Sony Settles Lawsuit Against PS3 Hacker

Loot Ninja has had their ear to the ground for quite some time, listening for any inkling of knowledge concerning the Sony lawsuit against iPhone and more recently PS3 hacker George Hotz. We’ve heard rumblings, and before we knew it the whole ordeal has come to an end.

The legal battle between Sony and hacker George Hotz has come to an end, Sony said Monday. The news comes just three months after Sony first sued Mr. Hotz for distributing the “jailbreak.zip” file which releases security information that the company said could “allow the playing of pirated video games.”

This past January, Hotz put up a personal blog post containing the Playstation 3′s root key, a set of numbers that allows crafty homebrew owners to install non-Sony approved software to the system. This wasn’t the originally intended purpose of the jailbreak key (as it was just to allow PS3 owners access back to the Other OS feature), but Sony went on to say that the root key can also be used to support pirated games.

In the terms of the settlement, Mr. Hotz has agreed to a permanent injunction requiring him to stay completely silent on all matters relating to the situation. Later in true Hotz fashion Monday morning, he released a blog post saying he would never buy a Sony product again.

Here’s the joint statement from Sony:

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.”

[via the Playstation Blog]