Sony hack court case postponed with jurisdiction questioned

Sony’s legal eagles must be pretty upset to know that their claim against hacker Georgen “geohot” Hotz will be postponed, as this delay of a trial was due to questions of where the case should physically be held. At the moment, the case is being reviewed in San Francisco, although district court judge Susan Illston did raise questions as to whether the case should be tried in California or New Jersey, since the latter is where Hotz resides. Sony’s lawyers claim that since the hack was distributed via Twitter and YouTube that are both based in California, the case – or rather, show should go on – not to mention that Hotz allegedly received donations via PayPal, another California-based institution. Nice to know that Illston has the wisdom to retort, “If having a PayPal account were enough, then there would be personal jurisdiction in this court over everybody, and that just can’t be right.”

Edwin Kee
Categories: Gaming
Tags: geohot, lawsuit, PS3, Sony