Geohot Forced To Turn Over Hard Drive

[The Central Scrutinizer]

The Giant Enemy Crab scored a victory in court today and can now inspect Geohot's hard drive for "evidence," hoping to attack it's weak spot for massive damage.

PlayStation 3 jailbreaker George Hotz must allow console-maker Sony to comb through his computer’s hard drive and retrieve information “that relates to the hacking of the PlayStation,” a federal judge ruled Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston’s ruled from the bench in Sony’s ongoing legal action against the New Jersey hacker, who goes by GeoHot. The lawsuit is in connection to the 21-year-old being the first to fully hack the 4-year-old console, a jailbreak allowing it to play pirated and home-brewed games.

Hotz posted the code on his website last month, and put a how-to video on YouTube. That landed him in court here on Digital Millennium Copyright Act civil allegations. Among other things, Sony accuses him of trafficking in devices that circumvent controls meant to protect copyrighted works.

In the Thursday hearing, Hotz’ attorney, Stewart Kellar, objected to the judge’s bench order, saying Sony would be able to “observe” the contents of all his client’s files.

“That’s the breaks,” Illston said.

Hotz has already removed the YouTube video and the code from his website to comport with the judge’s earlier orders.

The judge had originally ruled weeks ago that Hotz must surrender all of his computer gear to Sony. But Kellar asked for reconsideration, and a hearing was hastily called Thursday

Illston informed Kellar that it was routine for the entire contents of computers to be searched in a bid to isolate what is being sought, as in child ****ography prosecutions.

“Your honor, we’re certainly not dealing with child ****ography in this issue,” Kellar replied.

Moments later, the judge responded:

“Here, I find probable cause that your client has got these things on his computer,” she said. “It’s a problem when more than one thing is kept on the computer. I’ll make sure the order is and will be that Sony is only entitled to isolate … the information on the computer that relates to the hacking of the PlayStation.”

The DMCA makes it either a civil or criminal offense to traffic in wares meant to circumvent devices protecting copyrighted works. Performing a similar hack on a mobile phone is lawful.

Sony’s attorney, James Gilliland, was quick to point out to Illston that the mobile phone is not at issue here. “The conduct Mr. Hotz has engaged in is still covered by the DMCA,” he said.

The judge also backed off on an order that Hotz “retrieve” the code from anybody who he may have forwarded it to.

“It’s information. It can’t be retrieved. It’s just not practical,” Illston said. “What would they do, Xerox it and mail it back? ”

Illston said she changed her mind because she was not clearly aware of the details in her earlier order.

“This kind of got away from me and I apologize for that,” she said from the bench.

The judge ordered Sony and Kellar to confer with each other on the parameters of where and when Hotz would allow Sony to sift through his computer. She also ordered him not to delete or modify any files connected to the jailbreak.

Meanwhile, Sony is threatening to sue anybody posting the code, even though Sony accidentally tweeted it earlier this week.

Sony’s attorney, Gilliland, said the Japanese console maker has been sending out an undisclosed number of DMCA “takedown” notices to websites demanding the code’s removal.

Sony is also asking Judge Illston to order Google to surrender the IP addresses and other identifying information of those who have viewed or commented about the jailbreak video on Hotz’ private YouTube page. The game maker is also demanding that Twitter provide the identities of a host of hackers who first unveiled a limited version of the hack in December.

A hearing on that is scheduled next month. Sony is seeking unspecified damages.

News Source: Wired

[subcon959]

Illston said she changed her mind because she was not clearly aware of the details in her earlier order.

Illston informed Kellar that it was routine for the entire contents of computers to be searched in a bid to isolate what is being sought, as in child ****ography prosecutions.

[Lazy Boy]

[karyuudo]

Good luck finding anything on there. More than likely everything was deleted even far before Sony got their hands on it. If I was Geohot I would have removed the old HDD long ago when Sony served me papers and put a new one in.

All the best to you George. Fight the good fight!

[SccS]

Sony only want his hdd so they can look for anyother expliots he has discovered,

just like he did with the iphone he had a bootrom exploit that never got fixed so is still in current phones/pods.

they dont want him to retliate when this case finishes by releasing something they cannot fix/patch its seek and destroy mission.

[touran22]

Woahh Sony aren't playing around and they sure as he'll aren't giving up...I really feel for hotz...I hope he doesn't get into much trouble and after this I hope he makes it his mission to **** over Sony.

It will be extremely sad of this breaks hotz and he decides to not indulge in any hacking scene again, understandable but sad!

[slow123]

I know the keys are "out there" but I would love to see the keys on the front page of TPB. After that straight to ****tube to finish off.

[xPreatorianx]

Do me a favor, stop quoting sources and leaving in the piracy BS. Geohot's implementation of homebrew did NOT enable piracy. Kamew, and waninkoko did. Goddamn news sources need to check their blood facts. PSJailbreak did it first, and kamew and them furthered it. The only way you could do it with geohot was to first use eboot.bin hacks as it wouldn't even allow backup managers until lv2.pkg came about.

Now about the court case, judge is being bribed end of story. Geohot is screwed unless he starts wetting her whistle as well.

Illston informed Kellar that it was routine for the entire contents of computers to be searched in a bid to isolate what is being sought, as in child ****ography prosecutions.

“Your honor, we’re certainly not dealing with child ****ography in this issue,” Kellar replied.

Ooh wow so now geohot is a ****ing pedophile?

I hate my countries Justice system. Wanna send a bad message about a guy? Start lumping him in with terrorists, and child predators.

[ZachPL]

What the ****. I'm glad the judge did her ****ing research >.>

I have my pitchfork.

[ken_oh]

..This isn't looking good