the PS3 even with this permanent injunction. Oh well they still have Anonymous on there back until they say somthing.

  • @ChaseHammerJ

    It’s not ridiculous. You can do whatever you want after you buy it. The problem is releasing that information to the public. That is an entirely different thing. If he kept it to himself no harm would have been done, when he let everyone know how to essentially break the ps3 security system which enables hackers, piracy, etc. thats a big problem.

  • Finally. Hope this sets an example. If you want to hack then keep it off of PSN and don’t pirate.

  • @the_vag it does not matter if U think other_os is fundamental and yes it is used often checkout the airforce using it and the people that didnt were probly just to dumb to figure Linux out it was a main reason i bought mine and if it was not for the 500 i spent on psn i wouldnt have been blackmailed into updating how about they say on fw 3.65 were gonna have to remove blu-ray due to security u down for that i didnt think so

  • Finally! Hope Sony and hackers learned from this whole ordeal.

  • So, get tired of the bad PR from this, Sony? Too bad that now you won’t learn that WE own our PS3s after we buy them, NOT YOU.

    And still no justice for everyone you screwed over by making them choose between Install Other OS and PSN. This is a very bad day for consumers.

    @43: Yeah, that’s a good idea. If GeoHot had done that, maybe he wouldn’t have been sued. Oh wait… He did keep it off PSN, and he didn’t pirate. Hmm. Funny thing, facts.

  • @NyghtHawk

    Not saying that its right. Just saying both parties were throwing rocks.

    And ANYONE can learn how to code C++ and have access to any computer system. Its doesnt matter if its released or not Anyone can do it, the fact that people seek it out does not stop piracy and hackers because guess what they could do it themselves if they wanted.

    Bottom line its over and we can stop playing this cat and mouse game.

  • I agree with Guardian_Bob comment 27

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