Settlement in George Hotz Case

[maximilianburke]

From geohot's website:

> What if SCEA tries to settle?

> Lets just say, I want the settlement terms to include OtherOS on all PS3s and an apology on the PlayStation blog for ever removing it. It'd be good PR for Sony too, lord knows they could use it. I'm also willing to accept a trade, a legit path to homebrew for knowledge of how to stop new firmwares from being decrypted.

I wonder if any of those terms were met?

[mrcharles]

Not a chance. Most likely Hotz realized what he was in for if he stuck it out long haul and decided it was worth having a life and a job instead.

It's really unfortunate for everyone that it ended this way.

[bena]

Unlikely.

They probably showed Hotz just how much he was about to get reamed and he folded. Not commenting on the legality or rightness of either side, just the fact that Sony probably has a lot more money and lot more lawyers dedicated to stuff like this.

[Osiris]

Considering that the blog post made no mention whatsoever of OtherOS, I would suspect not.

My guess is that the settlement agreement is basically exactly what they said, that he'll stop distributing the code or any future modifications of that code. I'm sure Hotz lawyer came to realize that a protracted battle, even if he would win, would cost far more than Hotz would be able to pay.

[bitwize]

Hotz knew he would lose. The law is clear and he broke it. He settled to avoid a protracted legal battle, at the end of which awaited jail time.

[simias]

The comments on this blog entry scare me. Fanboyism and groupthink pushed to the limit.

EDIT: ah well, I see that this opinion is shared. It kind of cheers me up. Kind of.

[jcarreiro]

Many of the commenters at Ars Technica (which has been following this story closely) have similar opinions of Sony and of Mr. Hotz.

Those praising the actions of Sony don't seem to understand any of the larger issues here. It doesn't matter to them that free inquiry is being destroyed in order to shield the embarrassing secrets of a huge corporation from public view, as long as they can boot up their game console and play their shiny new video game without any inconvenience.

[tuhin]

Awesome Sony. Hope you gave it to him good.

Is this for real?

The moment I read the comments I was like, "this is so different from the view people have on HN". Also I am sure these are kids who just swear by their consoles. Sadly they are Sony's biggest chunk of consumers.

[henrikschroder]

There's a belief among some gamers that the cracking of a console somehow, magically, enables people to cheat in online games. And driven by that belief and a hate for cheaters, they go after the wrong target.

[marshray]

Apparently the great majority of visitors to Sony's PlayStation blog haven't experienced the joy of developing their own firmware and operating system for their home supercomputer appliance.

Poor souls. I always knew video games would destroy the mind and the ability to appreciate the finer things in life.

[adestefan]

Much like the comments that I see on HN, ArsTechnica, reddit, ...

[ascendant]

I could hardly hear my own thoughts over the bleating of all those sheep.

[nzmsv]

What can't believe are the comments on that page. Are people really that eager to praise their "overlords" in the name of "better gaming"? But can there really be that many trolls?

The scary part is that these are most likely real people, who like their control and surveillance just fine, and are the majority. Which means we will probably see a completely locked down internet sooner or later.

[JonnieCache]

They are 14 year old playstation fanboys, who have a religious devotion to their console brand of choice. This stems from the teenage search for identity. Having made violently strong cases for their favoured console in arguments with their friends at school, they are now ideologically wedded to this position and unable to deviate from it one iota for fear of the inconsistency being seen as weakness, and more importantly, of it undermining their own fragile sense of who they are: a Playstation Fan.

It's basically a microcosm of partisan politics. Don't worry too much about it.

EDIT: Alternatively they could be very lazy astroturfers.

EDIT2: The comparison of console wars to partisan politics has raised another question that I've never considered before: what will happen in a few decades time when the children of people who have themselves been gaming since childhood reach their teen years? Will we see similar patterns to politics, where children tend to inherit their views from their parents without question? Will parents war with their children over their opposing views on gaming?

"This family has played nintendo for four generations! I'll be damned if any son of mine is going to play an xbox 1080 under my roof!"

[bep]

George Hotz is not telling much either for the moment http://geohotgotsued.blogspot.com/2011/04/joining-sony-boyco...

[logic]

The final judgement has been posted at psx-scene.com:

http://psx-scene.com/forums/f6/settlement-george-hotz-case-8...

Note that this does not include the confidential memorandum of understanding (page 1, line 20), which would contain the meat of what was actually agreed to by both parties.

[xentronium]

Yeah, it's kind of depressing that he cannot even reveal the terms of their settlement agreement. How can this even be legal?

[dhechols]

sigh "Hey George. We're your new corporate overlords, telling you to keep quiet about PS3_CONSTANT_ENCRYPTION_KEY." "Ok, can we talk?"

"We'll see you in court." "Shit."

Time passes...

"Hey Sony, here's a ton of money, leave me alone." "Ok."

I cannot express how disappointed I am in this result.

[wtallis]

There's no evidence that Hotz had to pay Sony anything as part of this settlement.

[catshirt]

"Sony is glad to put this litigation behind us,” said Riley Russell, General Counsel for SCEA."

likely because they realized they were being dipshits half way through. glad this case is over and i can't believe it wasted so much time. my respect and empathy goes to hotz; i'm sure his past few months were miserable.

[Xuzz]

Is their case against fail0verflow, who found most of the vulnerabilities geohot actually used to jailbreak it (and re-ported Linux, for example), still on? There's not many details in this post or anywhere else online.

[fleitz]

I wonder what the 'permanent injunction' prevents him from doing?

Having been in similar situations in court facing virtually unlimited legal budgets and opposing counsel focused on PR victories I can understand why geohotz settled, however, the wording of the statement tells me that the permanent injunction agreed to actually doesn't prevent much otherwise it would be more heavily touted.

I have a feeling this statement "a preliminary injunction was issued requiring Hotz to take down the postings challenged by SCEA." reveals that the injunction was to permanently remove the postings. (eg. Hotz won!)

[steipete]

Sucks. He should have gone down the road, fighting for his rights to legally hack the PS3.

[tezmc]

That's easy to say when you're not the one being sued by a company with very deep pockets.

[nkassis]

Yeah but at the same time it's not just him that should have to deal with all the trouble that fighting would have caused him. Sometimes you have to pick your fights.

[johng]

I wonder how much the anonymous pressure weighed on their decision for a quick settlement?

[roel_v]

Given the terms, probably 0.

[sycren]

Prob nil as the settlement was decided at the end of march

[emullet]

Does this mean my donation to his 'defense fund' was actually paid to Sony as part of the settlement?

[Natsu]

That assumes he paid Sony something, which isn't necessarily true. Given the way things were going, I personally feel that the impetus to settle came from Sony's side, knowing they had a weak case.

It's too bad we don't know all the terms.

[yardie]

Meh, PS3 is the last console I'll ever buy. I guess for Sony this is a Pyrrhic victory. What they have done is gone out of their way to prove that no, you don't own that box. You bought a box and we can change the contents.

[praptak]

"Our motivation for bringing this litigation was to protect our intellectual property and our consumers."

Yeah, right. I just hope that any manufacturers of the stuff I own will refrain from "protecting" me in a similar way.

[daimyoyo]

For me, the damage to Sony has already been done. I will never buy another Sony product as long as I live.

[vitobcn]

It seems the settlement documents are available on psx-scene.com

[dcarlson]

I skimmed it - It's boring. From my reading, George can't hack any more Sony products or talk about hacking Sony products, or direct anyone to talk about hacking Sony products. No money, No promises (though there is some talk about where they promise to sue each other if they do this again). That's it.

[forwardslash]

Any details on the settlement?

[lloeki]

Most probably the settlement includes a clause not to talk about the settlement. Also, the second clause of the club^Wsettlement is... well you get the point.

[jonursenbach]

I wonder if the recent Anonymous attacks, specifically on Howard Stringer's family, had anything to do with this.

[madmaze]

It almost seems like the the sony comments are filtered to only display pro sony comments. Its sad to see so many people cheer for sony.

[jarin]

The comments on that post seem awfully one-sided.