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IPFS News Link • Entertainment: Games

Sony Settles PlayStation Hacking Lawsuit

• wired.com
Sony dropped its jailbreaking lawsuit against PlayStation 3 hacker George Hotz on Monday in exchange for promises the New Jersey hacker would never again tinker with the game console or any Sony product, records show.

Respected for his iPhone hacks and now the PlayStation 3 jailbreak, Hotz was accused of violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and other laws, after he published an encryption key and software tools on his website in January that allow Playstation owners to gain complete control of their consoles from the firmware on up.

The DMCA prohibits the trafficking of so-called “circumvention devices” designed to crack copy-protection schemes. The law does not require Sony to prove that Hotz received payment for the hack, which was designed to allow PlayStation 3 owners the ability to run home-brewed software or alternative operating systems like Linux. It builds on a series of earlier jailbreaks that unlocked less-protected levels of the PlayStation’s authentication process.

 
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