Sony is now pretty much violating the privacy of everyone on the internet. I wanna see them have the balls to go after anonymous.
Sony seeks to ID fail0verflow PS3 hackers
By
Tom Magrino
Electronics giant subpoenas Google, Twitter, PayPal, more for information that can be used to identify console's jailbreak contributors.
Last month, Sony unleashed its legal department on George Hotz and the fail0verflow group, better known as the hacking consortium, which released security keys allowing people to run unauthorized software on their consoles. Thus far, that investigation has largely centered upon Hotz, who has been ordered by the court to forfeit his computers, hard drives, and other storage material to Sony's legal team in the interest of discovery.
Now, Sony is seeking to expand its search for incriminating information by compelling a number of high-profile websites to hand over any identifying information they may have for members of fail0verflow. Specifically, Sony is seeking identifying information for the individuals who operate under the usernames hermesEOL, kakaroto, kmeaw, waninkoko, and grafchokolo, bushing, and segher. Hector Cantero and Sven Peter, also known as Cantero and Peter, are also named in the motion.
The websites subpoenaed for information include a variety of familiar names, such as Google, Twitter, PayPal, and YouTube. Other websites and companies that Sony is seeking information from include Bluehost, SoftLayer Technologies, Geeknet, Kickstarter, and Github. Of course, Sony is also requesting that Hotz himself turn over any information he has that can be used to identify the aforementioned individuals.
"Google, Inc. is directed to furnish all documents, including electronically stored information, in its possession, custody or control," reads the subpoena issued to Google. "As to any portion of any request that refers to documents that Google, Inc. is aware of which were at one time within its possession, custody or control, but which are not now within or subject to its possession, custody or control, Google, Inc. is directed to identify such documents in a manner sufficient to describe such documents for the purpose of preparing and serving a proper subpoena duces tecum and to give the name, telephone number, and address of the person last known by Google, Inc. to have been in possession, custody or control of such documents."
The subpoena also commands Google to turn over all documents "sufficient to identify all names; addresses, and telephone numbers" associated with the offending account, in this case www.geohotps3.blogspot.com. The information request also extends to "all server logs, IP address logs, account information, account access records, and application or registration forms."
As part of its filings, Sony has also petitioned the court to expedite the discovery phase. That motion is expected to be heard later this week.
By
Tom Magrino
Tom Magrino has covered the games industry since 2006. He's been compared to Steve Martin by Ozzy Osbourne and Daniel Craig by Tim Schafer. His voice, heard largely on GameSpot's podcast, recalls that of Kermit the Frog. It ain't easy bein' Magreen.
689 comments
@shakensparco That's because no one wants to hack a console that will cost them money when they're trying to hack it, and also that there are less hacks trying to do it on xbox, and also that MS hasn't caught them yet, + why would you HACK the console and then RELEASE it over the internet? It's bound to be found out SOMETIME by the company.
That's partly because MS is open source in it's Xbox Live applications. The other part is probably because they haven't caught any hackers....... yet.
People hate Microsoft for being expensive and unreliable. But at least they don't sue their customers.
wow, see how justice is the reason for no privacy . This is crazy . Peace to all the people who were part of the movement . Goodluck
@AmplifiedHitman Main problem is, due to Sony's actions, no replacement units can be bought anymore. Plus, they don't produce any more of the older models either. So the Air Force is now up the creek with no paddle, if one of the devices were to break. Amusingly enough, this hack will allow them (the Air Force) to circumvent that problem and keep the Condor Cluster active for as long as PS3s are produced and no fix is made to the system. Keep in mind that the Condor Cluster cost 2 million to make, and hits about 500 TFlops, so if one were to compare it with the nearest system that has a clear price (closest performance wise would be Blue Gene/L but that's a multi-year program, which lead to further developments and increased speeds) would be the IBM Roadrunner at 133 million for 1.456 petaflops. Meaning you'd have to have 2 Condor Clusters at a combined price of 4 million dollars to roughly equal that thing. 4 Million vs 133 Million. Meaning those hackers are saving your tax dollars from being wasted. :P Oh and the latest news is: PSX-Scene reports that District Court Judge Susan Illston has denied the company's request for expedited discovery. They're going to have to wait till the hearing on the 11th of March for another shot at it.
don't get me wrong, Sony makes amazing products when it comes to everything else but not so much video games. they're kind of hypocritical for being pissed about hackers but they have no problem stealing other people's ideas. I do hate hackers though. especially the ones in Black Ops that think they're good just cause they know how to mod guns and kill you by shooting the ground near you. also pretty sad when their total play time is already up to like 20 days!
@BlackSnake123 they published the Master Code, That code cannot be changed except with entirely new firm ware, They didn't have to tell the method once they published the master code.
@krytorii there are some idiots calling themselves programmers and then saying they are hackers or vice versa, they really are nothing more than lying loser pirates. The fact is they are only doing this to steal and ruin console game development. what they do is going to and is ruining the console gaming that we have known and by affecting the game developers revenue you basically spell the death of console gaming as we know it. Where is the miracle of Direct X 10?, Microsoft never believe in it, their console does not and never was made to support it and PC gaming is really screwed up with an internet connection being required for activation of games while their console requires it for playing their downloaded games and videos. Money does not grow on trees and you do not get a free allowance that comes out of nowhere, you actually have to go to school, get a job and work to get what you want to buy, a business does not magically exist without paying rental space, paying employees, and staff, etc. Its like the idiots who keep crying about no more taxes, these really want to go back to the stone age.
Saw a new article on G4, saying that they are seeking Ip's of anybody involved with anything related to this. So yes, you even for searching for info about it or watching something on youtube that had anything about it. FYI to everyone who gave the thumbs down me when I talked about privacy rights issue
Saw a new article on G4, saying that they are seeking Ip's of anybody involved with anything related to this. So yes, you even for searching for info about it or watching something on youtube that had anything about it. FYI to everyone who gave the thumbs down me when I talked about privacy rights issue
@beugen2001 I don't know if that's true anymore. Atleast not at retailers such as Best Buy, NewEgg, Amazon. Most of these places charge $50-$60 for new games, same price for the 360/PS3 versions.
Evil Empire come at you.... hrr... hrr... :evil: they'll hunt you down and let the public know... the differences is.. it's modern era :roll:
I'm sorry guys but I once loved Sony alot... now... now they can go jump in a river... all of them... I'm done with Sony... its all about Microsoft from this point on!
@AmplifiedHitman You are forgetting one thing. These companies have to seek permission to create a product for the consoles... If they want to make money! I assume you dont know anything about MS's XNA game studio? Its open to all and you just have to agree to the EULA. And if you worked for the bank, then distributed security flaws you learned while working for the bank you would go to jail. But as an outside party, if you were to expose flaws without any intent on committing a crime nothing would happen. It would be on the bank to prove malicious intent not the other way around. There was no software distributed, only information or knowledge. In the USA we all have the right to speak out mind in any way we wish. Wikileaks has proven that. I mean if Sony can go after these guys like this, why hasn't the US gov shut down a site that is clearly a security threat to many nations not a companies bottom line? They did not distribute any source code by the way either. You are right you cant reason with a donky. You clearly love Sony and their Iron Fist approach to intelligence. Its funny that you in no way address the fact that none of what was published allows for pirated games. Yet, you are all about taking down some smart guys that found a way to make Sony look bad. Remember Bleem anyone? Sony lost that battle too.
@baystatethrashr Well, I'm sorry man. I get a little mad at people who treat online games as something worth getting people in trouble for. I just view games as a recreational service. So, the idea of people putting so much stock into Trophy things kinda sick that people care about games and not real life enough. I just want to say that I support what microsoft does, banning people found to be cheating and that sorta thing, because thats the best way to fix that sort of problem. So I'm sorry bro, I'm just a little government kinda guy, and the feeling that large companies can just turn around and pick on people who's focus wasn't even anything truly illegal... releasing it may have been a bad idea, but it wasn't illegal, just makes me sick, and I get rilled up pretty quickly. So sorry about that. And good choice not having a PS3 ;) I'm a PC/Xbox fan myself. The PS3 is nifty, but not what I wanted for my games, because I do like modding for personal use and all
@quakor My internet connection is being all buggy, otherwise I would of liked your comment. As it stands, know that I'm laughing over here where I am. That's a good one to bring up haha Do you ever read xkcd? The ones with Torvalds are the best.
@AmplifiedHitman Wow buddy... Hacker's are terrorists? Are you f**king kidding me? You know what the term Terrorist means, right? You know what they do, right? How can you say that hacker's are terrorists? Also, get your definition of hacker straightened out. Dude, I'm sorry for blowing up on ya, but seriously? Terrorists? Are they terrifying you? are they terrifying the business? No, if anything they're just annoying. No run is running around literally screaming because of them. And that would be crackers that your talking about, not hackers. Hackers make, Crackers break open whats already been made. And to let you know, no, no one is running around in terror because of this guy. And that's what terrorists do, they instill and do things on purpose to incite terror. Go grab a dictionary or look up what a word means before you use it.
@GodGundamNT1 Hold on, are you implying that building an operating system is a relatively simple task? I'm not an expert programmer, just know some basic C, but I don't think writing an operating system is that easy "oh wait they can't even program a game, yet they claim to know how to program, its like a car thief claiming he knows how to make cars but all he does is break into it and highjack it" As far as I'm aware they would have to have at least some rudimentary knowledge of programming to have hacked it, and I dont remember them claiming that they could build an operating system. They just claimed they broke into one. Yes piracy is bad, and they shouldn't have released the keys on the internet, but don't belittle them. What they did must have taken a certain degree of skill or it would have been done years ago. In addition, labelling all hackers "loser pirates" is like labelling all locksmiths "stupid burglars" or all photographers "nosing perverts".
@AmplifiedHitman u r the @ss my friend i wonder would u beable to spot one of ur so called terrorists on the street probably not and how is hacking a computer console terrorism look up the defination of the word .... terrorism is wen someone does something that creates terror and in no way is hacking a ps3 creating terror at the end of the day tho only people that are to blame are sony like someone siad in a few comments under me they should hav fixed this and picked up on it and fixed it
I think Sony is thinking too small. They should sue Linus Torvalds and the linux community for creating and maintaining linux so it can run on devices like the PS3. And while we're at it we should sue the guy who invented the email for email scams and spam.
Sony steals ideas from other companies, so why cant people steal from Sony, anyways I dont like piracy but, there will always be piracy. Will they ever stop it? DOUBT IT
@shirish_yindia Hackers don't benefit anyone but themselves. Hacking something that isn't theirs is like vandalising
As interesting as the bank robbery idea is its just pure fallacy, being able to expolit a company's weakness in defence is not a form of a job interview'. Me being able to rob our house should'nt mean You should hire me as a securuty guard.
@AmplifiedHitman Terrorists? Really? Wow you have a big imagination. Seen Hackers one too many times?
@AmplifiedHitman Actually, your example is perfect. If you found a security flaw in a banks security. And instead of using that information to rob them, you publish the flaw for everyone too see. In many cases the bank would bring you in and ask for help in fixing the flaw. In no way would you be held legally responsible for the Bank not taking the actions to solve the problem. They have to prove that you have a clear intent to break the law. In this case, these guys made it clear that they did not intend or even create a way for people to pirate games or content. Sony is being lazy and basicly stomping on guys that showed them flaws in their system rather than taking the time and effort to fix the problem that has been exposed. Now it dosn't matter because as they go after these guys, other nefarious hackers are going to be exploiting the flaws to break the law and steal content. Sony will be focused on the wrong people.
@AmplifiedHitman hey you know what? you talk to much in public too...if you buy your games just like me then your not having problems right? so why waste so much time typing? i see..hmm..dont get jealous my friend..
I see sony has just been served by LG for not 1 not 2 not 3 but 4 patent infringements and if LG win they are seeking a BAN on sales of PS3 in the USA. I guess its ok for sony to steal from other people then.
@specta1989 If you use geohotz firmware mod you can not under any stretch of the imagination run pirate games its a fact. In order to run pirate games you need lvl2 access which geos firmware does not have. You cant even run unsigned code on geos firmware mod. Failoverflow have been working on a firmware mod that brings back otheros and they have just released it and thats all it does is puts linux on your ps3. No piracy at all. The only argument for piracy that can be made is for emulators that play snes games. Now thats not to say that piracy does not exist for the ps3 custom firmwares have been made that have lvl2 peek and poke that allow back up managers to work but again back up managers do not work on geohotz firmware mod. As for xbox360 it has the highest attach rate for the current generation and saying that it hurts sales is not entirely true. Just because someone downloads a game doesnt mean they were going to buy it. If anything 2nd sales are what really what steals from the companies. If I guy buys a game 2nd hand that is a sale that could have been bought new, but a download is not an automatic lost sale. Of course there are people that will just take something for nothing but it no where near as bad as companies like to make out. All in all Im not saying piracy is right but I dont like the fact that you can get more jail time for downloading games than you can for assault.
@liam82517 It has nothing to do with personal property. Sony could care less what you do with your PS3 in private. It's all about the public part part of what is going on. Publishing content that could cause vulnerabilities in software/hardware that we depend on. It's also the fact that they are publicly hacking systems, etc. If I want to take apart my PS3 and mess around with the OS or anything else related to the item, so what. It's the fact that these people do it outside of the realm of legal/moral/ethical boundaries.
@Valas_Azuviir They also bought the units directly from Sony with a different trade/user agreement. Different from what the average retail-focused consumer bought. An aspiring developer can buy the dev kit from Sony which comes with a different user agreement. The user can mod to their hearts content after doing so. There are legal ways to experiment with another persons technology.
@HaloPimp978 Social networking companies like Facebook/Twitter and other websites, are just yet another database that can be used to identify a person. If it's called for, they can get the information whether you like it or not. All the major companies are in cahoots some way or another, and I very highly doubt that many of them are positive towards hackers. What they hacked is essentially what a huge amount of people have been waiting for, easy free gaming. Whilst not all gamers are like that, a good few are. So Sony have taken some things away from their original PS3, that was their decision, hacking and making it public doesn't justify it in any way. If they kept it to themselves for their own personal use then that would be fine. I'm still very glad Sony are pursuing this, it's giving them the "no negotiating with terrorists" kind of image.
@liam82517 To answer your final question, no. Look if you can somehow create software that won't lead to piracy then I'm all for it but you can't deny that because of what Hotz did this will obviously lead to it. The thing about the Xbox is that since it was cracked it didn't do as well as it could have, that's not to say it's not doing well at all. I agree that Google shouldn't hand their info over but that's another issue. Cracking will and always exist no matter how much to try and stop it. All I'm saying is I don't believe in cracking as it can lead to unnecessary cash being lost, no matter how big or small the sum.
Sony commands this, Sony commands that. Sony orders blah blah blah... Like seriously, do google, twitter or paypal have any obligations to do what Sony tells them to?
@liam82517 have you ever owned an ipod, or any other mp3? New flash companies are already telling us what to do with what we own. Take songs purchased over itunes, i should be able to put a song i paid for on any device i want but i cant. Same for the games i buy over xb live, psn, or wii, i should be able to play any game i purchase on any console i want, i can if i buy a physical copy, but why can't i if i buy a digital one? what about a video camera? if i buy one shouldn't i be able to record whatever i want and do anything i want with the recording? my point is: the business of companies telling us what we can and can't do with things we buy has been with us for a very long time and sony isn't the only company trying to set limits on what a person can or can't do with a product purchased from them. Microsoft, nintendo, apple all have done so to a certain extent.
corporations and everyone else infact only calls this piracey and ilegal coz they dont get any money from it .... i wonder if money never exsisted today would they still call hacking (wich by the way most of you hav no idea wat u r talking about wene you refer to it) ilegal i bet they wouldnt and sony are having a laf if they think they can push google around isnt google one oh the biggest companies in the world yer good luck with that one sony
lol try asking the /b/ forum, you'd have a better time finding hackers on 4 chan then anything else xD
@specta1989 Yeah just like when the xbox 360 got hacked like 5 years ago I mean that thing is in the toilet now with no one developing for it.(sarcasm for those that dont understand) Oh and sony are wasting their time as the dmca doesnt apply as the code used in the tools created is not and does not contain any code by sony. Just because sony can ask for discovery from all those people doesnt mean they will get it and I dont see google complying with giving out personal details of customers, or do you not mind having your privacy invaded for the sake of company that should know better? I would really like you to explain to me how running building and running software you created(that does not lead to piracy) is wrong? Or are you one of the dummies that think sony should still own the ps3 your mommy bought you?
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