Sony granted access to GeoHot's PayPal records

by James Ransom-Wiley on Mar 17th 2011 3:00PM

A federal magistrate has authorized Sony to subpoena PayPal for information about California-based funds sent to accounts associated with PS3 jailbreaker George "GeoHot" Hotz, reports Wired's Threat Level blog. The US District Court ruling in San Francisco is the latest development in a jurisdiction dispute to decide whether Sony can proceed with its lawsuit against Hotz in California or must instead do so in Hotz's home state of New Jersey.

Sony alleges that Hotz received donations for his PS3 hack from Northern California residents (via PayPal), and, if true, the evidence could bolster Sony's case to keep the case in San Francisco court. In a court order, Magistrate Joseph Spero defined the "limited information" that PayPal could be ordered to present as "documents sufficient to identify the source of funds in California that went into any PayPal account associated with geohot@gmail.com for the period of January 1, 2009, to February 1, 2011."

Additionally, Judge Spero ordered Hotz to consent to Sony obtaining all of his tweets dating back to Jan. 1, 2009 and to appear in California for a deposition relating "solely" to the jurisdiction matter (with Sony paying for his "reasonable" expenses).

As for Hotz's "impounded devices," a neutral third party, known simply as "The Intelligence Group" (or "TIG"), has been tasked with conducting a "forensically sound" probe of Hotz's encrypted hard drives (and a calculator) for any data related to his PS3 system circumvention hack. Hotz and Sony will split the first $7,000 charged by TIG, with Sony agreeing to pay any additional fees.

[Pictured: George Hotz (screencap); source: G4tv.com]

Source: Wired.com

Tags: california, dmca, geohot, george-hotz, hack, jailbreak, lawsuit, paypal, playstation, ps3, sony

Reader Comments (196)

One more step in further owning this egotistical turd. Not me, GeoHot.

@thisredengine Why is this downvoted?

@I am a machineee

Because he doesn't deserve the "owning". Just because he has a big ego, doesn't make what Sony's doing right. This is a violation on so many levels, and everybody should be concerned

@I am a machineee

Not to mention it's not just him this affects. He's already in the hot seat. This is going to put many more in the hot seat, just like it did when they subpoenaed for the IPs that accessed his site, which I'm sure many of us did

@EGOvoruhk I disagree. He definitely deserves to be owned, and hopefully he will be owned so hard that other idiots like him will be discouraged from trying again.

+1

Idealism aside, the law is the law and he's made it abundantly clear that he's guilty.

There's ways to challenge the status quo and change laws without being so defiantly rogue.

@EGOvoruhk

This guy was attempting to claim the fame, and by asking for donations - he was basically getting paid for his ego.

Hence why Sony have pounced on him. Their claim, he was distributing it for money, indirectly perhaps - but thats their claim in court.

@EGOvoruhk

I think Hotz decimating system security and putting innocent end users are risk was a "violation on so many levels"
Should we be able to run home brew applications on devices we buy? Maybe, but introducing unwarranted entropy is NOT the way to do it.

@thisredengine

His being egotistic should, I hope, have nothing to do with any of this. We all know that personality can and does affect legal decisions, but let's not make it even worse by being O.K. with it. The law should not be a popularity contest.

@Abriael
In the process of "owning this douche" the courts are handing down heavy handed & far reaching decisions that have the possibility to set terrible precedent in the future.

Sony is being given access to information that they should have no right to in any way shape or form. At the very least it should only be granted once Hotz is actually found guilty & they sue for more scope to go after other offenders based on that verdict - not just handed out, like it's nothing, during the pre-trial to see what state has jurisdiction. As it is they are being given the whole candy store without even having to walk through the front door.

If this case were about anything else besides "some kid hacking a video game machine" people would be more up in arms all over the place. As it is, these court decisions are going largely unnoticed in non-gaming media & the people who are seeing them just cheer them on because they don't like the person involved.

Be anti-Geo & anti- hacking all you want, but when you support taking rights away from an A-Hole you don't like, you give up your own along with them.

@EGOvoruhk

I've never been on his site, so I could give two shits about his situation

@EGOvoruhk Being served a subpoena isn't violating nothing.

@Kinjiro
You know, besides privacy.

@swooded

Well, well said my friend. This is always how rights are taken away too, with people smiling and cheering as their rights are raped. It gets us all one step closer to Fascism people, don't be jumping for joy.

@swooded

You say they should only be given the information after he is found guilty, but what evidence is there that is going to find him guilty other than the information they are already gathering?

I don't believe the information is so substantial that it should have anyone worried. It's IP addresses, something a decent hacker could find, PayPal accounts detailing who "donated" what and when, his tweets. None of this is private information and so he has no expectation of privacy, If it was a conversation with a priest or his wife, that would be a completely different issue.

I don't want him to be convicted based on his ego either, I believe Sony is being reasonable as are the courts in trying to settle the matter. Being an American I can understand someone not wanting their rights trampled, I just don't think that is what is happening here. Someone broke the law/ToS and left a trail right to his doorstep.

@Emokitteh
@Emokitteh
I'm actually less worried about his personal privacy (whether or not he should have any in the case) and more a general violation of privacy at large, based solely on what court has jurisdiction of his case. I also don't mean they should be given anything if he's found guilty, I'm simply saying that the stage of the trial right now (where are we going to hold it) makes it laughable that judges keep handing Sony so much.
Sony is being given the private information of other people, who do have reasonable expectation of privacy, in their pursuit of this one "hacker". The implications are much broader than just taking down this guy & whether or not Sony does anything with the information after receiving doesn't matter, because they shouldn't have access to it to begin with.
Also, don't get me wrong, I'm not standing out on the street wearing a sign that says THE END IS NEAR or anything, but this is a bigger deal than "Hotz iz teh suxor Sony can takez all his cheezeburgerz".

@swooded

Haha, no I understand what you are saying, but I don't think the courts are going to allow the personal information of others to be used against anyone other that GeoHot, at least I hope not.

In any situation like this it is hard to find an equal ground for everyone. The court needs to allow Sony to conduct an investigation while preserving the rights of the defendant. In an age where so much is shared online, it's hard to determine just what should be privileged and what should be openly available. If the police can obtain the finances and locate where a person has been on the internet in a criminal case, I find it reasonable to assume that the same information should be available in a civil case.

I'm not a lawyer or any part of a police force, so I apologize if I'm wrong about any of this information.

@Aguiluz

I wonder if you are going to be so sony supportive if any company gets access to your paypal account, because they ask nicely to a judge. just for this precedent.........

@Aguiluz

I will say this once before I have a stroke. He did not, in any way, make any mechanism for cheating, or game cracking. This was done entirely by third-parties, and those third parties need to be responsible for the reprehensible actions.

Should he be held liable for application theft on the iPhone? That doesn't make any sense, because the value-added of jailbreaking the iPhone applies to YOU, and the average user. Just because hacking the PS3 does not personally help you does not mean that it is useless, and only used for cheating. Please understand that the rights of all, even the minority, MUST BE DEFENDED by us while we are still able.

@AndrewPending

You aren't paying attention to the issue at hand.

He broke the ToS that he agreed to, set up a PayPal account associated to his hobbies and admitted to hacking the PS3. What more could you want?

His rights aren't being violated, your rights aren't being violated and my rights aren't being violated. Nobody has anything to worry about so long as they didn't do anything illegal. If you want to fight for rights, you should fight for someone who doesn't blatantly disregard the rules and regulations that most everyone else abides by.

Not hacking isn't a difficult task, you just...don't hack.

@Emokitteh

You seem to have ignored the whole fact that GeoHot by his own statements has never had a PSN account, therefore never agreed to Sony's ToS.

@This Little Man Says His Name Is

You seem to have ignored the whole fact that you don't need to have a PSN account to agree to Sony's ToS:

You get Sony's ToS when you switch on your PS3 for the first time.

@thisredengine I feel like I directly influenced you going from downvoted to three hearts! :)

@Aguiluz

That is incredibly narrow minded. People are completely ignoring the ramifications of even these early court rulings. This is some serious infringement on privacy and could set a terrifying precedent for future cases.

@Aguiluz

no, you are not those things ( at least NOT public, who knows) but do you know what an antecedent means??? if sony is authorized to do this then that means that other companies can use the same resource, which means that not only you and your "pirate free life" are in danger, it means EVERYBODY can be subject to this kind of investigation whatever the reason is, and those reason are not only restricted to piracy, try to see the BIG SPECTER that things like this can cause, there is more to this life than games dude.....

@thisredengine This shouldn't really about whether you like the guy or not but whether his civil liberties are being completely disregarded. What happened to innocent until proven guilty? The access to so much of his personal information is a terrifying precedent.

Rap at em now, Mr. Hotz

@ND92

Sony doesn't like when you "Rap" at them....

**girl voice** "U Can't C Me!!!"

@Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/8594/ebrowuccme.gif

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

I needed that in my life....LMAOOO

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze

hahaha

@Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi

You're a knowledgeable guy around these parts, I can't figure this out, is linux back on the PS3 yet?

I mean they claim it's for linux yet I can't seem to figure out if anyone got it running again, all I can find are people angry they can't get on the PSN anymore to play their pirated games.

@MrAhh
yes it is, do a little research before posting.

/cheer

Sigh :( all the people that donated to this douchbag ... could have donated to the Red Cross to help the people in Japan ... what a world we live in

@Cadattack123

Wonder if he kept any funds in the paypal and if its now "closed"?

I would lol if he didnt send it to his bank yet and it was frozen. xD

@Cadattack123 Of course, all of this happened *before* the earthquake and tsunami. And what he did was hardly the requirements to be a douchebag.

@Cadattack123
calling you dumb will be a complement, how the heck was people supposed to know that tragedy was coming? really man, you should.stop.think.REthink.write.see? is that easy.....

@Cadattack123 You realize that people aren't psychic right? We didn't know the earthquake was gonna hit. No one knew the earthquake was gonna hit. And even if we knew about the earthquake, no one could have possibly known a tsunami would follow up. The point you're trying to make is incredibly stupid.

@blackangel209 I am talking about to all the people who donated after the quake ... >_

@dEvAnGeL I am talking about the thousands of people that donated AFTER the quake >_< godzzzzzzzzz

@Cadattack123

You Pity Da fool dat don't use future sight?

@Cadattack123

Regardless of whether you were talking about people donating before or after the quake, it doesn't make your point any less stupid.

I'll make sure and have someone follow you around and remind you of all the stuff you spend money on, or buy, or give away that is less noble than giving it to the quake victims.

I don't support the people making those donations to him at all, but 99% of the stuff that every one of us has spent money on since then probably could have been better used helping Japan.

@Cadattack123

Congratulations! You've just earned an EPIC FAIL! trophy.

On a serious note, the only thing that's left for geohot is to be dissected. Sony is really deperate. In the end, a battle of both douches. haha.

@Cadattack123 Do us a favor and donate what you spend on internet access to Japan. A win for everyone.

@blackangel209 I think he just means in general, that money they put towards Geo could of actually gone to a better cause period.

Feed a family in Africa, give it to a men/womens shelter.

@WillyLo
Men's shelter!? Screw that why should I leave my house to go live in a crappy shelter?

@Cadattack123

"I am talking about to all the people who donated after the quake"

That's not a lot of people. GeoHot stopped accepting donations long before the quake occurred.

Also, are you aware that if you spend money on one thing, it doesn't prevent you from spending money on another thing?

I gave $10 to GeoHot, and I gave $50 to Red Cross for Japan quake relief.

@copa

Downvoted for admiting you gave money to this egotistical douche

Good. EFF this dbag.

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Sony granted access to GeoHot's PayPal records

Reader Comments (196)

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 3:02PM thisredengine said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 3:30PM I am a machineee said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 3:34PM EGOvoruhk said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 3:36PM EGOvoruhk said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 3:46PM Abriael said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 3:56PM jsx said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 3:56PM DigitalFortress said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 4:05PM Integral said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 4:08PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 4:18PM swooded said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 4:37PM omgwtf said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 5:04PM Kinjiro said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 5:10PM Typhonic said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 5:12PM Dizazter said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 5:27PM Emokitteh said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 5:50PM swooded said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 6:21PM Emokitteh said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 7:07PM Hunter141072 said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 8:19PM AndrewPending said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 9:30PM Emokitteh said

Posted: Mar 18th 2011 1:22AM This Little Man Says His Name Is said

Posted: Mar 18th 2011 2:34AM brotherfranciz said

Posted: Mar 18th 2011 4:39AM I am a machineee said

Posted: Mar 18th 2011 11:14PM Accualt said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 2:01AM Hunter141072 said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 7:46AM whatnewmobilecom said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 3:03PM ND92 said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 3:17PM Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 3:22PM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 3:27PM Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 4:39PM omgwtf said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 8:48PM MrAhh said

Posted: Mar 18th 2011 4:43PM Roxas560 said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 3:03PM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 3:05PM Cadattack123 said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 3:08PM Faenix said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 3:09PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 3:11PM dEvAnGeL said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 3:14PM blackangel209 said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 3:24PM Cadattack123 said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 3:25PM Cadattack123 said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 3:27PM Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 3:38PM Vcize said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 3:39PM isotrex said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 4:06PM thisredengine said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 4:06PM WillyLo said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 4:14PM The Aquacharger said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 4:31PM copa said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 5:49PM Billlop said

Posted: Mar 17th 2011 3:05PM xFenixKnightx said

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