Sony was granted permission last week by a federal magistrate to obtain information about visitors of PlayStation 3 hacker George Hotz’s website from January of 2009 to the present.
A California district court on Thursday approved Sony’s subpoena request, which will require Twitter, Google, YouTube, and content server Bluehost to hand over information pertaining George Hotz and PS3 hacking activities.
According to Wired:
“Bluehost maintains Hotz’s geohot.com site. The approved subpoena requires the company to turn over ‘documents reproducing all server logs, IP address logs, account information, account access records and application or registration forms’ tied to Hotz’s hosting. The Bluehost subpoena also demands ‘any other identifying information corresponding to persons or computers who have accessed or downloaded files hosted using your service and associated’ with the www.geohot.com website, including but not limited to the ‘geohot.com/jailbreak.zip file.'”
Jailbreaking a console is also a prerequisite to running pirated copies of games, which Sony emphasizes in its lawsuit.
Three Facts posted by George Hotz’s in his new blog
- I have never pirated a PS3 game in my life, nor helped or encouraged people to do so
- I have never played PlayStation online, never mind cheated, nor helped or encouraged people to do so
- I have never hacked anything that I did not own or without consent of the owner
😯 Sony has intimidated to sue anybody who posts the hacking tools or the encryption key. It is seeking unspecified damages from Hotz.
➡ A hearing on whether Hotz will be tried in San Francisco or New Jersey is set for next month in San Francisco federal court.