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Sony Gets Geohot's Hardware, But Not YouTube/Twitter User Info

RedEaredSlider writes "A Federal court in California has denied Sony's motion to pull the personal information of Twitter and YouTube users who might have downloaded code that allows PlayStation 3s to run with alternative operating systems. The company had filed a motion for discovery, asking for the personal information of users of Twitter and YouTube who might have a connection with George Hotz, who had published a piece of code on his Web site that allowed a PlayStation 3 to run other operating systems as well as pirated games. Sony was, in essence, asking for the contact information of people who had commented on the video Hotz posted showing how he used the code, as well as people he may have corresponded with via Twitter. The judge in the case, Susan Illston, denied the motion. Hotz is still under a restraining order that forbids him from offering any methods or software that allow people to modify their Sony PlayStation 3s. Nor is he allowed to provide links to sites that offer such methods or software. He is also ordered to turn over his computers to Sony."

49 of 254 comments (clear)

  1. Fuck Sony by kimvette · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Fuck Sony.

    --
    The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
    1. Re:Fuck Sony by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Funny

      Fuck Sony.

      In Soviet America, Sony Fucks you.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    2. Re:Fuck Sony by by+(1706743) · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Fuck Sony.

      I think your two words (plus Insightful moderation) just 'bout sums up everything.

    3. Re:Fuck Sony by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      I will NEVER buy anything with the Sony brand name. No matter how cheap.

    4. Re:Fuck Sony by MistrBlank · · Score: 3, Informative

      Agreed.

      Sony just guaranteed I won't buy anything from them EVER AGAIN.

    5. Re:Fuck Sony by zeroshade · · Score: 3, Informative

      Actually, there is something wrong with a company seeking such an injunction against someone harming their business specifically when they are unable to prove they are harming the business in any way.

    6. Re:Fuck Sony by Locke2005 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And the solution is to either boycott Sony, or better yet buy their products then return them with the excuse that the DRM on them prevents them from being used for some of the uses their advertising implies they can be used for.

      --
      I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    7. Re:Fuck Sony by stealth_finger · · Score: 2

      Fuck Sony.

      In Soviet America, Sony Fucks you.

      Seems they do that everywhere!

      --
      Wanna buy a shirt?
      https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
    8. Re:Fuck Sony by Locke2005 · · Score: 3, Funny

      "Been there, done that. P.S. you mispelled 'Sonny'." -- Cher

      --
      I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    9. Re:Fuck Sony by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      In this country, the rule is supposed to be that every person can do what they want, less a few exceptions that are intended to ensure that every person can do what they want.

      If a corporation has become so powerful that it can enforce such nonsense as "you bought that, but you don't own it," and "my money trumps your freedom" then its existence should be brought to an end. We allow the existence of corporations in order to enhance our individual freedom, not the other way around.

    10. Re:Fuck Sony by Corngood · · Score: 2

      I agree with you about the judge, but that doesn't mean Sony did the "proper thing". I think we can safely blame both of them.

    11. Re:Fuck Sony by gstoddart · · Score: 3, Insightful

      So...the law is saying this guy basically has no right to do what he wishes with his own hardware he bought?

      No ... just that he can't tell everyone else how to do it when Sony can make the case that what he's shown is how to do illegal things.

      Now, as to if that makes any sense ...

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    12. Re:Fuck Sony by jcochran · · Score: 2

      Interesting.

      There's nothing whatsoever wrong with a company seeking such an injunction against someone harming their business.

      And in what way is SONY's business being harmed?
      SONY sold a piece of equipment and after the sale and without notice, reduced the equipment's functionality.
      Hotz did manage to figure out the master key allowing for the signing of software so that this deleted functionality could be restored. Mr Hotz wouldn't have attempted to determine that key if it were not for SONY unilaterally reducing the equipment's functionality. And even then, the number of people who would use the key discovered by Mr Hotz is fairly small.

      Personally, I have no pity for self inflicted injuries. If someone shoots themselves in the foot, my response is along the lines of "Gee, it sucks to be you". And SONY's action is a nice example of shooting oneself in the foot.

    13. Re:Fuck Sony by by+(1706743) · · Score: 2

      You say that now, but when the Sony brand fully-functional female androids start walking off the production line...

    14. Re:Fuck Sony by Moryath · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No, the judge is saying she has the right to demand that Geohot hand over hardware to Sony.

      Not to the court for information to be determined whether it is relevant for Sony's case, but DIRECTLY TO SONY.

      Yeah. It is that fucked up. Essentially, he's punished before any guilt is found.

      Even further in the ruling, though, she allowed Sony to play jurisdiction-shopping and keep the lawsuit in San Francisco despite NOTHING in the case being related to that area, except that it makes it infinitely harder for Geohot to defend since he will have to fly back and forth and back and forth every time this brainless bimbo schedules a hearing.

      Yet another case with a technological moron judge saying "oh, what the big corporation wants the big corporation gets. Shut up you peon you shouldn't have messed with a big corporation."

      Someone please - check into this corrupt judge's finances. I suspect there are some doozies in there.

    15. Re:Fuck Sony by kurzweilfreak · · Score: 4, Funny

      Then we'll finally be able to fuck Sony back? o.O

      --

      kurzweil_freak

      5th Kyu Genbukan Ninpo/KJJR student

      Be the darkness that allows the light to shine.

    16. Re:Fuck Sony by noidentity · · Score: 2

      In SOVIET AMERICA, Sony fucks itself, repeatedly.

  2. I'm Confused by TubeSteak · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why isn't George Hotz (GeoHot) having a third party do the discovery on his computer(s)?
    Then his lawyer and him sit down with the 3rd party to go over their discovery and assert privilege on what they feel should not be shared.
    Finally, the Judge makes a decision on the privilege claims and only then does Sony get to see anything.

    At least that's usually how these things work when you don't want the other side trolling through your papers or hard drives.

    --
    [Fuck Beta]
    o0t!
    1. Re:I'm Confused by Fahrvergnuugen · · Score: 2

      Seriously. What's to stop sony from planting evidence?

      --
      Kiteboarding Gear Mention slashdot and get 10% off!
    2. Re:I'm Confused by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm in an graduate level Advanced Computer Forensics course right now... and the fact that they aren't having a 3rd party do this is shameful, with the "point and click" forensics software out there now a days... they could just enter the hex for the key and find every copy of it on the drive, and then just look near those places... etc... geohot should MD5(which is still forensically "good" for fingerprinting (oddly... from someone with a crypto background) but SHA-1/SHA-256/CRC/etc his drive to make sure that nothing is tampered with... preserve data integrity.

      Though... personally I would just give them a freshly wiped HDD and call it a day, and apologize to the judge and tell them it was b/c of the Sony root-kit on a CD he bought at a thrift store ;)

    3. Re:I'm Confused by EdIII · · Score: 2

      What is to stop GeoHot from giving them a doctored system with extremely small amounts of information?

      It will show the keys and some dev stuff, but no stored passwords, no documents, nothing for Sony to look through and find people that he has worked with.

      The lack of 3rd party discovery works both ways here. GeoHot and his lawyer have the perfect answer when Sony says they did not find what they were looking for (biased investigation), "That's baseless conjecture your honor. My client stores no passwords or information to access other systems on his computers precisely because he knows how insecure systems can be."

      Super Bonus Points if GeoHot hands them a Sony computer and the drive fails at startup.

    4. Re:I'm Confused by rvw · · Score: 2

      Because I'm fairly sure Sony is going to get Mr Hotz 10yr old laptop with a fresh install of Debian on it.

      I would opt for Windows XP with a Sony rootkit - much more fun!

    5. Re:I'm Confused by gknoy · · Score: 2

      I think it would be tremendously stupid for Geohot to do any sort of shenanigans like that (giving them a wiped/doctored/broken disk/computer), as it makes him very likely to get slammed for contempt of court. Great points about the merits of 3rd party discovery, though.

  3. 46 DC EA D3 17 FE 45 D8 09 23 EB 97 E4 95 64 10 D4 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That's funny 46 DC EA D3 17 FE 45 D8 09 23 EB 97 E4 95 64 10 D4 CD B2 C2

  4. Oops! by Straterra · · Score: 2

    "Sorry, Sony. The hard drive is encrypted with a 35 character password and 3DES/AES.. Darn it! I knew I should have used a shorter password..because you see, I forgot it! So sorry about that."

  5. Unconstitutional? by lp_bugman · · Score: 2

    We need comments from a lawyer.
    Since when the demandant can confiscate property of the person is accusing?
    They could plant anything they want.
    At most hardware should be confiscated by the Feds and be examined by them or a recognized 3rd party.

    --
    BSD licensed software can't be stolen....
    1. Re:Unconstitutional? by Gaygirlie · · Score: 2

      Since when the demandant can confiscate property of the person is accusing?

      That's what struck me as seriously stupid and downright foul play, too. They shouldn't have any access to potential evidence, it should be inspected by a 3rd party who is in no conflict of interests, and that 3rd party should only give relevant data to Sony while leaving out all non-relevant. That's atleast how it'd be done here.

      Knowing Sony they'll definitely try to plant something there AND will take backups of everything, absolutely everything, and then later on use the totally irrelevant pieces to try to deface Geohot. Hell, they'll just "leak" it to someone else who ain't working at Sony and who'll do the actual defacing all the while claiming their innocence.

  6. Re:46 DC EA D3 17 FE 45 D8 09 23 EB 97 E4 95 64 10 by santax · · Score: 2

    That 46 DC EA D3 17 FE 45 D8 09 23 EB 97 E4 95 64 10 D4 CD B2 C2 is a funny number indeed. It's like sig-worthy.

  7. Re:Some Sanity by arkane1234 · · Score: 2

    Yet...
    I'm sure sometime in the future, it'll be seen as being an adversary in criminal activity... by some twisted legal standing.

    --
    -- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
  8. Wipe from the internet? by EkriirkE · · Score: 5, Informative
    Is it 46 DC EA D3 17 FE 45 D8 09 23 EB 97 E4 95 64 10 D4 CD B2 C2 they want?
    or

    erk: C0 CE FE 84 C2 27 F7 5B D0 7A 7E B8 46 50 9F 93 B2 38 E7 70 DA CB 9F F4 A3 88 F8 12 48 2B E2 1B
    riv: 47 EE 74 54 E4 77 4C C9 B8 96 0C 7B 59 F4 C1 4D
    pub: C2 D4 AA F3 19 35 50 19 AF 99 D4 4E 2B 58 CA 29 25 2C 89 12 3D 11 D6 21 8F 40 B1 38 CA B2 9B 71 01 F3 AE B7 2A 97 50 19
    R: 80 6E 07 8F A1 52 97 90 CE 1A AE 02 BA DD 6F AA A6 AF 74 17
    n: E1 3A 7E BC 3A CC EB 1C B5 6C C8 60 FC AB DB 6A 04 8C 55 E1
    K: BA 90 55 91 68 61 B9 77 ED CB ED 92 00 50 92 F6 6C 7A 3D 8D
    Da: C5 B2 BF A1 A4 13 DD 16 F2 6D 31 C0 F2 ED 47 20 DC FB 06 70

    ?

    Perhaps this software? http://psl1ght.com/
    With this? http://cl.ly/3yVX

    --
    from 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
    to 45 2F 6E 40 3C DF 10 71 4E 41 DF AA 25 7D 31 3F
    1. Re:Wipe from the internet? by Ksevio · · Score: 4, Funny

      Hey you sunk my battleship!

  9. Re:One amusing aspect. by Ensign+Morph · · Score: 3, Informative

    Well, sort of. 95% of the break was done by fail0verflow, who I think it's safe to say don't hold Hotz or his motives in particularly high regard. They quite deliberately stopped at the point where they could run homebrew unrestricted, since going further had no use other than piracy. Predictably, Hotz did that extra part and released it as a pirate-friendly "jailbreak.zip".

    Whilst the DMCA is total bullshit, it's hard to feel too much sympathy for him. He did something that had no purpose other than enabling piracy / cheating, he surely knew that was a DMCA violation, and he attached his name to it loud and proud. His defence will probably try to argue that the jailbreaking exemption applied to cellphones should be extended to consoles, but it seems far more likely he did this for purely egotistical reasons than as high-minded civil disobedience.

  10. Just Sony? by TheNinjaroach · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You act like it's Sony's fault that our justice system lets them get away with this crap.

    --
    I went to eat some animal crackers and the box said, "Do not eat if seal is broken." I opened the box and sure enough..
    1. Re:Just Sony? by h4rr4r · · Score: 2

      It's their fault they tried, they could have not gone to court.

    2. Re:Just Sony? by andydread · · Score: 4, Informative

      IT IS SONY'S FUCKING FAULT. They are the ones that LOBBIED and PAYED politcians Like Joe Biden and Orin Hatch for the fucking DMCA and basically WROTE THE FUCKING LAW along with MPAA/RIAA. SONY CAN GO FUCK ITSELF. Not purchasing anymore Sony products ever ever ever again and will actively warn EVERYONE I KNOW not to buy ANY Sony products.

    3. Re:Just Sony? by schnikies79 · · Score: 2, Informative

      No defending Sony, but I'm putting this out there.

      The person who takes the bribe (or campaign contributions) is much more morally bankrupt than the person offering. Joe and Orin could have said no.

      --
      Gone!
    4. Re:Just Sony? by TheNinjaroach · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The justice system also granted Sony the privilege to seize GeoHot's equipment for sharing three integers. That is flawed.

      --
      I went to eat some animal crackers and the box said, "Do not eat if seal is broken." I opened the box and sure enough..
    5. Re:Just Sony? by I8TheWorm · · Score: 2

      Criminal vs Civil. Lawsuits are civil, what was flawed there was the criminal system.

      --
      Saying Android is a family of phones is akin to saying Linux is a family of PCs.
    6. Re:Just Sony? by aztektum · · Score: 2

      Sorry, but you did not arbitrarily capitalize words. Your point is thus invalid.

      --
      :: aztek ::
      No sig for you!!
    7. Re:Just Sony? by Patch86 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Sorry, but you DID NOT arbitrarily capitalize words. Your point is thus INVALID.

      ftfy

  11. Re:Insane by gorzek · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The root cause of our clusterfuck of a political system is money. People don't win elections unless they outspend their opponents, so they have to sell themselves to the highest bidder to get campaign funds. Once they're in office, it's time to pay the piper. American politics are dominated by special interests. Same reason real budget reform isn't happening: every little cut you make is going to piss off at least one of the monied interest groups that got you into office. What do you do? Cut things that benefit people who have no money, like public assistance programs. Poor people have no money and usually don't vote, so they're easy to fuck over.

  12. Who Owns Your Playstation3? by penguin_dance · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is like buying a computer and then being told you can only run Windows on it. If want want to risk bricking my system, I should be allowed to do it.

    Void the warranty...no problem. But you bought it. You should be able to run any damn system you want on it.

    --
    If you've never been modded as "flamebait" or "troll," you've never tried to argue a minority viewpoint here!
  13. If Geohot is reading this.... by Charliemopps · · Score: 3, Informative

    If Geohot is reading this, startup a donation website. I'm sure the world at large would be more than happy to send you replacement parts enough to build your own Beowulf cluster if you really wanted to.

  14. Geohot must use TrueCrypt by Crispix · · Score: 2

    I'd have to think that Geohot has encrypted the contents of some files or perhaps his entire hard drive. Can he be legally required to divulge passwords? He's certainly savvy enough to use hidden containers.

    1. Re:Geohot must use TrueCrypt by Paracelcus · · Score: 2

      Boot from SDHC

      OS on microSDHC, configure 4GB as /BOOT /
      and locate /HOME /ROOT on 16GB microSDHC
      encrypt 16GB
      Hollow coins
      inside
      coin jar
      change tray
      plastic bag
      outside/deniability

      --
      I killed da wabbit -Elmer Fudd
    2. Re:Geohot must use TrueCrypt by AlienIntelligence · · Score: 2, Funny

      Boot from 16GB microSDHC
      Hollow coins
      inside
      coin jar

      Lol, where are the +1 Paranoid points when u need them? =)

      -AI

      --
      For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion
  15. Re:One amusing aspect. by numbski · · Score: 2

    IMHO - any civil disobedience, high-minded or not, is just fine in my book. Whatever his motivation, he's now fighting the good fight. Either get behind him or don't.

    --

    Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).

  16. Re:Can a brother get an analogy? by ifiwereasculptor · · Score: 2

    No one's trying anything anymore. The current genetically modified crops do not produce seeds that can be replanted.

  17. Punishment by QuebecNerd · · Score: 2

    Personnaly I don't like saying that I will 'NEVER' buy from 'X' again. I normaly punish them with a term of non-buying from 1 to 5 years depending on the offense 'X' did against the universe.

    In Sony's case; they got 5 years (with no parole) from me in 2005 following that small 'rootkit on CDs' incident. I respected their sentence and only last december I purchased a VAIO i7 740m laptop. Looks like it's gonna be another 5 years... Stupid pricks...