Sony’s case against PS3 hacker George “GeoHot” Hotz has widened as a Federal magistrate has allowed Sony access to the hacker’s PayPal account. The U.S. District Court ruling in California is the latest in an ongoing jurisdiction case on whether or not to bring the lawsuit to trial in San Francisco or Hotz’s state of New Jersey.
The ruling gives Sony “limited information" to Hotz’s account, helping to bolster Sony’s desire to keep the trial in San Francisco. Sony alleges that Hotz received donations for his hack from residents in North Carolina. The move to gain the documents is “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."
The judge also ordered Hotz to consent to Sony’s access of his tweets dating back to Jan. 1, 2009.
This ruling comes after Hotz had already been forced to hand over his PS3 and other devices associated with the hack. A third party known as “The Intelligence Group” has been tasked with performing a “forensically sound” investigation of Hotz’s hard drives. Sony and Hotz will split the cost of the investigation, paying $7,000 each.
[Thanks Wired]
4 Comments
March 17, 2011
*Anger Rising*
March 18, 2011
This guy is really in "BIG" trouble.
March 18, 2011
I wonder if Sony fully realizes the future implications of their actions and what this will unleash on the industry as a whole...
Privacy and gaming are some very muddy waters indeed.
March 19, 2011
This guy is in trouble but so is the rest of us. He needs to contact the civil liberties union. How would you like it if your car insurance company or doctor get access to your bank account? Once a president is set others for worse reasons can do it. Including the IRS, you employer, the neighbor that wants your wife and happens to own a business he can use. You have to be able to see down the road not the current example of what is happening.
What happens when someone wants to have access to your church ministers account? I want to see who wrote a check to him, he was running a child molesting ring! Sensational yes, possible yes! Businesses are ran by people.