And many thought this day would never come.
SCEA has just announced it's reached an out-of-court settlement with PlayStation 3 jailbreaker George Hotz. The company's official statement is light on details, so many questions remain. How does this impact the rest of the defendants in the case? What are the exact terms of the agreement? Will Sony's European office follow suit in its case against Hotz's German counterpart, Alexander Egorenkov?
SCEAs Patrick Seybold, Senior Director of Corporate Communications and Social Media, posted the news today at the Official U.S. PlayStation Blog, bringing the nearly three-month saga to a close.
“It was never my intention to cause any users trouble or to make piracy easier,” said Hotz in the statement, echoing his former comments against pirating games. "I’m happy to have the litigation behind me.”
Sony also claims Hotz had nothing to do with the recent Anonymous op which shut down public PlayStation sites last week and was blamed by many for PlayStation Network downtime that affected countless gamers who attempted to log in and play.
One noteworthy point of the settlement is that Hotz has agreed to a permanent injunction, which is a court order that bars one from certain activities or actions. In this case it's safe to assume the hacker's days of tinkering with Sony products is over.
Riley Russell, SCEAs General Counsel, said of the settlement: “We want our consumers to be able to enjoy our devices and products in a safe and fun environment and we want to protect the hard work of the talented engineers, artists, musicians and game designers who make PlayStation games and support the PlayStation Network. 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.”
A glimpse at Hotz's personal blog, however, paints the agreement in a completely different light: it was likely the only sensible way out of a lengthy and costly legal battle for the 21-year-old hacker. Despite the settlement, Hotz states, "As of 4/11/11, I am joining the SONY boycott. I will never purchase another SONY product. I encourage you to do the same. There is much more to come on this blog."
MyCE reached out to both SCEA and George Hotz's attorney Stewart Kellar for comment. If statements from either (or both) are issued, this post will be updated.
More details on the settlement as they become available.
