Another development has unfolded in the PS3 hack court case, this time with Sony scoring another win. District Court Judge Susan Illston has reaffirmed her order that George "Geohot" Hotz must surrender his HDD to Sony, allowing the company to inspect the contents of his hard disk drive and copy out any data that is related to hacking a PS3.
Last month, the judge had already ruled that Geohot's computers be confiscated, but Hotz's lawyer asked for a reconsideration, which led to the new hearing this Thursday, where the HDD surrender order was once again issued.
As Wired reports, judge Illston informed Hotz's attorney (Kellar) that it is routine for computer contents to be searched thorougly in order to find a particular item, such as in child pornography cases.
“Your honor, we’re certainly not dealing with child pornography in this issue,” Kellar replied.
Moments later, the judge responded:
“Here, I find probable cause that your client has got these things on his computer,” she said. “It’s a problem when more than one thing is kept on the computer. I’ll make sure the order is and will be that Sony is only entitled to isolate … the information on the computer that relates to the hacking of the PlayStation.”
Sony and Hotz's legal representation must now come to an agreement on where and when Hotz will allow Sony to examine his computer drive. Hotz was also ordered not to delete any PS3 hack or associated data from his drive.
The debacle will continue next month when the court will hear Sony's pleas to have the judge order Google to surrender user identification of people that have viewed or commented on Hotz's PS3 hack YouTube videos. Sony is also asking that Twitter be ordered to identify certain users who disseminated info about an early version of the hack, back in December.
