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Sony believed the timing was right to play its trump card in order to get its legal case rolling against famous firmware jailbreaker George "GeoHot" Hotz over his part in producing the PS3 system security breach allowing the use of unlicensed code.
Through recent court documents, the electronics/console giant sought to paint a portrait of how shrewd Hotz really is, from tampering with equipment he was obligated to hand over to Sony for examination, to outright "fleeing" the U.S. altogether in order to avoid the jurisdiction of the California district court.
Hotz and his legal defense have since stepped forward to debunk the claims perpetuated by Sony's own lawyers. Speaking to Ars Technica, Hotz concedes that while he did leave the country while faced with a lawsuit, it was not an attempt to escape any sort of jurisdiction. He was simply on vacation to see a friend in South America, a trip he had arranged since last November.
Stewart Kellar, one of Hotz's attorneys, also calls foul on Sony's claim that his client is trying to tamper with evidence. Speaking to Ars Technica, Keller explains that while Hotz did remove components from a system he was required to submit to a third party who would in turn would hand the equipment over to Sony for investigation, the hard drives containing the data themselves remained intact.
"SCEA's lawyers are using intentionally ambiguous language so that the public, and the Court, might assume the worst. The 'components' SCEA is talking about are hard drives' controller cards. The neutral [third party examining the drives] subsequently had to explain to SCEA the form and function of hard drive controller cards. It is a stock part that can be purchased at any electronics hardware store. Those controller cards have since been provided to the neutral so the point is moot."
In other words, what we all read and waxed poetic upon yesterday amounted to spin designed to make Hotz look even shadier. On a lighter note, Hotz is looking forward to Sony's Xperia Play smartphone, now what do you think he has in mind with it?
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