Sony Subpoena Bad News For GeoHot And Us - The UpStream

Sony Subpoena Bad News For GeoHot And Us

posted Sunday Mar 6, 2011 by Jon Wurm

Sony Subpoena Bad News For GeoHot And Us

Sony continues to turn up the heat on GeoHot this week when a Federal Magistrate, Joseph Spero, allowed Sony access to sensitive information concerning GeoHot and anyone who seems to have had contact with him in almost any way. If you have visited GeoHot's website anytime after 2009 then congratulations because odds are you will be included somewhere in the IP logs, server logs and account records they are legally obligated to turn over to Sony.

Some of the other subpoenas that were approved require Google to remit information about GeoHots's blog, his YouTube account and anyone who has posted or published a comment in regards to his "Jailbroken PS3 3.55 with Homebrew" video will also be caught up in the mix. If you follow him on Twitter don't feel left out, Sony is getting all the information associated with his Twitter account as well.

To find out what's next for GeoHot, hit the break.

Why would Sony go through all the trouble of making this into a long and costly court battle? Two reasons: one, they want to prove that GeoHot distributed the hack and two that many people in California downloaded the hack, which will give them probable cause to carry out the lawsuit there instead of New Jersey. Although I would add in the third reason that Sony was not afraid to lose hundreds of millions on the PS3 so they are certainly not afraid to spend a few million trying to take down GeoHot.

This isn't great news for us either since all of us have been following him for a long time on all the different platforms. We have also written about some of the things he's done and reposted much of his content so next month in federal court after the venue for his trial will be decided, our arraignment might shortly follow.

We know that Sony and the Federal Government are nuts but at least there is one person who seems to be alarmed by what is going on. A staff attorney at Electronic Frontier Foundation, Corynne McSherry described them as "overly broad" and inappropriate. To read about her concerns in detail check out her letter to Judge Spero.

Advertisement

Login to CommentWhat You're Saying

Be the first to comment!

We're live now - Join us!
PLUGHITZ Keyz

Email

Password

Forgot password? Recover here.
Not a member? Register now.
Blog Meets Brand Stats