Commentary: Geohot sold out “hackers” with settlement [UPDATED] April 11th, 2011 at 12:52 pm
Today, in a somewhat stunning joint statement, Sony and Geohot announced that a settlement was in place wherein Geohot consented to a permanent injunction of his activities involving his release of information that allowed people to essentially jailbreak their PS3′s. (Read a breakdown of the case here.)
So, all of this fund raising and all of this stuff with Anonymous attacking Sony, was essentially so Geohot could give up and agree to Sony’s terms? Sounds to me like he sold all of his supporters out. Read on.
Updated with new info on the joint stipulation that was filed today.
Here is the entirety of the joint statement from the Playstation Blog:
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.”
What this means, essentially, is that Geohot agrees that Sony has a great case against him and that further litigation would not go well for him. He is required to take down all posts that have been challenged by Sony, probably including any and all YouTube content that may remain on the site. In his defense, Geohot was able to keep all of his equipment, as Sony had sought to impound any and all equipment used in the process, such as his computers, but he is barred from any further dissemination of Sony information and possibly more, as the full terms of the settlement have not yet been released.
There’s a couple of things missing here though. First, there’s no mention of the other parties that are involved in this litigation that Sony alleges were a part of the release of information. Second, they very well could have been part of the settlement but weren’t named in the joint statement. Third, what about all that cash that Geohot raised? Where is that money going?
Frankly, although Geohot maintains his innocence in the statement, this is a big middle finger to his supporters that have invested time and money into him and his “cause.” He’s giving Sony and other companies dealing with the same types of alleged infringement, ammunition to go after these so-called “hackers”. This shows any company that if you want to go after a hacker that is allegedly abusing your intellectual property, go for it, because if the “great” Geohot will fold like a house of cards, then these other, lesser known, “hackers” will too.
Geohot secured money to defend his case from people and groups like Anonymous have taken action in his name against Sony. What about these guys? I’m not on Geohot’s side in this, by the way, but I can’t help but notice that he turned his back on these people pretty darn quickly when an easy way out was offered for him. Despite all of his grandstanding for consumer protection and fighting a David v. Goliath over property rights, this all boils down to Geohot basically giving up and agreeing that Sony is right. So, guess what happens the next time a known “hacker” gets sued in the same way? Well, I highly doubt that the type of response that emboldened Geohot will be so forthcoming.
In my opinion, not only has Sony helped to tighten its control over their intellectual property rights, but they have also sent a huge message to other wannabe “hackers”. I can’t believe that Geohot’s supporters that gave money and participating in denial of service attacks are still singing his praises.
I don’t think that they would be too pleased to know that their messiah has no backbone at all.
UPDATE: I just read the stipulation that was filed by both parties today. Here’s what it says in a nutshell: If Geohotz does any type of hacking or dissemination of information regarding hacking a PS3 or anything close to it he pays $10,000 per violation and Sony gets to sue him in California.
Geohotz gets nothing.
Yep, don’t see how Geohotz came out the winner here…
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