Sony, Hotz Settle Lawsuit
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 11th Apr 2011 22:17 UTC
Legal Well, it seems like Sony vs. George Hotz has ended pretty much without a bang. Sony announced on its Playstation blog that the two parties have settled the case. Under the settlement, Hotz agrees to a permanent injunction fo his jailbreaking hack, but admits to no wrong-doing. A wise and, dare I say it, mature end to the lawsuit.
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RE: My take
by WorknMan on Tue 12th Apr 2011 01:02 UTC in reply to "My take"
WorknMan
Member since:
2005-11-13

As for general populace: well, atleast we wouldn't anymore be in the grey area and would actually know for a fact the legal footing. Actually knowing your footing is still a positive outcome so you really know where you're standing.


If you're talking about the US, I don't think there's any question on where consumers stand legally. If you jailbreak something that's not a phone or an ereader, you take it up the ass.

I'm not saying it's right, but really... where is the confusion here?

Reply Parent Score: 3

RE[2]: My take
by WereCatf on Tue 12th Apr 2011 06:51 in reply to "RE: My take"
WereCatf Member since:
2006-02-15

If you're talking about the US, I don't think there's any question on where consumers stand legally. If you jailbreak something that's not a phone or an ereader, you take it up the ass.


It is in fact a grey area now that the DMCA exception for mobile phones was made. The question remains: would such an exception also be made for consoles, and what types of consoles? Especially with the case of the more powerful ones that are indeed capable of being used as a general-purpose computer too. And yet in addition Sony itself was telling both publicly and in legal documents that PS3 is a computer, and in other cases that it isn't, and if it is indeed deemed a computer one could for example try and use interoperability laws as a lever for more rights to it.

You see, there's lots of stuff that is now in the grey and a precedent in either direction would have cleared the matters.

Reply Parent Score: 2

RE[3]: My take
by rhavyn on Tue 12th Apr 2011 15:32 in reply to "RE[2]: My take"
rhavyn Member since:
2005-07-06

It is in fact a grey area now that the DMCA exception for mobile phones was made.


That isn't how the DMCA exception mechanism works. The Librarian of Congress issues a list of exceptions. That is *the* list. If it's not explicitly on the list then it is not covered by an exception. If the Librarian of Congress wanted more than just cell phones on the list, they would be on the list. There is no grey area there unless there is a question as to whether or not the device is a phone. I don't think that question exists for game consoles however.

Reply Parent Score: 2

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