“Very Serious Questions” Raised, Says Sony
The website VGHQ reports Sony has filed a brief with the US District Court detailing, among other things, that George Hotz allegedly rendered evidence in the ongoing lawsuit against him unusable, and may have fled to South America.
Sony alleges Hotz “engaged in a campaign to thwart jurisdictional discovery at every turn –regardless of whether the Court has ordered such discovery or not,” according to court documents. The company alleges that after a federal magistrate ordered Hotz’s hard drives to be turned over in the case, he “deliberately removed integral components of his impounded hard drives.”
Hotz then allegedly went to South America and is using it as an excuse not to turn over those necessary components. Counsel for Hotz confirms he is in South America, and a recent post on Hotz’s blog appears to confirm. There are reports he may be in Argentina, but it is not clear if he is there permanently or simply on vacation. Other reports suggest Hotz did not turn over controller drives needed to operate the drives, and that his counsel suggests he technically does not have to do so, doing the bare minimum to comply with court orders.
Sony says in its filing that “[....] Hotz’s attempts to dodge this Court’s authority raise very serious questions.”
And they’re right. As we reported several weeks ago, Hotz sought donations from the public, and the public showed tremendous support; it’s believed Hotz raised tens of thousands of dollars in a weekend. But many donators who believed that money was to go toward legal fees are now wondering if they’ve financed Hotz’s escape south or, at the very least, a temporary, lavish retreat.
UPDATE: Hotz has updated his blog to reassure followers the trip he’s on was planned, and temporary:
Factually, it’s true I’m in South America, on a vacation I’ve had planned and paid for since November. I mean, it is Spring break; hacking isn’t my life. Rest assured that not a dime of legal defense money would ever go toward something like this. And of course Townsend loves the idea of painting me as an international fugitive. I have been in contact with my lawyers almost every day; I would not let the case suffer. That said, I also won’t let this ridiculous lawsuit run my life either. Then the fearmongerers win.
Sony also alleges in its filing that they’ve uncovered evidence Hotz has an active Playstation Network account, blickmanic, contradicting Hotz’s claims of not having one. Users of the PSN must agree to its User Agreement, including submitting to personal jurisdiction in California. All of this as Sony tries to convince the courts to keep the case in California instead of Hotz’s northern New Jersey residence.
We will continue to track developments on this evolving matter.
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That’s what happens when you don’t read the TOS of any game company…
Oh my.. Sony is going really far, they want heads to be cut up.
But Hotz received a really huge amount of money, he should use it to defend himself instead of “GOING ON VACATION”.
This is why I’m usually reluctant to give donations unless I know for certain where the money is going. There are too many people out there that will scam you. Needless to say, a trip to Argentina probably isn’t cheap so I wouldn’t be surprised if he at least grabbed a few dollars out of his so-called “donations.” I mean think about it, if he could afford a trip to Argentina why would he need help paying his legal fees. Sounds fishy to me…
You know what? Even if this is the absolute worst-case scenario and Hotz used donation money to flee the country, etc etc, he’s still nowhere near as fucked up and evil as Sony is in this case. lol
You know what? If Sony has no really SERIOUS evidence that geohot destroyed some evidence… we just got a proof they can’t find any, right? RIGHT?!
baw! the guy goes, takes donations of money and fled here to south america!
he thinks it is like in movies? if it passes through Brazil, I denounce plumb where he is! (so if I find it, right? heheehh)
one thing is the freedom that free software and homebrew, the freedom to use your console as you want to use. So when it does not generate piracy, homebrew is so cool.
but another thing is you do all this, generate piracy, and then take money from donations and flee the country. I do not agree with it.
He thinks he has hacked himself into GTA
So from what I can gather, if Sony can’t prove that the donations were used towards funding of the jailbreaking stuff, Sony can’t reasonably use this kind of evidence against him as it’s purely circumstantial.
Sony is grasping for straws here.
Perfect example of why i never donate to anything. You have no way of knowing where the money is going.
Re:update this dude used to be the iraqi information minister
Remember kids just because someone makes a statement they can still be lying through their teeth.
Well time shall tell… as far as I’m concerned…let the inforspace wars rage on! lol
I’d already thought Sony was pissed about this, but at this point it goes way beyond that. They want an example made out of this guy. Kind of petty – really, the time and energy might be better spent trying to keep this from happening again instead of trying to hang this guy with legal rope – but absolutely no one likes to be made a fool of.
One thing I’ve noticed is I have a hard time sympathizing with hackers when cases like this come about; they always come off as that particular kind of sheer smug that you just want to punch directly in the face.