14 DAY TRIAL // Sony Computer Entertainment of America has added another line of attack against the hackers that have penetrated the protections of the PlayStation 3 by asking a court to allow a subpoena on PayPal, the online payment firm, seeking information on the account of George Hotz, aka Geohot.
A United States District Court has allowed the move, meaning that PayPal joins the ranks of other services, like Google, Twitter, YouTube and web provider Bluehost, which are asked to offer information on the accounts that Geohot has registered with them.
Sony began legal action in January of the year, saying that the group fail0verflow and George Hotz worked together in order to break down the protections of the PlayStation 3 home console and then distributed both devices that could help users do the same and information about their method.
Sony says that the intention was to allow owners to engage in pirate activities.
Since then the company asked the court to stop distribution of the method online and asked for access to the computer files that Geohot worked with to create the hack.
All the hackers implicated in the PlayStation 3 case are saying that they have only tried to allow access to the PS3 so that users can use homebrew applications and Linux.
They deny that they intended to facilitate piracy and say that custom firmware they released is designed to prevent it.
Since the PlayStation 3 hack announcement, Sony has apparently worked hard to eliminate vulnerabilities, especially after some developers said that online gaming for important franchises might be affected by the use of hacked consoles.
Some are saying that the console is secure after the launch of the 3.60 firmware.
There are also rumors that a newly designed version of the PlayStation 3 will be released soon with a new set of defense mechanisms but no official announcement has been made about it.