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After seeing PlayStation Network bombarded by attacks last week, Sony tapped out of its legal action against PlayStation 3 hacker George "Geohot" Hotz yesterday. But if Sony hoped the settlement (the details of which leaked out today) would appease hacker activist group Anonymous, it was seriously mistaken. Anon pledged today that its war against Sony will continue.
When Sony revealed the settlement yesterday on the official PlayStation Blog, it declined to provide details of the resolution. Not surprisingly, those details are now public information thanks to an Internet leak.
The settlement rundown, courtesy of PSX-Scene: Hotz must permanently refrain from hacking, reverse engineering, disassembling, bypassing, disabling, circumventing (you get the idea) any Sony product or any portion of a Sony product. If Hotz should do any of the above or help anyone in a similar endeavor, he must pay a $10,000 fine per violation with a cap of $250,000.
Writing on his blog, Geohot Got Sued (http://geohotgotsued.blogspot.com/), Hotz stated that he will never buy another Sony product, and he encourages readers to join him in his boycott of the tech giant:
"As of 4/11/11, I am joining the SONY boycott. I will never purchase another SONY product. I encourage you to do the same. And if you bought something SONY recently, return it. Why would you not boycott a company who feels this way about you?"
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Though the court case has ended, Anonymous says its fight against Sony (http://www.windows7newsinfo.com/smf/index.php/topic,16175.0.html), launched in part because of the company's lawsuit against Geohot, will continue. Posting today (http://anonnews.org/?p=press&a=item&i=809) on its web site, Anon says it's taking its fight to the streets.
"In the eyes of the law, this case is over. We disagree. We believe Sony's actions in this case are unjust. We do not agree with Sony forcing social media sites like Youtube to hand over the IP addresses of people who viewed GeoHot's videos... We find it unacceptable that Sony is even permitted to request this information in the first place. These acts are completely disrespectful and unforgivable."
"The current solution will only embolden other greedy corporations to employ similar unfair tactics, so it is necessary to continue our protest to make our voices heard. We invite you to do the same. Operation Sony, or OpSony for short, is simply the opening shot."
"Where the judicial system has failed, Anonymous will persevere, by standing up for the rights of everyone, not just those who dared to challenge these corporations. Geohots' belief was in the freedom of information dissemination. We will stand with him."
Anon says it plans to do just, with protests outside of Sony Stores around the world being organized for April 16.
Here is the statement that Sony made public:
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.”
Here is what GEOHOT has to say on the matter at hand:
As of 4/11/11, I am joining the SONY boycott. I will never purchase another SONY product.
I encourage you to do the same.
There is much more to come on his blog (http://geohotgotsued.blogspot.com/).
I say we throw out everything labelled with Sony on it also, and support maybe Samsung instead??? I am sure they would LOVE to join into the GAMING WORLD, now that SONY has basically stated it is ILLEGAL to change their PRODUCT in any shape or form. Have a READ of the PDF file, it gives you all the juicy details!
News Source: Playstation Blog (http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/04/11/settlement-in-george-hotz-case/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=george_hotz_041111)
If interested below are the court decrees;
127-Stipulation.pdf (http://www.multiupload.com/2U41J2GZVC) (1.23 MB, 18807 views)
128-Notice of Voluntary Dismissal.pdf (http://www.multiupload.com/29HRK4WHVB) (58.1 KB, 1840 views)
126-Order.pdf (http://www.multiupload.com/WR2OWROJLR) (34.8 KB, 1928 views)
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