Sony has confirmed that it has reached a settlement with George “Geohot” Hotz, against whom the firm was locked in a legal battle over his role in the hacking of PlayStation 3.
In a post on the PlayStation Blog, Sony’s senior director of corporate communications Patrick Seybold explained: “The parties reached an agreement in principle on March 31, 2011. As part of the settlement, Hotz consented to a permanent injunction. Both parties expressed satisfaction that litigation had been quickly resolved.
“Sony is glad to put this litigation behind us,” said Riley Russell, SCEA’s general counsel. “Our motivation for bringing this litigation was to protect our intellectual property and our consumers. We believe this settlement and the permanent injunction achieve this goal.
“We appreciate Mr. Hotz’s willingness to address the legal issues involved in this case and work with us to quickly bring this matter to an early resolution.”
In a brief statement, Hotz said: “It was never my intention to cause any users trouble or to make piracy easier. I’m happy to have the litigation behind me.”
At the time of the settlement SCEA’s case against Hotz was bogged down in a jurisdictional argument, with Sony wanting the case tried in California, where its headquarters are based, while Hotz argued that his home state of New Jersey was the correct venue.
Sony began legal action against Hotz, as well as up to 100 unnamed members of the fail0verflow group, in January, its response to the PS3 being hacked late last year. While Hotz has repeatedly insisted he is anti-piracy, Sony argued that he was complicit in PS3 being opened up to the playing of copied games because he released the PS3’s root key online.
Source: PlayStation Blog