Sony Takes Geohot to Court Over PS3 Jailbreak [Update x2]

Sony has just filed a restraining order against Geohot and members of team fail0verflow for jailbreaking the Sony Playstation 3.

Defendants George Hotz, "Bushing," Hector Cantero, Sven Peter and "Segher" (collectively, "Defendants") are computer hackers. Working individually and in concert with one another, Defendants recently bypassed effective technological protection measures ("TPMs") employed by plaintiff Sony Computer Entertainment America LLP ("SCEA") in its proprietary PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system ("PS3 System"). Through the Internet, Defendants are distributing software, tools and instructions (collectively, "Circumvention Devices") that circumvent the TPMs in the PS3 System and facilitate the counterfeiting of video games. Already, pirated video games are being packaged and distributed with these circumvention devices. Declaration of Ryan T. Bricker In Support of Ex Parte Motion for Temporary Restraining Order And Order To Show Cause Re Preliminary Injunction; Order for Impoundment ("Bricker Decl.") ¶2, Exh. A. Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65 and Local Rules 65-1 and 7-10, SCEA moves ex parte to put an immediate halt to the ongoing distribution of these illegal Circumvention Devices and avoid irreparable harm to SCEA and to other video game software developers stemming from video game piracy.

Hopefully the courts will use the same logic that Library of Congress Copyright Office used when ruling that iPhone jailbreaking was legal. "When one jailbreaks a smartphone in order to make the operating system on that phone interoperable with an independently created application that has not been approved by the maker of the smartphone or the maker of its operating system, the modifications that are made purely for the purpose of such interoperability are fair uses."


Geohot has been instrumental in the iPhone jailbreak scene. If anyone would like to offer him assistance you can find the Motion For TRO and Proposed Order as well as his contact details at the link below...

Update:
Sony's filings are for a temporary restraining order that demand all information about the jailbreak be removed from the web. A full lawsuit is expected in a few days time.

Update x2:
Looks like that lawsuit is here. Geohot has posted a new "Complaint" filed by Sony in which they request "injunctive relief and damages based on Defendants' unlawful circumvention and distribution of circumvention devices in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act"

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