Ummm, yeah. HDCP, Blu-Ray, and what else was 'disclosed' and how well did the
vendors/industry succeed in getting that genie back in the bottle? Good luck.
--- rick
Sony Lawyers Expand Dragnet, Targeting Anybody Posting PlayStation 3 Hack
• By David Kravets
• February 7, 2011 |
• 4:58 pm |
• Categories: Censorship, Digital Millennium Copyright Act
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/02/sony-lawsuit-factory/
Sony is threatening to sue anybody posting or “distributing” the first
full-fledged jailbreak code for the 4-year-old PlayStation 3 gaming console.
What’s more, the company is demanding that a federal judge order Google to
surrender the IP addresses and other identifying information (.pdf) of those
who have viewed or commented about the jailbreak video on a private YouTube
page. The game maker is also demanding that Twitter provide the identities of a
host of hackers who first unveiled a limited version of the hack in December.
Sony’s aggressive pretrial discovery demands come in its lawsuit against George
Hotz. The 21-year-old New Jersey hacker, who is well known in the jailbreaking
community, published the finished PlayStation 3 code and a how-to YouTube video
last month. The code enables the Playstation 3 to play pirated and homebrewed
games.
Sony wants the information “to determine the identities of third parties
hosting and distributing the circumvention devices” so Sony can send them a
DMCA notice to remove the material “and, if necessary, seek appropriate relief
from this court.” (.pdf)
“The discovery they call for in my opinion is overbroad,” Hotz’ attorney,
Stewart Kellar, said in a telephone interview.
Sony declined to comment.
A hearing is tentatively set for Wednesday. Sony filed its documents about 7:30
p.m. PST on Friday.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ordered Hotz to remove the YouTube video and
the code from his personal website — orders with which Hotz complied with last
week. Ahead of an unscheduled trial in which Sony is seeking unspecified
damages from Hotz, Illston had concluded that Hotz likely breached the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act. He did so by publishing or “distributing” a hack
designed to circumvent software meant to protect copyrighted material, the
judge said.
Hotz, by order of Illston, is also scheduled to surrender his computer gear to
Sony by Thursday. Kellar is trying to convince Judge Illston to back away from
allowing Sony to examine his drives and other devices.
Sony is also trying to haul into court the so-called “fail0verflow hacking
team.”
But first, Sony needs to learn the identities and whereabouts of the group’s
members. They are accused of posting a rudimentary hack in December. It was
refined by Hotz weeks later when he accessed the console’s so-called “metldr
keys,” or root keys that trick the system into running unauthorized programs
Toward getting the fail0verflow defendants to appear into court, Sony is
demanding that Twitter divulge the personal account information (.pdf) behind
the usernames of @KaKaRoToKS, @gnihsub, @pytey, @bl4sty, @marcan42 and
@fail0verflow.
Sony claims the hacks will eat into game sales for the 41 million PS3 units
sold.
The DMCA makes it either a civil or criminal offense to traffic in wares meant
to circumvent devices protecting copyrighted works.
Ironically, performing a similar hack on a mobile phone is lawful.
Last summer, the U.S. Copyright Office exempted cell phone jailbreaking from
being covered by the DMCA. The decision means consumers may run the apps of
their choice on mobile phones without fear of being civilly or criminally
liable for a DMCA breach.
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