Andre Yoskowitz
5 Mar 2011 14:51
A federal judge has ruled this week that Sony can subpoena the Web host for George 'Geohot' Hotz's website, and acquire all the IP addresses of anyone who has visited his site in the last 26 months.
Furthermore, Sony also won subpoenas for data from YouTube, and for Geohot's Twitter account.
Sony has accused Hotz of violating the DMCA by publishing a master key for the PS3 that allows others to run homebrew on the console.
As part of the ruling, web provider Bluehost must give "documents reproducing all server logs, IP address logs, account information, account access records and application or registration forms" of Hotz's site. Furthermore, Sony must receive "any other identifying information corresponding to persons or computers who have accessed or downloaded files hosted using your service and associated” with the www.geohot.com website, including but not limited to the “geohot.com/jailbreak.zip file."
Sony was given the subpoena rights for two reasons; one to prove that Hotz "distributed" the hack and the other so Sony can prove that its lawsuit in San Francisco will not have to be transferred over to a court in New Jersey, Hotz's home state. Sony says seeing the IP addresses will prove that a significant amount of the hits were from California compared to New Jersey, so San Francisco is a more "proper venue."
The YouTube subpoena is for the video "Jailbroken PS3 3.55 with Homebrew" posted by Geohot and demands all the data for anyone who watched the video or commented.
You can check the PDFs of the ruling here at Wired: Judge Lets Sony Unmask Visitors to PS3-Jailbreaking Site