14 DAY TRIAL // Sony, in its trial again George "GeoHot" Hotz, one of the main hackers involved in the recent security issues on the PlayStation 3, has just been given the right to subpoena IP addresses of those who visited the website of the hacker, as well as Google, YouTube and Twitter accounts of those who tried to get in contact with him.
Sony has been going on the offensive against the hackers that blew its PlayStation 3's security measures wide open, leaving owners capable of running homebrew and pirated software, as well as custom firmware versions that allowed them to circumvent the protection measures of games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
The biggest measure against the hackers is a lawsuit filed by Sony against George Hotz, aka GeoHot, one of the first people to develop a custom firmware for the PlayStation 3.
The trial hasn't been going so well for Sony, but now, federal magistrate Joseph Spero has granted the corporation a very important right.
The Japanese company can now subpoena the host provider for Hotz's website, in order to give up " documents reproducing all server logs, IP address logs, account information, account access records and application or registration forms" related to the traffic of the web page.
The company also wants to receive "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.""
Sony, with this information, wants to prove that the trial needs to be moved from Hotz's home state of New Jersey to North California.
Besides this goal, however, the information can effectively let Sony begin pursuing anyone who visited the site and downloaded the custom firmware.
The company is also entitled to subpoena Google, YouTube and Twitter, for data on users who interacted with Hotz on their services, including names, addresses and even telephone numbers.
As you can imagine, this has sparked a fierce debate, with people like Corynne McSherry, Intellectual Property Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, saying that this move will create a precedent and breaches the First Amendment.
“The identities of individuals who visited Mr. Hotz's website and viewed or commented on his video seem unlikely to be directly or materially relevant to the narrow jurisdictional question of whether Mr. Hotz can be sued in this district. And even if a marginal relevance showing could be made, it would not outweigh the First Amendment rights of those individuals to anonymously access the website and video,” she said.
The hearing that will decide where the lawsuit will be held is scheduled for next month.