Thank god for posting this. I mean you would think the 99 other posters in this thread would have looked for it instead of speculating on what Sony will do with the IPs...

The gem posts in this thread makes you wonder how the human race ever got out of caves and learned to make fires............

The first and foremost reason to get the IP is to prove the distribution and the importance of this said distribution. This is in direct relation to the case and is necessary to evaluate the prejudice cause to Sony from Geohot distribution, hence why the judge accepted. Now we can argue whether or not the judge should have mandated the police to look at it instead of Sony. But you do realise without subpoena for the ISP of each IP adress, it is legally impossible for Sony to gather any kind of personal info from those IP. I guess its the reason why the judge didnt bother mendating a legal instance to look at the info. People thinking Sony will hack into their ISP database to get their personal infos smoke way better stuff then me. If one day, Sony want to subpoena each ISP of the IP watching the video you can be sure Ill be on your side. No one have the right to get my personal info because I watched a legal video. But this isnt what is happening at the moment.

"So, back to our initial question: is an IP address personal data, or, in other words, can you figure out who someone is from an IP address? A black-and-white declaration that all IP addresses are always personal data incorrectly suggests that every IP address can be associated with a specific individual. In some contexts this is more true: if you're an ISP and you assign an IP address to a computer that connects under a particular subscriber's account, and you know the name and address of the person who holds that account, then that IP address is more like personal data, even though multiple people could still be using it. On the other hand, the IP addresses recorded by every website on the planet without additional information should not be considered personal data, because these websites usually cannot identify the human beings behind these number strings."

http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2008/02/are-ip-addresses-personal.html

I guess this is one of many source I could have stated.

And thank god you pointing out how corrupted and unfair our Justice system is siding with the evil Large corporate(Aka Sony). 

If the information are really that sensitive (which they arent because the ISP will not give your personal informations), you can always blame the judge for not mandating someone else to look at it. But you need to realise it was a necessity to solidly prove the distribution and its scale. Subpoena are made for that, whether your a corporation or an individual.

I'm done talking here, I talk about one thing and then Sony ass kisser talk about other.  No point of debating here, if you like the way corporate corrupting our government so more power to you.  I would love the supreme court to step in and investigate why the judge is granting Sony the right to invade privacy and picking their playing field (California) judges that are notoriously known for siding with the Mega Corporates.

How was my reply not related? (between, sony ass kisser, lame)

Now for the rest of your post. I dont like corruption at all. But I do like that theres enforcement over illegal action done on the internet. I would approve a case like this whether its a corporation (any corporation) or individual as long as they arent sueing the downloader/viewer.

You do not have that right. The internet is a PUBLIC space. It is the same thing that a cop can arrest you for things that are "in plain sight". A cop can enter your home or car without a search warrant if he can see illegal activity or goods  from where he is standing.

If you're at a crime scene and leave and a cop then tracks you down, you cannot say, "you don't have the right to know if I was there".

Watching a video is not illegal, but you're NOT anonymous on the internet. Search providers track your IPs, servers keep logs of your IP, youtube tracks your IP. You are a person walking down the "street" of the net. And people do know where you are.

You think that just because you don't want them to have your IP, they can't have it?

Allow me to politely guffaw while I contemplate whether to keep 'arguing' with you.

I'm just going to end this here. Sony cannot do anything to you. They cannot look at anything you do online, they cannot target you, they cannot make a case against you. They have no right, and no judge will allow them to do so. This judge didn't allow that, and no judge ever will UNLESS YOU committed an internet crime. (Which you did not, despite how much you wrongheadedly insist that Sony says you did)

Heres the deal, I didn't to sh-t. GEOHOT DID, not me. SO thats my deal . THere you go, no need to enter my car, nothing illegal or my space or even have damn number. I disagree with you. Your using guilty situations to prove your points when I did nothing to have guilt.

What next, are you going to sue the NSA for reading your e-mail and listening to your cellphones calls ???????

Besides Sony isn't asking for your data, it asks for those ISPs to give their customer data ( which you happen to be one if you visited the site...). If you don't want to leave a trace on the internet, don't go on the internet, because every frigging site keeps a record of your visit and the federal government in certain case can even ask your ISP for access to every data you send through it..........

Same thing when a bank is under investigations and a judge asks them to provide the name of all their account holders to the prosecutor. Doesn't mean everyone of them is a criminal....

You do realize that half the mods on this site can see your IP and they could post it and not get into any kind of trouble right ???????