Settlement in George Hotz Case

[Rock Raiyu]

Joint Statement

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.”

Playstation

Finally its over now we can move on with our lives.

 

[Nujui]

So, what really happened? Is this thing finally over?

 

[Schlupi]

Finally. We all knew he would be fine in the end.

Now stop giving him money for vacations, people.

 

[Recorderdude]

It appears that Hotz did NOT win, but he "got off easy". He's not paying sony anything and all he's doing is removing the keys from his site that have been posted everywhere else on the net anyway.

Not exactly a victory like the Iphone hacking case was, but at least it wasn't a huge loss.

 

[twiztidsinz]

In short: Sony had no legal ground to stand on, but had the money to bury Hotz in legal proceedings.
God Bless America.

 

[purechaos996]

So it was basically a tie. Sony got what they wanted which was to slap around the community to make a impression, and hotz didnt go to jail or forced to pay a huge amount of money to sony.

So it was basically pointless.

 

[Recorderdude]

So it was basically pointless.

well, not exactly. TONS of money was wasted too!

God Bless America indeed.

 

[BobTheJoeBob]

I wonder what this means for the future.

 

[The Pi]

For fu~

Waste of time and money. -_-

 

[Recorderdude]

I wonder what this means for the future.

absolutely nothing. We're literally back to square one.

 

[Ikki]

I wonder what this means for the future.

I don't think it means anything.

 

[BobTheJoeBob]

I wonder what this means for the future.

absolutely nothing. We're literally back to square one.

So then I guess the whole case was pointless and both sides just spent an unnecessary amount of money. The keys are already online so making Geohotz take them off (his site) isn't gonna do jack shit.

 

[Recorderdude]

I wonder what this means for the future.

absolutely nothing. We're literally back to square one.

So then I guess the whole case was pointless and both sides just spent an unnecessary amount of money. The keys are already online so making Geohotz take them off (his site) isn't gonna do jack shit.

you pretty much just summed the whole thing up.

Wonder what Anon will think of this. Now THERE's something tough to predict.

 

[spotanjo3]

I wonder what this means for the future.

absolutely nothing. We're literally back to square one.

How do you know ? You are not psychic anyway. We shall wait and see.

 

[foxgrey]

I always thought Hotz was a douche, but now I know he is a sell out as well!

Sony is trying to make an example of him and the rest of the scene, selling out is the same as letting them WIN!

 

[Frostshocker]

Stuff taken from Geohots blog:

MX said...

So you settled according to Sony. Did you live up to this?

"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."

Doesn't sound like it.

QUOTEGeorge Hotz said...

@MX The terms of the settlement agreement are "confidential" and the matter requires that they be "confidential".
By contract, I cannot discuss the Action or my views regarding the Action.

 

[BobTheJoeBob]

I always thought Hotz was a douche, but now I know he is a sell out as well!

Sony is trying to make an example of him and the rest of the scene, selling out is the same as letting them WIN!

OK, you try and be in his position; you're 20 years old being sued by a huge corporation. They give you an opportunity to end the case, would you not take it?

 

[Cloak519]

Seems fair enough all-in-all. The way this was going and Hotz's Youtube rapfest made me wonder if they'd take it personally but it would appear that he got off lightly.
Wonder what he'll progress to do next?

 

[lordrand11]

HaHa knew he would crack under the pressure.

 

[Gh0sti]

so what do we get out of this?