Sony and Hotz settle in PS3 hacking lawsuit

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Anonymous shows no signs of backing down

Sony has announced an end to its legal feud with George “GeoHot” Hotz, the now famous hacker who had been accused of violating intellectual property rights by jailbreaking the PS3 and posting his methodologies online. According to the US PlayStation Blog, the two parties agreed to an undisclosed settlement which included Hotz's pinky swear he would cease his questionable online activities.

"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."

Considering all the buildup, this is a rather speedy conclusion, and one which looks to have left Hotz relatively unharmed. In hindsight, he says, "It was never my intention to cause any users trouble or to make piracy easier. I’m happy to have the litigation behind me."

"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," added Russell.

Despite the seemingly amicable resolution, Anonymous doesn't seem ready to give up its own fight against Sony. Speaking to SystemLink, a rep for the hacker group said the recent news isn't likely to slow protestors, saying, "Well [sic] this is good news I suppose, but Sony still did what they did. In my opinion, the protests should continue, but I'm not 100% sure if others feel the same. Will there be as much involvement? I'm not sure, but Sony still took action against a user and they need to know that what they did violates free speech, and open development."

The group is planning a Sony sit-in boycott next week, but now that the conflict which motivated its attacks has been settled without much harm coming to Hotz, one has to wonder if this is a good time for Anonymous to show similar restraint. What's your take?

[Source: US PlayStation Blog]

April 11, 2011

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Matt Bradford

Matt Bradford wrote news and features here at GamesRadar+ until 2016. Since then he's gone on to work with the Guinness World Records, acting as writer and researcher for the annual Gamer's Edition series of books, and has worked as an editor, technical writer, and voice actor. Matt is now a freelance journalist and editor, generating copy across a multitude of industries.