Sony Gets Temporary Restraining Order Against PlayStation 3 Hackers

January 28, 2011 2:00 PM

The next chapter in the PlayStation 3 jailbreak fiasco continues. The US District Court for the Northern District of California has decided that Sony's DMCA lawsuit, inspired by the recent jailbreak of the PlayStation 3, will go forward in California courts. (via PSX-Scene)

Additionally, the court has granted Sony a temporary restraining order against hacker George Hotz (Geohot) and the group fail0verflow, prohibiting them from hacking PlayStation hardware and distributing anything related to recent PlayStation 3 firmware hack, or helping other to do the same. Hotz and fail0verflow have also been instructed to relinquish any computers or storage devices used to create the hack to Sony's lawyers.

While this could be viewed as a net win for Sony, it doesn't do anything to put the proverbial toothpaste back in the tube. After all, the PS3 jailbreak is still available from numerous locations on the Internet.

Jeff Mattas

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darksied

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January 28, 2011 3:14 PM

No, this is not the end of the situation. What this is though, is ammunition if a hack ever comes out on the ps3 again. There's not many really smart hackers out there who can hack the ps3, and this is at least a few of them. This will cut down on the number of hackers in the future, because if one of these guys ever hacks it again, their ass will be in jail.

Hopefully this is the START of putting things back together on the ps3 and will be enough to scare other would-be hackers away (legal action).
- soundcreepy
  
   reply
  January 28, 2011 3:31 PM
  
  good, hackers can leave my sony alone and go back to attacking micro$hit
  - Endymion_
    
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    January 28, 2011 5:19 PM
    
    http://kotaku.com/5738644/microsoft-ready-to-appease-ps3-hacker-with-windows-phone
- Azrael88
  
   reply
  January 28, 2011 4:26 PM
  
  Sony will prevent further jailbreaking just as successfully as apple has been with the iphone. The others (and there WILL be others) will just be smarter about their anonymity. These guys were asking for this by bragging about it all over the place.
- ChromeBallz
  
   reply
  January 28, 2011 8:16 PM
  
  Only if they're in the US. US courts can't do anything against hackers not from that country, and Sony would have to get it to the native court using the native laws all over again. Precedents set in other countries have little to no bearing on proceedings elsewhere.