Sony Granted Temporary Restraining Order Against PS3 Hacker Geohot

A Northern District of California court has granted Sony a temporary restraining order against George “Geohotz” Hotz, the hacker who cracked the PlayStation 3′s encryption, enabling homebrew software and potentially piracy.

The restraining order prevents Hotz from distributing, linking, helping or encouraging jailbreaking of the PS3. Hotz has also been order to turn over any computers or storage media involved in the hacking.

This isn’t, however, a win for Sony. This order simply stops Hotz from distributing while the case is ongoing. Sony will continue to work against Hotz to obtain a permanent restraining order and obtain damages.

The problem, of course, is that the tools and files needed to jailbreak are already mirrored all over the internet. It’s almost impossible to prevent digital copying, so this will just be more a gesture to prevent Hotz adding any more to the hack.

Hotz managed to break the hack due to the PS3′s encryption keys being fixed to system, making them easy to identify. Hotz was also the first person to jailbreak the iPhone, something which the courts said was perfectly legal.

Last week, a California court questioned whether Hotz, who lives in New Jersey, could be sued in California. Sony argued it should be held in California that as its headquarters are located there.

Sony recently released a Ps3 system update that was seemingly designed to fix the hack. However, within hours it was hacked.

You can see the court documents here and here. (Courtesy of Engadget).

Check out the video below for some details of the jailbreak. Jack Frost points out in the comments below that the video has been set as private. I assume that’s to do with Sony’s temporary restraining order.