PS3 Hacker Raised All the Legal Funds Needed to Beat Sony in a Weekend

[dunno001]

alekth said:

Here are the 8 claims he's being sued on, copied from engadget (comments are theirs as well).

• Violating §1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which forbids bypassing access control measures;
• Violating the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which forbids accessing computers without authorization;
• Guilty of contributory copyright infringement for encouraging and helping others to crack PS3s as well;
• Violating the California Computer Crime Law, which is the state computer fraud act (think of this as a backup fraud claim);
• Violating the PlayStation Network's Terms of Service (which feels meaningless, really);
• Interfering with Sony's relationships with other PSN customers (also meaningless);
• Trespassing on Sony's ownership right to the PS3 (this one feels weak) and;
• Misappropriating Sony's intellectual property (another weak argument, but there in case the copyright argument fails).

Yeah, a lot of these are crap. While I'm not an expert on the legal field, I can say how I see each one, in the same bullet order:

• Technically, he is guilty of this. However, I've heard quite a few people say that this really doesn't have much in the ways of teeth. And I do know there was a move to try to strike down this law also.
• Hrm... nope. The only computer he accessed was his own. And by ownership rights, you are free to do what you wish with your own machine.
• Hrm... this one is possible to make stick, but it'll be tough. I know that Geohot has pushed time and time again that it was for homebrew, and not piracy. Sony's lawyers will have to spin this around legally, which won't be easy. Personally, I think they'd have an easier time pushing for something like "Unauthorized distribution of proprietary security keys." Given our legal system on "security"...
• I'm not familiar with this law, so I can't comment much; I'll default back to bulletpoint 2.
• Recourse on a violation of TOS for a free item is only to restrict access to it. No monetary loss can be claimed.
• This is illegal? I've spoken with customers of several other stores, which would technically "interfere" with their relation with the store, but nobody's done anything. The worst I was ever asked to do was to leave the store.
• Last I heard, he never tried to claim that the PS3 was not Sony's. And through right of sale, once I buy it, I own the physical product. (Software may be licensed, but that's a different can of worms not related to this.)
• This one should be relatively easy to stick. Distribution of the key and custom firmware with some Sony code could be connected to 'misappropriation'.

So all in all, I only see 2 of these sticking. There will be some sort of fee charged, but I don't see it being insane, nor do I see jail time. The worst it will do for him is go on his record.

Oh, and not to this post, but to others in this thread- please trim the quote trees down. There is no reason for there to be 8 pages of old quotes.