Updates to this story
Console maker Sony will soon have the names and emails of all the mates of the hacker who cracked its PS3.
A federal magistrate has allowed Sony to subpoena the PayPal account of PlayStation 3 hacker George Hotz.
Sony already has the right to acquire the internet IP addresses of anybody who had visited Hotz's website since January of 2009 and subpoenas for data from YouTube and Google as well as Twitter account data linked to Hotz.
According to Ars Technica, Hotz faces charges of breaching the Digital Millennium Copyright Act after he published an encryption key and software tools on his website that allow PlayStation owners to gain complete control of their consoles from the firmware on up.
Following a court order, Hotz has removed the hack from his website.
Sony said that the latest court order will provide help it find out how much dosh Hotz made from his hack. It can also find out who has a copy and charge them too.
What is more important is that it will give the court jurisdiction over the the case. Sony claims Hotz has accepted monetary donations for the hack from people residing in Northern California and therefore he can be tried in San Francisco a proper venue for the litigation. Hotz would prefer New Jersey.
Hotz has denied he accepted donations for the hack. Sony, who has threatened to sue anybody who posts the hacking tools or the encryption key, is seeking unspecified damages from Hotz.
I won't miss them.
That's like saying no one will go to the city park because the police made a curfew. Why did the police make the curfew? Just to be evil? I bet the rapes, murders, thefts, and vandalism had nothing to do with the curfew right?
The hackers ruined it for everyone. Sony is just trying to survive, not hurt their customers.
I also fear for my life, governments and courts are willing to give my personal information from online services such as paypal/twitter to private companies such as Sony. Who knows what sony will do with it.
I will actually be disconnecting from the net soon. Governments are ruining it for everyone. Peace out.
hackers, people living at home playing with their hardware to make them do better things are runining what? a billion dollar company!!!?
grow up.. don't be so god damn childish. This is about freedom were talking about. Kid.